Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 113 - Kim Hazen- Chief People Officer at Fulcrum Therapeutics

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Episode 113 - Kim Hazen- Chief People Officer at Fulcrum Therapeutics · The BioHub - by Avetix

0:04
So welcome back to the episode of the Bio Hub.
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Today, we're delighted to welcome Kim Hazen, who's the
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Chief People Officer at Fulcrum Therapeutics.
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Kim brings more than two decades of experience in human resources
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and organizational leadership spanning industries from finance
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to life sciences. Before joining Fulcrum in 2017,
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she helped shape people strategies at companies like
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Agerium Pharmaceuticals, Warp Dr. Bio, and Broad Institute, as
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well as HR roles in the finance industry.
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At Fulcrum, Kim has played a pivotal role in building a
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purpose driven culture, and she's passionate about aligning
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people culture and science to drive meaningful impact for
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patients and employees. So join us today as we'll
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discuss navigating layoffs during Fulkham's phase three
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trial shaping people strategy through rapid periods of growth,
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as well as an insight into Kim's new book.
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So Kim, thanks so much for coming on.
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How are you? Good, good.
1:01
Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to it.
1:03
Yeah. Look, it's a it's a pleasure
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over your 25 career in in HR so far.
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Can you give us a bit of a run through your journey through the
1:12
field today and have there been any been any mentors or key
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influences that have shaped the way that you lead and how have
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their lessons carried through to your work at Fulcrum Mount?
1:23
OK, great. Yeah, I'd be happy to walk
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through that. So I've had the opportunity to
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work in large, medium and small companies.
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It's been, as you referenced, across financial services,
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insurance and life sciences. Early in my career, I benefited
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from a lot of training in large companies, which was great.
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And then I gained broader business exposure when I joined
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some smaller companies. I'm gonna weave in mentors as
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I'm sort of talking about my journey.
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So one of my first role models was at Bank of Boston, which is
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now Bank of America. She was the head of HR, Her
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name's Helen Drynan. Helen was just an exceptional,
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innovative head of HR. And I would say really she was
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at the beginning of my career, really ahead of her time and
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being very progressive and a great role model.
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I entered life sciences in 2008. I was the first head of HR for
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Broad Institute. And this was following a
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separation from MIT. So we were about 1000 employees
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and 1000 affiliated members, so a pretty big organization and we
2:26
were separating and becoming our own employer.
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So it was a pretty heavy lift. We had to establish the
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organization. It was complex also because it
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was both academics and industry professionals working side by
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side. This is where I met Robert
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Gould, who later became the founding CEO at Fulcrum.
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And Robert was a great mentor, helping me really think outside
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of the box, which I I really felt helped me grow as an HR
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professional. Post broad.
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I joined a Juryon. It was a growing commercial rare
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disease company. When I joined, it was about 120
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people. We were just scaling to be
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commercial. I worked for the head of HR
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there, Mary Wager, and again another great mentor.
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She was an accomplished HR and business leader.
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She was definitely pivotal to my development because she really
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understood the business. She had grown Celgene up when it
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was small and was there to commercialize it being the head
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of HR. And then it sort of rounds out
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my journey to then joining biotech when I joined Warp Dr.
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which was a small private discovery company.
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And I'm now at Fulcrum. And those were both TRV third
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rock adventure portfolio companies.
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And so here I really benefited from just a lot of experience
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CHROS in my network, you know, so I have to say it ending on
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this, I've really benefited from a lot of great money.
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And these are just naming a few mentors along the way, but I've
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also benefited from coaching. So I'm a certified coach now
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myself, but I've benefited from having a couple of coaches and
4:03
it really is something that I would highly recommend for HR
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professionals. Nice.
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So you've been with Fulcrum for over almost 8 years now from
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when it was I guess at the time small ambitious biotech from
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that early stage company to the more mature Brazilian
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organization is today. How have you seen the company
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evolve, both in terms of its business and its its culture?
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So I have to say I've never been anywhere eight years.
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It's been a journey. It's been a roller coaster ride.
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I'll get to that in a second. I've really wanted to stay here.
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And I would say what's been foundational to me all along the
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journey, regardless of the highs and lows, have been the patients
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and the employees. We call them the fall crew.
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So I've been part of Fulcrum's journey since the beginning,
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nearly the beginning. The company was founded in 2016
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and I joined in 2017 and we were 25 employees in a start up
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space, all Discovery people. It was really at that beginning.
