Cohesion – Details, episodes & analysis

In this inspiring episode of the Cohesion Podcast, Carolyn Clark (VP of Employee Experience Strategy & Transformation at Simpplr) sits down with Sarah Kaplan, Director of Internal Communications at Smarsh. With a unique background in opera performance and a keen instinct for people-first storytelling, Sarah has led major internal transformation at Smarsh—starting from scratch just before a company acquisition and CEO transition.

Sarah shares how she evolved the internal comms function from a team of one to a strategic partner to executive leadership. From ruthless prioritization to launching a global employee event across time zones, Sarah’s story is full of practical insights and human depth.

If you’re building a comms team, navigating rapid organizational change, or just curious how opera can shape a corporate career—this one’s for you.

Topics Covered:

• Building an internal comms function from zero
• Becoming a strategic partner to leadership
• Balancing trust with clarity during acquisitions and CEO change
• Leading hybrid transitions and global engagement events
• How performance arts skills translate to leadership and empathy

Connect with Sarah Kaplan: LinkedIn

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In this episode, we sit down with Kelly Clarke, a seasoned internal communications leader with experience at Cisco, Meta, and Gong, to explore how endurance and empathy power executive presence in times of transformation. With a foundation in PR and a heart for human-centered leadership, Kelly shares how she’s guided companies through crises, culture shifts, and massive change—always with transparency and trust at the core.

Simpplr’s Carolyn Clark, VP of Employee Experience Strategy & Transformation, joins the conversation to uncover how internal comms can drive clarity, connection, and courage at every level of an organization.

In This Episode, We Cover:

1. Leadership Lessons from Endurance

Kelly draws parallels between her long-distance running journey and her leadership style—revealing how consistency, mental toughness, and recovery fuel her ability to lead through complexity.

2. Building Comms Functions in Times of Change

From high-growth startups to global tech firms, Kelly shares how she’s built and scaled internal communications during reorgs, rebrands, and remote work pivots—always keeping the employee experience front and center.

3. Coaching Leaders to Show Up Authentically

Great comms start with great leadership. Kelly discusses how she partners with executives to cultivate transparency, vulnerability, and intentional messaging—making leaders more relatable and impactful.

4. Life Lessons from Girls on the Run

As a coach for Girls on the Run, Kelly reflects on what mentoring young girls taught her about confidence, community, and purpose—and how those same lessons show up in the workplace.

This episode features an interview with Sarah Lovelace, Vice President of People at Airbase. Prior to this role, Sarah served as VP of People at Plenty, held various roles at Box, and was a Recruiting Coordinator at Google.

In this episode, Shawn sits down with Sarah to discuss adapting leadership to different organizational stages, realistic and meaningful leadership development programs, and challenges and trends in global workforce management.

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“You have to go through all of the seasons and you have to go through the reviews, you have to go through having a first hard conversation with an employee. Sometimes there's just not a time limit on that. I think, ultimately, those L&D programs sometimes aim to fast track that. But, I have truly found the best value is again, getting to know managers.” – Sarah Lovelace

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:58): Getting to know Sarah

*(07:52): Sarah’s leadership style at Airbase 

*(24:17): Strategies for measuring organizational trust 

*(31:23): Values that drive the People team at Airbase 

*(35:56): How Airbase develops leaders 

*(42:28): Future challenges for People teams

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Links:

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

About Simpplr

This episode features an interview with Brady Pyle, Chief HR & Inclusion Officer at Space Center Houston. Over a 30-year federal career, Brady held various HR leadership roles at NASA, including HR Director for the Johnson Space Center and Director of HR Services, earning two NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals. In 2013, Brady created his leadership blog, OutOfThisWorldLeadership.com, which now ranks among Feedspot’s Top 100 Leadership Blogs.

In this episode, Shawn and Brady discuss how space exploration's unique challenges shape forward-thinking organizational strategies, strategies for cultivating internal talent and establishing robust leadership pipelines, and utilizing AI in leadership and employee development.

