Ken Rona: How to Establish Trust When Building Relationships

In Chapter 10 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Ken Rona answers "How Do You Establish Trust When Building Relationships?"  Rona notes that trust is the currency of business, not money.  He learns to just give trust to his staff, noting if you give it, you get it.  He finds this something controllable. When there is no direct reporting relationship, either with people more senior or in different parts of the business, Rona tries to demonstrate trust to them. 

Ken Rona is a Vice President at Turner Broadcasting, where he leads teams across advertising sales, big data software development and business strategy.  Rona earned a BA and MA in Political Science from Stony Brook University and a PhD in Behavioral Economics from Duke University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do you establish trust when building relationships? 

Ken Rona: Well, with my staff, I just give it. There’s that Paul McCartney, John Lennon line— ‘the love you get is equal to the love you give’ or something—I mean it’s that kind of notion. I think that if you get it—if you give it, you get it. So but there are—that’s with your staff and that’s kind of more controllable. I think for folks who are let’s say more senior than me or in different parts of the business where I don’t have—there’s no direct reporting relationship, I think that one of the things that I do is I exhibit to them that I trust them. And I try to demonstrate to people that I think about them in the circle of trust. 

I was just talking to someone about this today, someone I had lunch with, to say in our first interview, when she was interviewing me, we got to talking about a personal issue for her and I gave her some advice that you probably wouldn’t give somebody that you had just met. And I was—she said—she was talking to me about this today, this was 2 years later. I said well I did that to say like, you know, I would expect that we would have a relationship that is, you know, trusting. And that I was gonna kind of talk to you about this stuff and once again, I guess in some ways I did the same thing I do with my staff. I gave her my trust. And I brought her in to my circle. And that’s what I try to do. 

Now having said that, some people are unresponsive to it. Some people don’t respond when you say something personal. Or when you be kind of a real person. They may not respond. And that tells you something about them. I think that tells you kind of more how you have to treat them. It’s a more buttoned down relationship. But you know what I tell people about trust is—once again I try to come up with a pithy line, trust is the currency of business. That is how business works. It’s not money. 

The way things happen is that if I trust you to do something and you trust me—that we all kind of trust each other that we’re all gonna do what we said we’re going to do, right, we’re gonna meet our commitments. Wall Street certainly thinks about it that way. So the thing you’re making commitments about is money or projects or whatever, but I think that the –what limited success I’ve had I think is because people trust me to do the right thing, they trust my judgment and I’ve tried to demonstrate it. 

So I think also, you know, you get a lot of benefits by reps. One of the things that I try to do for the staff is make sure that they don’t—when I’m delegating, they’re not there in a situation where they can fail, right? Part of that trust is when somebody gives me something that I have the judgment to know when it cannot fail. That if my boss asks me to do something that you know, I have to make a call. Is this something that I should—that he is willing to tolerate failure on, or that he’s not gonna be super happy about. And he said that I get it right, I build up more trust. I build up social capital. I think it was social capital. And in fact we built up enough social capital with the stuff we’re working on where the company has entrusted us with more strategically important things to do. And I think that’s how you know when you’re a success. That if you kind of feel that people—that your circle of trust gets bigger. I guess I’ll say that.

Ken Rona on How Aspirations Change as Responsibilities Grow

In Chapter 11 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Ken Rona answers "How Are Your Aspirations Changing as Your Responsibilities Grow?"  Professionally, Rona points to how he has established trust with his colleagues and bosses to make decisions and solve problems.  This leads Rona to think about ways he could handle larger senior management responsibilities.  However, personally, Rona sees his aspiration as staying in Atlanta and making sure his wife and children are stabled and grounded. 

Ken Rona is a Vice President at Turner Broadcasting, where he leads teams across advertising sales, big data software development and business strategy.  Rona earned a BA and MA in Political Science from Stony Brook University and a PhD in Behavioral Economics from Duke University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are your aspirations changing as your responsibilities grow?