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I'd never been anywhere at the beginning.
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And you're just, it's just fun. It's all full of energy and
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purpose and everyone's excited about what's coming out of it.
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And so I had an opportunity to really shape people, culture,
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create the infrastructure. But as I referenced at the
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beginning, biotech is a roller coaster.
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It's filled with highs and lows. And we've definitely experienced
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that over my years of Fulcrum both in the clinic and
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leadership, you know, but I would say this is where it's
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really taught me the importance of resilience, adaptability and
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grit and pushing yourself through those things.
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And so Fulcrum's journey at this point, we've evolved from early
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stage to preparing for commercialization, then back to
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a Phase 1B clinical company after our phase three trial
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failed. So again, really I call it that.
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Whoa. I like the highs rather than the
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lows, but again, I'm there. We've had two CEOs.
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Our our newest CEO joined us in July of 2023.
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But even with all those changes, I do feel confident now that
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we're on the right path forward, We have the right CEO in place.
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I'm excited about this. And I'd say even though the
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company has had highs and lows, there's been a lot of changes.
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Where I'll round out here is what stayed true to me is a deep
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commitment to patients in rare disease and to our employees,
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our fall crew. And that really sort of embodies
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fostering that strong culture. I would say always say patience,
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fall crew and the culture have always sort of been the center
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of my eight-year journey here. Yeah.
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And just there's obviously been periods of rapid growth at
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Fulcrum. I imagine what what was some of
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the key challenges facing shaping and shaping that people
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strategy and how have you ensured that Fulcrum's identity
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and value stayed in taxes as the company got bigger, which I know
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can probably be quite difficult to to keep that culture
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consistent as as you get bigger in size.
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It, it definitely is. But I was glad I was here from
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the beginning. And although the people and
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faces have changed a lot, the core of the company hasn't
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changed. And so we're 50 employees now.
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We actually scaled up to 120 at one point where we were getting
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closer to commercialization. And again, I will, I'm not going
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to minimize it. It's definitely challenging to
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stay on top of this, but you have to be intentional, you
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know, as we what you don't want to lose is the heart of who you
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are. You have to sort of figure out
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what you want to hold on to, what you're willing to let go
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of. So people strategy, it's
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definitely about that balance and in figuring out that
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balance, again, also important as we were scaling, you know, to
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understand the employee voices play.
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And we did that through employee surveys, focus groups, ongoing
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dialogue. What do you want to hold on to?
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What are you willing to let go of?
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Like who do you want us to be? Because things are going to
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change, you want to change, you know, that's really important.
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So our commitment to patients and people that really became
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our lens for every decisions we were making.
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And our values were also core and visible.
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The values we actually evolved over time and we actually
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brought in an external partner called Storytell to help us as
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we were evolving as an organization that was even going
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from discovery to development to pre commercialization.
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Sort of in that interim straight stage, probably around in
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between development and pre commercial, we redefined some of
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our values. Things had changed and we wanted
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to make sure our employees were excited about this.
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And so again, we revamped them and also made sure we were
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continuing to bring them to life.
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You know, I think what probably stands out the most to me here
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is never assuming culture is static.
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It evolves as the company does. And again, I'll keep coming back
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to, I feel like I'm the shepherd of the culture.
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I don't own it, but I need to make sure I'm listening to and
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I'm hearing voices of where I think I said earlier, what do we
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want to hold on to? Because it's something we really
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don't want to let go of. That's probably our anchor
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around our values. And then what are we OK letting
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go or what do we need to evolve as we were hiring some
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commercial people and things change and you have to hear
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their voices as well. So I feel we've always had that.
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I call it employee anchor and employee voice at the center of
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everything. Yeah.
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How important is like when you're in like a recruitment
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process and you're, you know, vetting new candidates that or
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new people that might come into the business, is that near the
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top of the list? Like how are they going to fit
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into the broader team? Like how is.
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Construction when you yeah, having been in larger companies,
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it can get lost sometimes in a smaller company, every higher
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impacts your culture. And so one thing that's always
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been centered to us as a patience, we actually walk the
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talk. We are a patient partner driven
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organization, rare disease. We've had so many patients in
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here. We've heard so many patients
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stories. And So what we screen in and out
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for is we screen in for people that really are passionate about
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the patients. And it's so easy to ask those
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questions. You can tell when people are
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being authentic. And that's something to me
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that's that's the anchor and fit.
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We can have different styles. We use a disk assessment.
