RACHEL CLEMENTS
Let's create companies that use technology and AI to extend human potential,
not substitute for it.
What's important right now is the characteristics of the brain's right hemisphere.
In the age of AI and mass-produced ideas and content, this is what cannot be replaced.
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Artistry, empathy, inventiveness, big-picture thinking.
These skills have become first among equals in a whole range of business fields. ​
- Daniel Pink
My Strategy
My strategy is data-driven and real-world tested.
Challange:
People are disconnected. Disengaged. Productivity is down. Messages are out of alignment and conflicting.
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Approach:
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I listen to people. I sit in on meetings and connect with people 1:1 and listen to their concerns.
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Then I do what I can to help them address those concerns and connect them with people across the organization to solve them sustainably.
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THE KEY? I build trust.
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Next, I remind people of where they are working in alignment, on common goals to address common challenges.
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Finally, I encourage transparent and constant communication - from leadership to staff and vice versa.
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Results (99% guarenteed): A culture of psychological safety. People feel engaged, heard, supported, informed, and secure in what lies ahead of them. And how they can handle it. They feel like they are a part of the big picture of the organization and know how their daily work plays a part in the future of the company.
Data and research supporting my strategy
"Connection is why we're here. It is what gives purpose and meaning to our lives."
"Building a visionary company requires 1% vision and 99% alignment. When you have superb alignment, a visitor could drop in from outer space and infer your vision from the operations and activities of the company without ever reading it on paper or meeting a single senior executive."
Being right doesn't make us trustworthy. Being honest makes us trustworthy.
"Psychological safety isn't a "nice to have" for sensitive people. It's the foundation of any team that wants to do hard things well."
Proving that you have to invest in your people as much as your tech stack
Real world examples of this strategy in action
FINRA
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is a private, not-for-profit, self-regulatory organization (SRO) authorized by Congress to protect U.S. investors and ensure market integrity by regulating broker-dealers, enforcing compliance with security rules, and overseeing approximately 630,000 brokers.
Challenge:
FINRA was undertaking a significant, multi-year AI implementation that required employees across global divisions to understand, trust, and actively adopt new technology - without the confusion, resistance, or disengagement that typically derails large-scale change in an industry not accustomed to significant or rapid change.
Approach:
Big picture? I listen to people. I sit in on meetings and connect with people 1:1 and listen to their concerns. Then I do what I can to help them address those concerns and connect them with people across the organization to solve them sustainably. Then I remind people of where they are working in alignment, on common goals to address common challenges. And I encourage transparent communication - from leadership to staff and vice versa.
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I led all internal communications and workforce engagement strategy across a 2-year AI implementation. I partnered with global business leaders to craft compelling narratives that made the change feel human and purposeful, not threatening. I've collaborated across HR, Brand, and Leadership to ensure messaging was consistent and reinforcing at every touchpoint.
We designed and executed CEO and executive communications for town halls and built a cross-functional stakeholder team to keep messaging cohesive across all divisions. Additionally, tracked workforce engagement metrics throughout to measure adoption and sentiment in real time.
Result:
So far we have achieved a record-breaking 98% employee response rate on Culture Engagement Surveys - a direct signal that employees felt informed, heard, and connected throughout the transition.
We've successfully guided the organization through full AI implementation with sustained workforce engagement, demonstrating that technology transformation and human engagement aren't in tension - they depend on each other.
This implementation will hopefully make our staff better at their jobs and provide them with the opportunity to spend their time on the areas only a human can do, with less time spent on collecting and organizing data.
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This transformation is currently in progress and I look forward to more positive results dropping in Q3 &Q4 26.
Trimble
Challenge:
Trimble acquired several smaller companies over the previous 24 months; coupled with a global workforce, they lacked cohesive internal communications and consistent external brand messaging. Employees outside of the US were especially disengaged from executive strategy, and the brand's external presence was underutilized despite the company's significant scale.
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Approach:
I listened. I attended meetings around the globe and across all functions. I listened to the key pain points and challenges each team was facing. Then I helped them solve those challenges. Next, I connected them with the people they needed to be connected with.
I designed and executed a comprehensive change management internal communications playbook specifically built to engage global, cross-divisional employees, with a focus on reaching those outside the US. Managed PR strategy to measure and amplify brand reputation and awareness. Standardized processes across internal channels and established cross-functional teams providing engineering, customer success, sales, and marketing staff to collaborate and identify unique value propositions and the customers who were successfully implementing them.
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Result:
Employees reflected cohesive communications internally and were engaged with global multi-functional initiatives, resulting in cohesive external communications. We achieved a 30% increase in cohesive external messaging across global divisions and a 45% increase in brand recognition in connection with sustainability. We established a successful pipeline for identifying customer success stories and promoting via case studies, podcasts, white papers, and press. We helped executives simplify their external communications, resulting in securing high-profile speaking opportunities for company leadership, including features in Forbes, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company.
Fortune 500 B2B SaaS
City of Denver,
Denver Sister Cities
A collaboration of the City of Denver, Mayor Hancock's Office, the International Business and Trade Office, and Sister Cities International Nonprofit
Challenge:
Denver Sister Cities International faced an aging workforce ready to retire, needed to modernize its brand presence, deepen member engagement, and generate new revenue — all while managing a global pandemic that obliterated their primary funding source.