Ken Rona: One of the things that I think I’ve shown is that I can be trusted. I can be trusted with staff. I can be trusted with decisions. I can be trusted with problems. As I’ve kind of proven that trust, I start to say, “well, you know what? Maybe I could be the CEO or COO of a company. Maybe not something the size of Turner, but certainly in the analytic space, I’m probably—“ So I kind of see that vision and I think that’s not something that I saw 3, 4, 5 years ago. But I think that I—I think that I could be a pretty effective, you know, senior C level person at a company that does what I do. That’s not to say a media company. I wouldn’t -- I’m wholly unqualified for that. But you know—or to be like the head of global analytics for something. Like I think that’s—I think that’s where I’m headed and I didn’t see—I didn’t really see that vision 5 years ago certainly. But now I think professionally I do. 

I think the question is, is that gonna be good for my wife and the family? I think that those kinds of jobs might be—Like I would be very interested in it but I’m certainly not interested in it enough to put my family at risk, you know? Or you know, and the family the—or should I say, I’m not interested enough to put the family dynamic at risk. It was quite difficult to get everyone to Atlanta and to a happy place; hopefully we’re there. The thought of trading—to uprooting people for any job right now I can’t really get my head around. So actually part of the aspirations, you know, when you talk about aspirations, I took it as professional aspiration, but I can tell you I have a personal aspiration to stay in Atlanta. 

I really—I do not think—and that my aspirations have really changed. I mean I—before I thought about moving I’d be perfectly happy myself to be move every 5 years. I think with the family, and the relative, the relative success that I’m enjoying I don’t--really don’t wanna move. I really want everyone to be stable and for my, you know, for my wife to be grounded in Atlanta

Ken Rona: What It Means to Be a Leader Working in Management

In Chapter 12 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Ken Rona answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  As a leader of a team, Rona sees his role as less about thought leadership and more about helping his team solve problems, develop their own staff, and identify where and where not to decide what projects to pursue. 

Ken Rona is a Vice President at Turner Broadcasting, where he leads teams across advertising sales, big data software development and business strategy.  Rona earned a BA and MA in Political Science from Stony Brook University and a PhD in Behavioral Economics from Duke University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What does it mean to be a leader in what you do?

Ken Rona: There are leaders in multiple elements of my job, right? There’s the leader of the teams. It’s my job to help them figure out what to work on. But my job isn’t really to be a thought leader in advanced statistics or operations research; it’s not my gig. My gig is more to help them solve prioritization problems, to solve conflict, to help them better develop their staff, to identify areas of the business where they might have impact—places that they can take ownership. I’ve also encouraged them on places where we’ve identified areas where we could take ownership; there are things where I have said we are not going to. 

So part of kind of leadership in the job, the product side of what we do is a good understanding of what to say no to. There’s this thing called multivariate testing that lets you, let’s say swap out different headlines and see which headlines are more attractive, that’s how you get these crazy headlines from Huffington Post, you know? See who’s vacationing at the Riviera. They didn’t write that, what they did was they wrote four different headlines and then saw which one led to most traffic, and that’s the one you’re seeing. So there was an opportunity to be more of an advocate at Turner for it and I said to the person who wanted to do this, like, you know, I don’t think that that is—I think we are fully engaged in the things we’re working on. And this is something that I agree would be good for Turner but what are we gonna give up? 

So I think part of what—part of what you have to do as a leader, you know, within my job is to say, what are we not going to do. So one of the things I really help the team do, I think is keep focus. 

And the other thing I do is I hold them accountable. So that’s another piece, right, where people have made commitments, and I try like any good manager, not leader but say—I try to say what day is something due. And if the thing isn’t due that day, “what’s up?” I ask, “What’s up?” And there’s always a reason, right, there’s always a reason. My direct reports don’t get to have excuses. They have to deliver. And what I tell them is if you don’t deliver, I mean the way I perceive that is, you know, either you are not—you know, you didn’t do a good job forecasting which I think you get like some passes on but at some point you should know that like some things always take longer than you think and you should be able to make that mental adjustment. But so, either you’ve done a bad job at forecasting, you need to get better at that, or you’re a liar. And that I think--but that’s my point about learning, I try to make it a little shocking so that they can—that they grab onto it. 