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It's a stylistic tool like Myer Briggs.
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You know, it's OK to have different styles, but if we
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don't feel, and we have several people interview people as they
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come in that you don't hear that passion, you know, why do you
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want to be here? Why is it important?
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And science will always come up, you know, and things that we're
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working on. But what you really want to hear
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is I really generally care about the patients.
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I want to be in this organization because I want to
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find a cure. We're in rare disease, you know,
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the things we've been working on, like sickle cell.
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Right now there's no cure, you know, So it's just really
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important. And you can hear that I've been
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doing this long enough now that I know how to screen in and out
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for that. And I think we've done a pretty
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good job. Yeah, good.
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We'll just talk on AI. Imagine what was a really
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difficult moment for you guys at Fulcrum when unfortunately there
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was a failed phase free trial and there was obviously
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subsequent layoffs that that came with that.
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How did you navigate that personally and professionally,
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and what did you learn about leadership, communication, and
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empathy during that sort of time of crisis?
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So that was definitely and hopefully I won't get emotional
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here because I have previously, it was a year ago, it was last
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little over a year ago last September that happened.
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It's very present with me because I actually just spoke at
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Weep HR emerging Biotech conference and it was on this
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very subject of what happened and then how did we rebuild our
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culture and how did we come back to where I am actually excited
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about where we're at. But coming back to this moment,
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one of the hardest moments of my career.
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I've been on the journey the longest.
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Here we we identify the development compound seven years
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ago. And so it was a seven-year
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journey and, you know, to the phase three readout when the
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data showed no meaningful improvement.
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I have to say again, words can't even capture.
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It was heartbreaking. You know, I was personally going
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through it. It was really tough.
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I thought immediately about the patients that have no cure and
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our employees that had worked really hard and I knew what the
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impact was going to be. You know, so that in that
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moment, I felt it was really important.
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And this is what we sort of wove through everything.
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Two things really guided me, being transparent and having
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empathy. Again, those are anchors and all
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of our communications and how we were treating people as we were
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moving forward. And we turned things around
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pretty quickly because again, once we found out, I again,
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remember this vividly, we found out, you know, September 11th.
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By September 12th, we were communicating to our employees
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and I think things that stood out to me at that point, you
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know, within hours our CEO addressed a company.
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We promised everyone that they'd know where they stood within two
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weeks because where we were transparent is telling them
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there was definitely going to be an impact and we kept that
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promise. It was a pretty heavy lift
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because out of 80 employees, 30 were impacted, 30.
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That was a lot. And so we became a company of 50
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and this is where it made it incredibly difficult.
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Everyone knew everyone, you know, you're a small company.
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And so people that were being impacted, it was tough.
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People that stayed, it was tough, but what was core and the
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people that were exiting, we made sure that we treated them
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with dignity and respect. You know that we provided good
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packages, We provided the right emotional support.
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We were open in our communications.
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I sat in on many of those meetings.
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I have one person now that works for me in HR and at the time I
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had another person that was being impacted and she even sat
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in with us and helped us, you know, because again, it was
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just, we just wanted to make sure everyone was being treated,
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you know, in the right way. I think what was most meaningful
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to me through all of that, as we actually had people thank us,
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people hugging us, people crying with us, it was just very
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emotional. But you felt the connections.
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I feel through all of that. I learned that leadership in
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crisis isn't about having all the answers.
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Even we stood up and our CEO had to say, you know what?
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This is what's happening, But I can't tell you the most
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important question. Everyone at that moment when he
14:54
was sharing what had happened is what's gonna happen to me.
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And we didn't have that answer, but that's where we committed to
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coming back to them in two weeks.
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And you know, I think I learned through that you have to show
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off and be transparent, have empathy and, and just just
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understand what people are really going through.
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And where I'll end here 'cause this is really, I think what was
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resonating a lot with me recently when I was rethinking
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about this is culture isn't tested when things go well.
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It's revealed when things fall apart.
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So can your culture withstand something like a phase three
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trial failure? Yeah, Yeah.
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I can imagine how tough that was.
15:39
You know, people, colleagues become friends and and all of
15:42
that. And I think, I guess, I guess
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we're obviously going through a period of time in bio set where,
15:46
where this is unfortunately becoming more and more common.
15:49
I think something that from a recruitment side of things that
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I found consistent across the industry is people are very
15:55
quick to to share resume books. They may have no affiliation to
15:59
the company whatsoever. They might do, but people are
16:02
very quick to to pass around resume books.