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Approach:
The mission of the organization was to promote cross-cultural engagement and international diplomacy through relationships, so during the COVID pandemic, we were given the opportunity to focus entirely on finding new ways to fulfill the mission while also being at home. In this vein, I established the following:
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a multi-country collaborative of city officials discussing how they were addressing the pandemic, racial tensions, and social justice in their city
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a virtual student exchange program between high school students in Ulaanbaatar and Denver
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a chef-led home cooking class featuring a chef in Brest, France, in his sea-to-table restaurant
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a series of virtual walking tours in Takayama, Japan, featuring local merchants and the history of the city
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a violinist from Potenza, Italy, led a series of virtual performances from his home instead of touring in the US as expected
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a Denver multicultural restaurant week highlighting small businesses in town, featuring the cuisine of 13 partner countries
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Result:
The entire organization learned to pivot - I successfully led cross-cultural change initiatives across multiple countries while maintaining consistent organizational values. We drove a 300% increase in brand recognition and membership engagement. Campaigns resulted in a 40% increase in revenue. Though unexpected, we completely transformed our audience and engagement in Denver and increased our youth initiatives by 250%. These initiatives paid off 10-fold after the pandemic, when we were able to build on the relationships in person that we built virtually.
Mental Health First Aid Colorado
Challenge:
Mental Health First Aid Colorado was underperforming its potential — the program lacked the communications infrastructure and change management strategy needed to drive adoption at scale, despite the urgency of its mission. As a startup, operational procedures were ineffective, and growth was outpacing staff's ability to maintain them. They needed to figure out how to scale while keeping the mission and culture alive.
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Approach:
I identified what was working and built on those processes and people. I delegated responsibility and empowered key stakeholders to lead their own initiatives. I brought in new leaders who showed potential and mentored them alongside leadership development training. I held meetings where I listened to the key pain points. I led cross-functional teams to engage stakeholders and develop innovative outreach approaches. I established and executed a change management communication strategy. Designed and facilitated data-driven internal communications for 500+ employees. Oversaw HR organizational redesign, including staff recruitment, hiring, mentoring, and team development. Evaluated program effectiveness using both qualitative and quantitative data and adapted strategy accordingly.
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Result:
New staff who were 100% sold out, committed, raving fans of the work we were doing. 500+ new people who understood the mission and approach of the organization. Individuals who felt personally engaged with the vision, empowered as leaders, building their own teams, and developing their programs in alignment with the organizational approach.
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We achieved 250% growth in program reach, earning international recognition. Drove 30% growth in organizational change adoption through employee engagement communications - well surpassing initial benchmarks.
3-year-old startup scaling from a 5-person team
Mental Health First Aid - The Startup
An idea that took over my life, a company, a city, a county, then a state, and a county
Challenge:
Colorado Springs is struggling with an adolescent suicide epidemic. I'm responsible for connecting with and supporting teens when they are discharged from the hospital after a suicide attempt, to keep it from happening again.
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AspenPointe (the community mental health center) is struggling with a negative reputation, lacking community engagement, and not meeting the current community needs.
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Mental Health First Aid is an 8-hour course similar to First Aid or CPR - teaching the general population the basics about how to help others who may be struggling with depression, anxiety, substance use, or other mental health challenges, and how to respond during a moment of crisis.
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Approach:
I was tired of pulling people out of the river - I wanted to go upstream and figure out why they were falling in to begin with (paraphrased from Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu).
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I thought this course could be a great way to educate the general public and potentially work proactively to address the suicide crisis. These courses could also be a great way for the community mental health center to get its name into the community, build community partnerships, and elevate its brand awareness in a positive light.
I saw the opportunity gap, found a solution, and built the pipeline.
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I got trained as an instructor and identified best practices in Australia and the UK (where the program was seeing the most growth).
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I built the product (the course) and offered it on a regular basis open to the community. I partnered with multiple community businesses to offer the course where my target audience was alreaady engaged. It worked and things took off.
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To scale I needed to clone myself - but ideally better.
I identified key markets that could value our product and were currently being underserved ( veterans, the spanish-speaking audiences, and parents). I sought out key leaders with strong reputation and exsisting community ties and recruited them to teach the course.
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At this point, after every single class, participants informed me of how they used it to support a loved one struggling. Several of the police officers I trained directly credited the course with their ability to de-escalate a hostage crisis restuling in that individual receiving mental health treatment and handing over his weapon in a peaceful resolution. Do you know how often that happens? According to the press - virtually 0% of the time.
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The stakes were high - I needed to depend on the people I was bringing in, I needed them to lead the course better than I so they could reach audiences I knew I couldn't reach on my own. ​
I couldn't physically teach every single course anymore - I needed to scale if I wanted to reach more people.
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So, I built a system.
I got the historical information out of my head and into policies, procedures, and processes. I mentored new leaders and empowered them to lead their own initiatives. I maintained high-contact routines, so I felt engaged with the on-the-ground work, and new staff felt comfortable talking about challenges they were facing. I established routine practices to ensure the product (course) was maintaining the credibility I expected of myself.
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I learned to let go and saw this mini empire take off in ways that I never would have been able to achieve on my own.
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Result:
New staff were directly tied to me and my vision and mission. They were completely in and shared the mission with others using my words and their framework. They grew the organization into audiences I never would have anticipated or been able to establish on my own.
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Staff had the frameworks and systems and procedures to be successful because I built them. They were engaged and supported through routine mentoring practices.
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I could focus on the big picture - I felt confident in the work my team was doing, and had the physical time to look at long term strategies to grow our organization.
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We grew by over 500% in 2 years and had a sustainable future due to systems i built that would bring in new staff, connections, audiences, and additional funding.
Creativity is just connecting things.
When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do anything. They saw something. It just seemed obvious to them after a while.
- Steve Jobs
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