So I think part of that is you know the holding people accountable, and I say like you asked before about what happens in a big company, it’s a little harder to hold people strictly accountable in a big company, because you have to operate in a particular HR environment. But I think that’s an area where—and truthfully it’s an area where I would probably be more aggressive if I were in a smaller company. I’d have more freedom on it. I’d probably hold people even more accountable.

Ken Rona on What It Means to Be Productive at Work

In Chapter 13 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Ken Rona answers "How Do You Get Yourself into a Flow State of Productivity?"  Rona talks about what it means to be productive in his work and how it has changed as he has transitioned out of a developer and analyst role and into general management.  Part of this is understanding that "flow state" productivity is more relevant in individual contributor roles than in management roles. 

Ken Rona is a Vice President at Turner Broadcasting, where he leads teams across advertising sales, big data software development and business strategy.  Rona earned a BA and MA in Political Science from Stony Brook University and a PhD in Behavioral Economics from Duke University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do you get yourself into a flow state of productivity?

Ken Rona: I don’t really need to be. My job is different. I think if you’re a developer then you need to be able to get into that flow. That’s an individual contributor kind of question, right? Or somebody who does individual contributor work, you know, analytics or programming or art, right? And then, you know, if you’re managing people, you kind of have to go back and forth. That’s not really what I do. 

My career has kind of taken a different turn in that I’m not an analyst anymore. I don’t do that. I can use our tools. So one of the things I’ve tried to do is make it so that I understand how our analytic tools work and I can get into data if I need to, if I’m curious about something. Or I want to role model something, which I’ve done. 

But in terms of like producing deliverables, my deliverables are not so much pieces of paper anymore, my deliverables are discussions, and giving advice, and taking advice, and doing internal PR or internal marketing or—so that kind of—that kind of state is less relevant, it’s less relevant for me now that I have to be a good—I actually believe this, I really believe—I’m very ample about this. I believe that you should have focus. You shouldn’t work on too many things at once. And I don’t but I work on many things over the course of a day, but I’m pretty kind of unified—pretty focused on the thing I’m doing at that moment. But as I say the things that I do at that moment aren’t the kind of things that require the kind of extreme focus that I needed when I was a developer and analyst

Ken Rona on How to Be a More Effective Corporate Manager

In Chapter 14 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Ken Rona answers "How Are You Learning to Thrive in a Corporate Organizational Structure?"  Rona shares knowledge he has gained from management work experience in large corporate cultures.  He notes how being patient has been fundamental to improving managerial effectiveness and helping him achieve goals. 

Ken Rona is a Vice President at Turner Broadcasting, where he leads teams across advertising sales, big data software development and business strategy.  Rona earned a BA and MA in Political Science from Stony Brook University and a PhD in Behavioral Economics from Duke University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to thrive inside a corporate organizational structure?

Ken Rona: If I could give someone one piece of advice around that they were gonna go to a large company, a large kind of corporate, kind of very traditional--traditionally structured company, I would say the critical thing is patience. 

So I use this phrase “the market will clear.” Remember what I said about learning? I have like these little kind of small phrases that I like to use, that’s one of them. “The market will clear.” And by that I mean at some point the right thing will happen. And—because I think people when they’re in companies—when they are reliant on other people to do stuff. You know, you say, “Why are they not doing this? Like it is so obvious. They just need to do this thing and the world will be so much better.” 

One of two things happens, if you’re patient, either one, if—and you’re right. That person does it. So you know you were getting yourself nutty for no reason, that it was gonna happen. Or they don’t do it, you are right, they don’t do it, it becomes obvious that you are right, that person gets kind of either, you know, removed in some fashion or another—someone else comes in and they do it. So by that I mean the market, that’s what I mean when the market clears. If you wait the market, you know, the market will get to its equilibrium. The right thing will happen. 