16:04
And it feels like a sort of community in a sense that
16:07
everyone's trying to help everyone.
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And yeah. I think that's what stands out
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the most to me and that's what helped me get through.
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I call it the roller coaster rides.
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People are really we're mission driven organizations.
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You shouldn't be here if you don't care about the patients.
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And if you care about the patients, you also care about
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people, right? That's been the core to, you
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know, I know I'm in the right role.
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I generously care about people. I think about people all the
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time and I just think about it it, it does help.
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And I feel through a lot of this, I was pretty authentic.
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And when I shared with people is, you know, when this was all
16:43
playing out, I go, this is really tough.
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I'm going through it as well. But we have to figure you have
16:48
to figure out how to treat people with the right level of
16:52
respect as you're exiting them out and doing everything you can
16:56
for them. And then also turning internally
16:58
to figuring out how you're going to help the people that are
17:01
still here. Yeah.
17:02
What was it difficult to having let go of 30 odd people when the
17:07
time did come to them, rehire maybe certain teams or certain
17:11
people within those teams with was it easy to maintain that
17:14
culture with I guess having worked with people for so many
17:17
years, was it easy to then find others that were that could fit
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in quite easily? Meanwhile, we had to hire, start
17:25
hiring again. Yeah, it yeah, I feel we didn't
17:34
hire, you know, when it happened last September, we actually
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didn't start really rehiring any types of roles.
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It was probably in Q2 of this past year and it hasn't been a
17:50
lot of positions. And so we put a lot of thought
17:53
into and, and different positions, not positions of
17:56
people that we let go, but we just had different needs because
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of where we were as an organization.
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I don't know, actually, I would tell you when you're hiring in
18:04
new people, there's a renewed energy.
18:08
It's on the other side of all that.
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They don't have the baggage and they're coming in.
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And sometimes I feel actually when you're hiring in people, I
18:16
can turn my energy more into a positive light and bringing them
18:20
on board because they're just excited no matter what the
18:24
companies went through, they, I don't know, they just bring in a
18:26
different level of energy. That's a much more positive
18:30
outlook. And they can actually help
18:31
people that are already here sometimes move forward.
18:34
Yeah, with the people, I guess the remaining teams that that
18:39
stayed on after the after the unfortunate layoff, how was it
18:44
like in terms of like rebuilding trust, engagement and a sense of
18:48
purpose, What what other advice would you give to HRE that maybe
18:53
are facing a similar high stakes situation as well?
18:57
So, so this one I would say probably tougher, even though
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it's hard when we had to let all those people go living through
19:07
the journey and staying with the people that are here and trying
19:11
to re engage them, it was a real challenge.
19:16
I definitely real challenge, but I'll I'll get to the end and
19:20
then I'll go to the to the story that I feel we've come out on
19:24
the other side and we're moving in a great direction.
19:28
But there are a lot of things we did along the way and it was
19:31
really intentional. And so I think what's important
19:34
is letting the team heal and rediscover their purpose.
19:39
People were grieving. I was grieving.
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I think it helped because I was really going through it.
19:44
It wasn't just a loss of colleagues, but it was a sense
19:47
of certainty about the future and that worry.
19:50
And as you referenced before, a lot of companies are laying off
19:53
and all we had to lay off what's going to happen or other things
19:56
going to happen. And so again, we kept coming
19:59
back to those anchors of transparency and empathy.
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We need to tell what we need to share, whatever we can share.
20:06
And we also have to have empathy for what people are going
20:09
through. So we definitely anchored back.
20:11
What definitely helps is being an emission driven organization.
20:15
We reminded everyone of why we're here.
20:18
You know, I spoke about this earlier, our mission is to serve
20:20
patients and that ongoing promise for our sickle cell
20:25
program because even though we had a phase three trial fail, we
20:29
had another clinical program just in an earlier stage, but we
20:33
had a program. We also had a solid financial
20:36
runway. You know what, that's not what a
20:38
lot of people have. So I feel lucky there that we
20:41
had money to help us move forward.
20:45
I'd say most importantly, what stood out to me here is we gave
20:48
people space to process things and then we also did offer them
20:52
because again, we had the money, we offered them a retention.