Sometimes that waiting time can be very long. I’ve certainly seen—I have seen in the case of one of the companies I worked for, it was weird. It was wacky. And me and some of the people I worked with were just like we can’t believe this company is a success. And like they’ve gotta have a contraction, they’ve got—it’s just badly run. And I—you know, and I believed that, and I left. A year later I’m like—They’re still doing fine. I’m like, “How could that be? How could they still be doing well?” Another 6 months goes by, the stock falls 60%, the market cleared. So in my experience, if you are patient and you are trying to do the right thing—if you do the right thing and be patient, if you can. There are certainly times where you need urgency. But in general, my counsel is patience. Just be cool.

Ken Rona on Setting New Product Development Career Goals

In Chapter 15 of 15 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Ken Rona answers "What Goals Are You Setting as You Look to What Comes Next in Your Business Career?"  Rona notes he was hired by Turner to do a specific thing.  As his software product development project reaches its halfway point, Rona and his team begin evolving from a minimal viable product, or MVP, to the consumer marketing to foster adoption. 

Ken Rona is a Vice President at Turner Broadcasting, where he leads teams across advertising sales, big data software development and business strategy.  Rona earned a BA and MA in Political Science from Stony Brook University and a PhD in Behavioral Economics from Duke University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What goals are you setting as you look to what comes next in your business career?

Ken Rona: You know, I think you’d like to think that people have kind of--always know what the goal is. When I got hired at Turner I got hired to do a very specific thing. And we’re about halfway through that build I think. Maybe a little less, so my goal is to finish that build, so goals right now in terms of on a business sense are subcomponents of the build and making sure that thing is adopted so one of my big concerns—one of our big goals right now is, now that we’ve built a—there’s this phrase in the startup community called minimally viable product, it’s like how little do you need to –a software product, or even a hardware product, you need to make something interesting to a consumer. That the consumer would actually really want to pay for. Or use it, right? 

So we’re past that point, we’ve got to a point of the analytic tools we’ve created are more than minimally viable. In fact, they are some of the enterprise class tools that are available out there are—we are finding that we actually have a lot more functionality in our home built stack—home built analytic stack than these tools that have been being developed for 15 years. So now the question and it’s very clear, anyone who looks at it says, yes, of course. Now the challenge is in getting those tools adopted. So the challenge, and it’s always this way in technology. The challenge is not the building of it, although that can be challenging if you’re the IRS or the FBI who takes you know way, way longer they need to build something. But my staff is very competent, really good developers; they stood this thing up really fast. We have a really nice stack, a really nice set of tools. 

Now the challenge is getting these things adopted by the users. So our kind of primary goal now is, now that we’ve built something that is more than minimally viable, how do we get folks use it. I mean if we can’t get folks to use it, one of two things, right. Either we were wrong, we got it wrong, or we didn’t do a good enough job of advocacy. This is why you have evangelists. So I think the phase we’re shifting into a little bit is now more of an evangelism phase, so my goals kind of professionally are for people to adopt the tools, and that we get business impact from it. That’s what really drives success I think for certainly how I perceive it. If we’re not having business impact, what did we do it for? 

You know, personal goals, are I think are pretty much the same, you know, keeping the wife happy, keeping the kids healthy. You know, helping their development. And I think that’s—the only goal I would add is, it is a goal—I really hope next year, I really, really hope next year when we do this, I can say, “Erik, I finally bought that convertible.” That is really—That is a goal. My wife—I think my wife is blanching because when I show her the kind of car I want I think she can’t get her head around the fact that it is twice as expensive as any other vehicle she has ever owned. And truthfully, I’m having a bit of a hard time with it too but I’m just gonna go for it

Mark Graham: How to Develop Passions In and Out of Work

In Chapter 17 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, digital media executive Mark Graham answers "How Are You Learning to Apply Your Passions in New Ways?"  Graham notes that he is fortunate to spend most of his professional life pursuing his passions in his personal life such as television, music, film, and books.  He notes that as he gets more experience, he learns to separate work time from "me time" and enjoy the personal experiences instead of constantly chronicling them.  In the office, Graham puts a short-term priority on learning video editing skills such as Final Cut Pro so he may be more engaged with the video production teams working at VH1. 

Mark Graham is currently a managing editor at VH1, an MTV Networks company. Previously Graham worked in editing and writing roles at New York Magazine and Gawker Media.  He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in English.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to apply your passions in new ways?

Mark Graham: I’ve got a lot of different passions. I’m a pop culture fiend. I love movies. I love music. I love TV. I love reading. Fortunately I’m in a position where I spend most of my professional life actively pursuing passions that I have in my personal life, which is really cool. I think one of the things that I’ve learned over—particularly over the last year and so, is that you do need to make time to create a little barrier between things that you’re passionate about and things that you do professionally, and by that I mean every time I used to go to a concert for example, I would always take notes during concerts and always write about things like that and I’ve sort of learned to pick things that are going to work for work and things that are more just sort of for “me time” to lay back, kick back, you know, drink a couple of root beers, enjoy the experience rather than sort of constantly chronicling it. I’m sending out tweets and Instagrams and taking notes and things like that, so I’ve really tried to focus this year on making sure that I do allow some sort of personal time for me in that way. 

And so the ways that I’m trying to apply passions in a new direction, you know, one of the things that I’m really trying to focus on over the course of the next year and some change, I haven’t gotten started on this yet but it’s one of the things that’s on my list of things to do this summer, I like to start learning how to do video editing. I think that that’s a skill set that is very important to someone who’s in my particular space, if you’re—the more trades that you can sort of do, the more relevant and useful you are to an organization. And also ways that you can help give better feedback and direction to people that you are working with. So as I’m spending more time working with video, with people who are operating cameras, and people who are sitting in editing base, and editing on Final Cut. You know, helping to understand their language, and the way that they work and the ways that we can help create a good product, end-product for a consumer, helping them get to that place is something that I’d definitely like to spend more time learning and developing. 

Anatole Faykin on Founding and Selling an Internet Startup

In Chapter 6 of 12 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "What Were the Main Learning Points From Starting and Selling a Company?"  He talks about the massive amount of uncertainty starting and growing a company and managing the adverse climate that comes with that.  He notes how Internet startups operate in a fluid, fast changing market that requires quick adaptation to changing market conditions.  Faykin shares how a fast changing environment requires short term, incremental goals along with being open-minded for change and new opportunities.  Anatole Faykin is an entrepreneur currently working on a new startup as part of the Startup Chile incubator program in Santiago, Chile.  Previously, Faykin founded Tuanpin, a Shanghai, China-based daily deals site he grew to 25 employees and sold in the fall of 2011. He has worked for British Telecom in London, Intel in Shanghai, American Express in New York, and Oracle in San Francisco as well as several startups. He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

Anatole Faykin: How to Better Manage Project Time Commitments

In Chapter 9 of 12 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "How Do You Balance Experimentation and Commitment in the Projects You Pursue?"  Faykin notes he does not make it a point to find balance between testing new ideas and working on larger projects.  He notes time is elastic and allows you to get things done as the come up.  Faykin notes the need to identify what you want to do and then how to get it done.  He does highlight the importance of having open, frank conversations and making sure to set expectations with your clients or teams. 