20:56
You know, everyone that was here, we called it a stick with
20:58
Fulcrum award. If they stayed with us for a
21:01
year, which we felt we would get through that roller coaster ride
21:04
by then, that we would give them a payout, which we actually just
21:08
did this past September. I should say throughout all of
21:12
this, we lost four people. So it wasn't a big, you know,
21:18
we're, we knew we're going to lose a few people, but that
21:20
wasn't a lot. So I felt really fortunate about
21:23
that. But what I want to come to, and
21:26
I think the most important piece about what we did is a turning
21:29
point came when we had an all company meeting.
21:32
We intentionally waited two months to bring everyone
21:35
together and we call this meeting thriving and change.
21:39
And it was facilitated by an external partner that we work
21:42
with called the Leadership Link and they know Fulcrum well.
21:46
And I should say it was a really tough meeting, but that was
21:51
intentional. It was emotional, but powerful.
21:55
We talked about what we wanted to let go of, what we want to
21:59
celebrate and how we could move forward together.
22:01
But we really pushed our employees almost to sit in it.
22:04
Being a certified coach, we call that process coaching.
22:07
You actually have to experience it.
22:08
You have to grieve it, but then you have to figure out what you
22:11
can let go of and commit to that and what you want to hold on to
22:16
and commit to that and then figure out how to move forward.
22:19
We all did this together over the course of a day and it was
22:26
probably 1 of the toughest meetings and one of the best
22:28
meetings I've been part of 'cause it was a really emotional
22:31
meeting. I was up there, I was definitely
22:33
emotional, Our CEO was emotional.
22:35
But again, it was the right meeting to help us move on and
22:39
that's what I felt. I had hope sort of coming out of
22:42
that meeting. And what was nice timing, I hate
22:45
to say it, we were going into our holiday break period, you
22:49
know, where the company shuts down for a week.
22:51
And then when we came back after the new year, I just felt a
22:55
renewed sense of hope and excitement.
22:58
And so the advice, you know, that I thought through that I
23:01
give HR leaders is don't rush the recovery.
23:05
You have to be willing to go slow.
23:07
I say this all the time, go slow to go fast in the right way.
23:10
But you can't sit in it forever. If you sit in it forever, you're
23:13
a business. You have to figure out how to
23:15
move on. But if you move people too
23:17
quickly, you're not going to bring everyone along and then
23:21
leave with transparency and empathy and create moments for
23:25
people to reconnect to the why behind their work.
23:27
So again, we kept bringing it back to and they could tell
23:31
people were struggling. Remember why you're here.
23:35
We're here for the patients. They don't have a cure.
23:37
We have another program. We have a financial runway.
23:39
Let's talk about how we can move forward together.
23:42
And so I'm not minimizing, it was really tough time.
23:45
But I have to say as I Fast forward to today, I'm actually
23:50
excited with where we are. We did a mid year engagement
23:54
survey just to take a a temperature gauge on how
23:58
employees were doing. It was just 13 questions
24:01
assessing how they would evaluate their work, their
24:06
colleagues in the org. And we scored, we increased by
24:10
10 percentage points from the previous year post a riff.
24:13
Really great score, really some strong engagement scores.
24:17
I was, I just felt it, but I was so happy to see it 'cause it was
24:20
just great data to look at and I felt that the journey's been
24:23
worth it. And now I just feel like it.
24:27
I've relived it because I had to think about this.
24:31
I feel people have moved on and people are just focused on, we
24:34
have a sickle cell program, what are we going to do?
24:36
We have to do everything that we can do to move it forward.
24:39
Yeah, one of the things that I know you wanted to come on and
24:41
discuss was your new book, The Culture Shock, which Huge Co
24:46
offered with your sister. So massive congratulations on
24:49
that. What inspired you to write the
24:52
book and what's the premise of the book?
24:54
Could you just give us a run through the the meaning behind
24:57
it? Yeah, yeah.
25:00
So what's great is really excited.
25:02
It was really great to work with my sister.
25:04
And a lot of people asked me, yes, we're still talking.
25:07
We came together in the right way.
25:09
We complement each other in the right way.
25:11
But I'll start to give a little foundation that talks both
25:13
around the inspiration and and the purpose of the book.
25:17
Both my sister and I are very connected in the biotech field.
25:22
My sister had started off her career actually and, and Procter
25:26
and Gamble, but then moved into biotech and really knows, you
25:31
know, the field. And I've obviously had internal
25:33
roles and human resources since 2008, you know, so we both know
25:39
the biotech area because it does center in that in the book.
25:42
And we also both have a passion around culture.