Anatole Faykin is an entrepreneur currently working on a new startup as part of the Startup Chile incubator program in Santiago, Chile.  Previously, Faykin founded Tuanpin, a Shanghai, China-based daily deals site he grew to 25 employees and sold in the fall of 2011. He has worked for British Telecom in London, Intel in Shanghai, American Express in New York, and Oracle in San Francisco as well as several startups. He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

Anatole Faykin: How to Turn Your Bad Habits Into Strengths

In Chapter 10 of 12 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "How Are You Learning to Better Manage Your Time and Commitments?"  Faykin notes he is not improving how he manages his time and commitments.  He finds it more important to having the freedom to get things done and using creativity and flexibility to meet deadlines and project goals.  He notes "bad habits die hard" and that changing your style is not always better than learning to work within your style. 

Anatole Faykin is an entrepreneur currently working on a new startup as part of the Startup Chile incubator program in Santiago, Chile.  Previously, Faykin founded Tuanpin, a Shanghai, China-based daily deals site he grew to 25 employees and sold in the fall of 2011. He has worked for British Telecom in London, Intel in Shanghai, American Express in New York, and Oracle in San Francisco as well as several startups. He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

Anatole Faykin: How Oracle Silicon Valley Job Teaches Work Ethic

In Chapter 11 of 12 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "Where Did You Learn Your Work Ethic?"  Starting his career in Silicon Valley teaches Faykin it is not about set working hours or face time and more about getting projects done by deadlines.  His entry-level experience working at Oracle influences his later career choices as an entrepreneur to create flexible workplace cultures. 

Anatole Faykin is an entrepreneur currently working on a new startup as part of the Startup Chile incubator program in Santiago, Chile.  Previously, Faykin founded Tuanpin, a Shanghai, China-based daily deals site he grew to 25 employees and sold in the fall of 2011. He has worked for British Telecom in London, Intel in Shanghai, American Express in New York, and Oracle in San Francisco as well as several startups. He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

Anatole Faykin: Why to Have Startup Co-Founders Who Are Lawyers

In Chapter 12 of 12 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Anatole Faykin answers "What Has Working With Lawyers Taught You About Business?"  Faykin joins a startup founded by two lawyers as a co-founder.  He quickly realizes each brings very different skills and, over time, learns to complement their negotiation and contract work with an operations and product development focus. 

Anatole Faykin is an entrepreneur currently working on a new startup as part of the Startup Chile incubator program in Santiago, Chile.  Previously, Faykin founded Tuanpin, a Shanghai, China-based daily deals site he grew to 25 employees and sold in the fall of 2011. He has worked for British Telecom in London, Intel in Shanghai, American Express in New York, and Oracle in San Francisco as well as several startups. He holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a BS in computer science and biology from the California Institute of Technology.

Stacie Bloom on Finding a New Job in Neuroscience Education

In Chapter 1 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "Since We Last Spoke, What Has Been the Most Exciting Thing to Happen in Your Life?"  Bloom details how she was presented an opportunity - in between her Year 1 and Year 2 Capture Your Flag interviews - to leave the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) for an executive position at NYU and why she accepted it. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  Since we last spoke, what has been the most exciting thing to happen in your life?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  I would say that I really got this amazing new job about one year ago. And I think it happened very shortly after I got the chance to interview for you the last time. This is not something that I was expecting to necessarily get or wasn’t really even looking for it at the time. I think I was ready in my last position to explore new possibilities but I hadn’t even really thought much about what those possibilities could be. And then this opportunity presented itself to me and it just really sounded like a great fit.

Erik Michielsen:  Could you tell me more about the opportunity?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  Sure. So my new position is as executive director for the NYU Neuroscience Institute, which is a new entity that we’re currently in the process of building at NYU up at the medical center.

Erik Michielsen:  Now, is that part of the university or is it part of—How does that work within the context of the university and the medical center?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  Yeah, NYU is interesting in terms of that relationship, so the main part of NYU—what people think of as NYU is all located around Washington Square. We call it Downtown. And the hospital and the medical center are in the 30’s and we call it Uptown. You know, obviously, they’re the same umbrella organization, although they have a slightly different governance structure and different tax identification numbers, making them a little bit fiscally independent, from what I understand.