25:46
And so we came together, we're like, oh, we'd really like to
25:49
tell our story of what we feel is a great recipe for being
25:53
intentional around your culture. But what, what are we anchoring
25:57
it on? And you know, I should also say,
26:00
actually my sister, she's an employer, employer branding
26:04
expert. And along with being a chief
26:06
people officer, I'm also a certified coach.
26:08
And that also comes into the book.
26:11
And so highlighting some things, you know, most people, we just
26:15
talked about a phase, a failed phase three trial.
26:21
Most people fear scientific failure, but I feel the biggest
26:26
threat to a company's growth is a constant culture shock.
26:30
And that culture shock is really, you're also talking
26:33
about layoffs and when companies are hiring in an influx of whole
26:37
teams. So for instance, even when we
26:40
were scaling, you know, we were bringing in some people and
26:44
there were people either, I think it was coming out of
26:46
Momenta or coming out of different companies.
26:48
And all of a sudden they have this shorthand talk.
26:51
And so you, you, you see it and you can feel it.
26:54
And it's, you take the risk of people forming cliques, people
26:59
wanting to do things the way they used to do it at another
27:02
employer. And again, it gets into a lot
27:04
more detail in the book. But my sister and I have both
27:07
experienced this. We actually did surveys.
27:10
We reached out. And that's also embedded in the
27:12
book around, you know, what do you think of microcultures?
27:15
And most people are like rolling your eyes of oh God, it's just
27:18
tough because again, you have a culture.
27:21
We've been talking about that, right the whole time we've been
27:23
here. If you want to hold on to your
27:25
culture, all of a sudden you hire in this group.
27:28
And it can happen a lot in the commercial side.
27:30
I'll actually anchor there where a commercial person comes on
27:33
board and they want to hire their team that they previously
27:35
had. And that's good and bad.
27:36
They hit the ground running. They're fast move.
27:38
The challenge is they're bringing in their baggage from
27:41
their other company and the ways that they want to do things and
27:46
sometimes not always willing to flex and what we provide.
27:49
We don't just diagnose a problem.
27:51
And I should say this is for any challenges you have around
27:55
culture. We anchored on microcultures,
27:57
but this could be used on anything.
27:59
We actually provide an integrated blueprint on using an
28:03
agile employer brand to attract and retain the right people and
28:08
then external coaching to fix the microculture clashes after
28:11
they arrive. And so it's figuring out how you
28:14
bring people in and then once they're there, how you address
28:18
the needs to make sure the culture is moving in a direction
28:22
that you want. And I would say here, a lot of
28:24
times I reference you have to be intentional and you can decide
28:28
to, you don't want to do anything about it that's
28:30
intentional. And then you can decide you're
28:33
OK with whatever direction the culture goes in.
28:36
But in our book, what we provide is if you really want to be the
28:40
driver and you again, want to go back to things I've shared
28:44
previously of holding on to what you want to keep, willing to let
28:47
go of some things, you got to be intentional about that.
28:52
And that's where, again, we provide that, as I call it, a
28:55
guide book, a playbook that really walks through all the
28:58
steps that both my sister and I have worked on together on
29:03
things that she does 'cause she has her own business and doing
29:06
employer branding, my coaching, my being an internal person, I
29:09
felt the two worlds really came together nicely.
29:13
And again, if you want to build that resilient culture, it's
29:16
just giving you a strategy on the direction you can move in.
29:19
But again, it was really fun. We've actually been able to
29:22
preview it a lot of times. I realize how many people are
29:25
willing to pay it forward. We actually had three events now
29:29
post launching it where we've been invited in to speak and be
29:33
able to showcase it with people. And I've just found people have
29:36
been great and, and helping us get it out there.
29:40
It's a story. It's a story you want to tell.
29:42
Yeah. But look, massive
29:43
congratulations on that for sure.
29:45
Thank you. Some achievement.
29:47
Yeah, I think just on to my next question.
29:50
So I think the role between the Chief People Officer and the
29:53
CEO, Yep, super important role, if not one of the most important
29:57
in in any C-Suite relationship. Can you talk about how you and
30:02
the rest of the executive team was?
30:05
Let me start a bit again. Sorry.
30:08
Yeah. Rest it then.
30:11
So that your role as Chief People Officer involves big
30:13
collaboration with not just the CEO, but other leaders.
30:17
Can you talk about how you and some of the executive team work
30:20
together together to balance business priorities with people
30:24
priorities? Yeah.
30:27
No, I think that's a great question.
30:29
You know, one thing I've learned is that you can't separate
30:31
people priorities from business. Priorities are actually deeply
30:35
connected. And when I choose to opt into a
30:38
company, having been here 8 years, even with all the
30:41
changes, I need to know that the CEO, the executive team also
30:45
agree with that, which is what I definitely have been
30:47
experiencing. So our leadership team takes
30:50
time to talk about our employees just intentionally as we talk
30:53
about the financials, the pipeline.
30:57
Again, they understand the importance of the people
31:00
ultimately are here. If they're engaged to drive the
31:03
results and drive better results.
31:05
You know, if we have the right engagement, we take time and
31:08
focusing and identifying, retaining key talent, making
31:12
sure we have the right people in the right holes.
31:13
These are all conversations that we have at executive team or I
31:17
have in one-on-one discussions or I have in conversations with
31:20
the CEO. I'd say importantly, you know,
31:24
shared this previously. We also listen, you know, so
31:27
through engagement surveys, focus groups and candid
31:30
conversations, we need to understand what our teams need.
31:33
And those are things where we recently did our engagement
31:35
survey that went back to the executive team, we discussed it.
31:38
We had focus groups post the engagement survey to better
31:41
understand some things. We're actually bringing that
31:44
into an all company meeting happening next week.
31:48
So we definitely bring it to life and making sure that people
31:51
feel their voices are being heard.
31:53
And then what can we commit to and change?
31:56
What's been nice is definitely a partnership between me, the CEO
32:00
and the executive team. I feel we put people and purpose
32:04
at the center of our decisions. We make sure our team stays
32:07
engaged and our mission keeps moving.
32:09
And the last thing I'll say on this is we also have embedded in
32:13
our corporate goals because not all organizations do this.
32:17
There's a people goal and that anchors around engagement and
32:23
retention and it actually gets the recognition from our
32:28
employees and seeing that it's present, we're actually being
32:31
evaluated on are we doing what we're we say we're going to do.
32:34
And that's been really important to me.
32:36
Yeah. And you, you mentioned just
32:37
about retaining top talent and how do you guys go around
32:42
attracting and keeping some of your talented people in such a a
32:46
competitive biotech environment? Is there any like initiatives or
32:50
cultural practices that he found most effective in creating a
32:54
like a sort of engaged, high performance workforce?
32:58
Yeah, No, we definitely. And it's been helpful for me
33:00
having been on this journey now for eight years.
33:02
I've had time to think about this along the way because
33:06
people join for the science, but they stay for the culture.
33:09
I think that's just really important for people to, excuse
33:13
me to anchor on. And so we built an agile
33:16
employer brand that reflects who we really are.
33:19
And that was again, working with an external partner.
33:23
So people join for the science, but they stay for the culture.
33:26
You always need to keep reminding yourself of that.
33:30
Especially in mission driven organizations, people pay
33:33
attention to the culture. So a few years ago I hired in
33:38
again an external partner. I mentioned them before
33:40
Storytell. They focus on employer branding
33:44
and they came in and spent a lot of time with our employees
33:49
understanding who are we, who do we want to be, what messages are
33:54
out there? Because that goes to how you
33:56
attract. So it goes both ways.
33:59
When you're attracting, you also want to make sure the message is
34:02
clear. If someone comes on board, are
34:05
we really telling them how it really is?
34:08
And it was a great exercise. The employees loved it and
34:11
that's again when we also went back and we rebuilt our values
34:14
and that's an anchor. When we go out and we attract
34:16
people in, we can be consistent in our messaging of what we're
34:19
saying to people. If you want to join Fulcrum,
34:22
this is what it means. This is who we are and people
34:24
say the same things because they believe in it and their voices
34:28
are embedded in it. On the retaining side, you know,
34:33
'cause I would say even though there's been a lot of layoffs,
34:35
you can still lose top talent. Top talent could go anywhere, so
34:40
we definitely spend time talking about how are we gonna retain
34:43
people, and that, again, is making sure we're spending time
34:46
with them. Who are key talent and an
34:49
organization of less than 60 people.
34:51
Sometimes a lot of people are key talent 'cause you can't
34:53
afford to lose anyone. But making sure that we're
34:56
listening to them, we're investing in them, we're
34:59
developing them. These are all things we've
35:01
definitely brought into our organization.
35:04
We have a group called the senior Leadership team that's a
35:08
cohort of five people that we actually invest very heavily in
35:11
and they're self selected in to the group.