Stacie Bloom on Developing Manager Skills in a Science Career

In Chapter 2 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "How Are Your Responsibilities Changing As Your Career Evolves?"  Bloom notes how she is becoming more detached from the daily work and more involved managing the people doing the daily work.  Bloom now overseas organizational finances and sees this as a natural progression in her career.  Bloom shares how  her science career background supports her strategic, operational and financial management responsibilities plans running the organization. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How are your responsibilities changing as your career evolves?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  I would say I’ve become more detached from the actual daily work of the place and more involved in the management of the people who are really doing the amazing work. I would say I’m more involved in managing the finances than I was in my last position where we had a whole department doing that and now that operation rolls up to me for the first time, so I would say you know as my career evolves, taking a higher level position overseeing the entire organization, which I don’t think is a unique position for someone whose career is evolving necessarily. 

Erik Michielsen:  How is your science career experience most useful in your current role? 

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  I think that I couldn’t do my current role without my science career experience. And it’s a really—it’s been a very interesting evolution for me. So my position as executive director of the NYU Neuroscience Institute, in that role, I’m really overseeing the strategic financial and operational plans to actually run this, what my scientific experience gives me that makes it such a special position for me is just the ability to understand everything that’s going on there. So when we’re interviewing a potential faculty candidate, I fully understand the science, how that fits into the existing infrastructure of scientists and clinicians who we have and how that person can build bridges and really foster translational progress that will bring, you know, hopefully new therapies to neurological and psychiatric patients, so that scientific background, I think it gives me credibility, I hope it gives me credibility but certainly it gives me the ability to truly understand at the most molecular level all the work that we’re doing. 

Stacie Bloom on Leaving a Nonprofit Job to Work in Higher Education

In Chapter 3 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What New Challenges Are You Facing in Your Career?"  Bloom notes the challenges she has faced transitioning out of a relatively small nonprofit and into an 18,000 employee-strong university, NYU.  She also details the challenge of understanding the governance and leadership structure of the organization. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What new challenges are you facing in your career?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  There are a lot of new challenges in this job, I would say understanding how a very large university system works has been an interesting challenge. I was previously working in a small not-for-profit organization, maybe 65 people, all of a sudden, I’m at this medical center, 18,000 people. It’s a very different type of organization, so I’m going from a place where I sort of knew everyone, if I had an HR question, I would walk to HR, there was 2 people working in there. You know, now, it’s a situation where if I have an HR question, I’m sending an email to a vague email address and getting a response from a person who I’ve never met before. 

I think also in a very large organization, things move at a different pace, because there are a lot of levels, sort of checkpoints to get through and a lot of policies and procedures, of course. I think also understanding the governance and the—how the leadership is organized at such a big place was a little bit challenging for me coming in. It’s not as simple as a CEO, a COO, a CFO, and some directors and vice presidents, it’s an incredibly large organization with a very diverse and big leadership structure. 

Stacie Bloom on What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder

In Chapter 4 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?"  Bloom notes it is more about how things are changing rather than what is getting easier or harder.  She notes her three children are getting older, which presents new approaches to raising them.  As the children get older, raising them does not get easier; rather it is more about their needs changing.  She notes her job change and the additional responsibility and accountability that come with her work. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What is getting easier and what is getting harder in your life?

Stacie Grossman Bloom: I wouldn’t say that things are necessarily getting harder and easier so much as they’re changing. I think my children are getting older, that’s a little easier in some ways but harder in other ways. I’ve changed jobs. I would say that this new job that I have comes with a higher level of responsibility. I would say that there’s just more accountability in this position that I have currently. And that I feel that burden or that weight on me more than I did in my previous work. 

Erik Michielsen:  And how about the children, like when you talk about getting them older and making it easier but also harder, what do you mean?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  You know, when they’re babies, they have specific needs, and it’s hard to raise children. It’s hard to take care of babies. You know, it’s hard to know why they’re crying, or changing diapers all the time, and you think it will get easier as they get older because they’ll become more self-sufficient but the truth is they have other needs, they need you for other things. They’re more interested in pursuing different activities. It becomes this situation where, you know, one wants to take a swim class, one wants to take a soccer class, one wants to take a music class and suddenly you become one of those parents who are really running all over the place on the weekends, doing all of these things that you could never have imagined when they were 6 months old.