35:15
Then we give them a lot of exposure and we leverage
35:19
engagement surveys and Thoracus groups.
35:21
Understand are we doing what you want us to do and are we, you
35:25
know, doing the things that matter most.
35:28
So again, as we attract people in and then we want to retain
35:31
them. And I would say it's definitely
35:34
created a culture of trust and resilience.
35:37
It's helped us get through our ups and downs.
35:40
And it's really been for me that beacon that as I'm hiring
35:44
someone in, we have a clear message of what we would say to
35:47
them. And then they actually come in
35:49
to like, oh, and I actually will meet with people, say, is it
35:52
what we told you it would be? And I will always hear in the
35:56
culture, yes, yes, Oh my goodness, Ken, yes, thank you.
35:59
That was what? And that's meaningful.
36:01
But that was our branding. And again, we work with someone
36:04
externally to help us really brand that message.
36:07
We do it through social media, we do it on our website.
36:10
We make sure all the vehicles are out there so that when
36:12
people are interested in US, they'll hear a consistent
36:16
message. Yeah, I love that.
36:19
And yeah, just to finish this off, this is a question that we
36:21
normally finish with. If you were to have dinner with
36:24
any free people, past or present, who would it be and
36:28
why? Doesn't necessarily need to be
36:30
people in biotech, although it can be if you like.
36:33
Yeah, if we'd like to have for dinner.
36:35
And why? Well, I do appreciate you
36:38
letting me know about this question in advance.
36:40
I'll share that with everyone because I really thought a lot
36:44
about it. And they're not biotech people.
36:49
I'd actually choose authors. I'm a big reader.
36:54
I like to read a color a lot of workbooks.
36:58
I feel it helps me be more effective in my role.
37:01
And so I really focused on three people who have really shaped
37:05
how I think about leadership. So the first person is Amy
37:08
Edmondson. And if you haven't read her
37:11
work, she's written two books at this point.
37:13
She's a Harvard professor. She's most known for her work on
37:16
psychological safety. She's definitely helped me
37:20
understand how to trust and and have openness and how that feels
37:25
innovation and we've actually really brought that into our
37:27
organization. Second is Simon Seinek.
37:32
He's very well known out there, but when I was first introduced
37:35
to him, it was his book called Start With Why.
37:40
It reminds me that purpose must be at the center of everything
37:42
we do. It definitely helped more in in
37:45
how you position things and the stories that you tell.
37:47
But it definitely helped me as I was looking at a lot of stuff
37:52
that he's done. And the third would be Kim
37:54
Scott, who wrote Radical Candor. And her approach taught me that
38:01
you can care deeply as they'll challenge directly.
38:04
And it's something that I practice all the time where I
38:08
can be direct but kind when I'm giving someone feedback and when
38:12
I'm talking to them. And so as I thought of those
38:14
three people, I thought, I don't know, I felt that would be a
38:18
really great conversation, especially for someone in my
38:20
role because I'm really curious. I loved everything they talked
38:25
about. And I would say all three of
38:27
them, for very different reasons, have shaped who I am
38:29
today. Great, but look 3 great answers
38:32
there and thanks again for coming on and helping us out
38:36
with this. It sounds like you've, you've
38:37
really experienced the highs and lows of, of biotech and, and
38:40
come out strong through the other side.
38:42
And yeah, sounds like you, what you guys are doing at Fulcrum is
38:46
super exciting as well. So for sure a company I'll be
38:49
keeping my eye on. And yeah, thanks again for
38:51
helping us out. It was an absolute pleasure.
38:54
Yeah, I would just say I just love to summit up just with a
38:56
couple of things in that to truly be in biotech, you have to
39:01
ride the roller coaster. Someone told me that.
39:03
But when you actually do it, I feel I'm a true biotech person.
39:08
And I'll also end with, even though Fulcrum's had its highs
39:11
and lows, I'm really excited about the journey.
39:14
We have a program, we're moving forward.
39:16
And to me, I'm the glass is overflowing.
39:19
I'm always going to believe, because I'm going to believe for
39:21
the patients, for employees, that it's going to happen that
39:25
we're going to find something. We're actually going to move it
39:28
forward and we're going to have fun along the way.
39:29
I should also say that we love to have fun.
39:32
So thank you so much for having me here today.
39:34
I really appreciate it. Yeah, it was a pleasure.
39:36
Flex again.