Stacie Bloom on Learning to Balance Family and Career

In Chapter 6 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Bloom shares her struggle trying to find balance and her desire to find someone in her life who has done it before.  As it stands, Bloom notes she does not have a female figure in her life to provide that advice and support on raising three kids while working a full-time job. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  At this moment in your life, where are you seeking advice and coaching? 

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  At this moment in my life, I think it would be really great to have some advice or some coaching about how to balance it all. And you know, like I said, every day I think is a little bit of a struggle for me. I do feel a lot of guilt. You know, I’m not the mom who’s going on all of the field trips, but I go on some. I think it would be great to have someone in my life who has sort of done this, who has had the great big wonderful job and the great big wonderful family, and sort of did all. But I—right now, I don’t really have a person like that, and I kind of wish that I did.

Erik Michielsen:  Are you actively seeking something like that? Like, by reaching out and—

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  No, I’m not. I mean I think that if I had come across someone like that I would probably latch onto them a little bit. I do, you know, come across women sometimes who have raised 3 kids and who have done these amazing things, and I do tend to corner them and ask them a lot of questions, but I’m not pushy enough to continue to follow up over and over again. But I especially think it’s challenging. I have 3 daughters, and I think that that’s a really big challenge, raising girls I think is tricky, and I would love to know, you know, how do you raise 3 girls, have a job, make sure that they’re well-adjusted, confident, smart girls who are making smart decisions, but you know what? Even if I stayed home, and didn’t have a job, I think I’d have that same problem.

Stacie Bloom on Finding Purpose Working in Neuroscience

In Chapter 7 of 18 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, Neuroscience Institute Executive Director Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What Makes Your Work Meaningful?"  Bloom hopes that the research work done at the NYU Neuroscience Institute will translate into some kinds of new therapies that improve patient outcomes.  She notes how an aging patient population is generating increases in neurological diseases - autism, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's - is creating economic and psychological challenges and how her work at the NYU Neuroscience Institute aims to foster research science and clinical science collaboration to create new therapies for the diseases. 

Stacie Grossman Bloom is Executive Director for the Neuroscience Institute at the NYU Langone Medical Center.  Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) and, before that, held editorial roles at the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Medicine.  She earned her BA in chemistry and psychology from the University of Delaware, her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did post-doctoral training in Paul Greengard's Nobel Laboratory of Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience at Rockefeller University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What makes your work meaningful?

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  What makes my work meaningful is the hope that what we’re doing will someday reach the patient. The expectation that the research that’s going on at the NYU Neuroscience Institute will have a translational component to it that will allow it to be developed into some kind of a new therapy and that will ultimately be able to improve patient health and patient outcomes especially as the patient population and the population in general is just aging. The affliction of neurological disease like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, the increase in the prevalence of autism in our population, these things are having such a big societal impact on us economically, as well as psychologically. And the hope that the work that we’re doing and what we’re building will have an impact on  alleviating some of that.

Erik Michielsen:  What are some of the signals or some of the steps you look for in working toward that, that goal? 

Stacie Grossman Bloom:  I mean the purpose of the institute is really to build bridges between the basic scientists and the clinicians, to really become a very translational entity. And by translational, I mean it’s a sort of pedestrian phrase but bench to bedside, so everybody talks about the lab work that’s being done at the bench with all of the pipettes and the chemicals but that actually reaching the bedside in the hospital and actually reaching the patient. And one of the purposes of one of the big goals of the NYU Neuroscience Institute because we have both of those populations, we have the basic scientists and we have these amazing clinicians, one of the goals is to bring those 2 populations together and to foster the types of collaborations and conversations that can push the field forward in that kind of a way.