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“When leaders are moving from individual contributors to leadership roles, a lot of times they were selected because they're the technical expert. They're the smartest person in the room. We had to teach them as you move into that role, you've got to train yourself to use coaching skills, to ask questions. Because if you're constantly giving answers, you're not going to grow the capacity of the team. You're the team's lid. If you want to grow technical expertise in your function and in your field, those are the people we want in our management and leadership positions. You're asking questions, you're developing those creative solutions from your team. The role becomes more of coaching and facilitation and less of giving the answer.” – Brady Pyle

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:56): Getting to know Brady

*(16:21): Leadership development strategies 

*(27:02): Implementing effective recognition programs

*(32:35): Building trust in leadership 

*(42:44): Differences between NASA and Space Center Houston

*(45:43): The role of AI in leadership development

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Links:

Connect with Brady on LinkedIn

Follow Brady on X

Learn more about Space Center Houston

Read Brady’s blog

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

About Simpplr

This episode features an interview with Athena Aktipis, author of A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University, director of the Cooperation and Conflict Lab and co-director of the Human Generosity Project, the first large-scale collaborative project to investigate the interrelationship between biological and cultural influences on human generosity. Athena also created and co-hosts the Zombified Podcast.

In this episode, Shawn sits down with Athena to discuss the dynamics of need-based transfers in societies, the study of zombification, and strategies for building trust in communities.

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“Oftentimes in more corporate settings, it's easy to forget how important feelings of autonomy are for building anything lasting. You can make somebody do something in the short-term because you're like, ‘This is part of your job. You won't get paid if you don't do this, et cetera.’ But if you want to create trust, create a bond, create a foundation for long-term or even medium-term future productivity and innovation and all of that, people have to feel, I think, individually empowered and autonomous in how they're associating with the people who they are working with.” – Athena Aktipis

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Episode Timetamps:

*(02:52): Getting to know Athena

*(09:21): Athena dives into cooperation

*(18:36): What inspired Athena to study zombification and write A Field Guide to the Apocalypse

*(32:51): How the idea of cooperation translates the workplace

*(35:13): Athena’s recommendations for building trust 

*(41:14): Other takeaways from Athena’s book

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Links:

Connect with Athena on LinkedIn

Read A Field Guide to the Apocalypse

Listen to Zombified podcast

Learn more about The Apocalypse Roadshow

Learn more about Zombified Media

Learn more about the Zombie Apocalypse Medicine Meeting

Visit Athena’s website

Read The Cheating Cell

Follow Athena on Instagram

Follow The Apocalypse Roadshow on Instagram

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

This episode features an interview with Shaun Randol, Founder of Mister Editorial, a mixternal communications newsletter. Shaun has spent a large portion of his career piloting communications for international companies such as Bloomberg and BlackRock.

In this episode, Shawn and Shaun discuss the myth of planning in storytelling, the importance of adapting to new technologies, and maintaining a strategic perspective on the evolution of communications work.

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“I think those of us who have 10 to 15 years left in their career, can't ignore [AI]. They should embrace it, learn to use it. Dial in to one or two tools or use cases and become deeply expert at it immediately. Change comms, multimedia, photography, graphics, storytelling, whatever it is. Pick one or two because there's many of them out there and just get known for it as soon as possible, because that expertise will be needed.” – Shaun Randol

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:26): Getting to know Shaun

*(09:12): Where Shaun stands today on AI replacing people

*(14:19): How technology changes the way we communicate

*(18:45): Shaun’s opinion on slowing down generative AI

*(29:36): Shaun’s advice for comms professionals using AI

*(35:44): Other ways comms professionals can embrace AI

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Links:

Connect with Shaun on LinkedIn

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

This episode features an interview with Stephen M.R. Covey, author of The Speed of Trust and Co-founder of FranklinCovey’s Global Trust Practice. He is a sought-after international speaker, who has taught trust and leadership to business, government, military, education, healthcare, and NGO entities. As the former President and CEO of the Covey Leadership Center, Stephen increased shareholder value by 67 times and grew the company to become the largest leadership development firm in the world. 

In this episode, Shawn sits down with Stephen to discuss the foundational concepts of trust and leadership, practical strategies for enabling authenticity, and the importance of having a growth mindset.

Hear more from Stephen when he participates in the World Business Forum this October!

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“The style of leadership that maybe has taken us to where we are today in a different world, is not going to be where we need to go tomorrow in a new world of remote work and hybrid work and intentionally flexible work with younger generations. Gen Z have a completely different expectation of how they want to be engaged and led. With work becoming far more collaborative and interdependent and with technology changing, disrupting everything with AI, with all these things happening, we need a new way to lead in a new world of work. Maybe command and control got us to where we are today, but trust and inspire is what's going to take us to where we need to go tomorrow.” – Stephen M.R. Covey

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Episode Timestamps:

*(03:32): Getting to know Stephen

*(13:14): The reciprocity of trust 

*(26:37): Building stewardship agreements 

*(31:22): Trust and inspire vs. command and control 

*(41:49): Authenticity and vulnerability in leadership

*(54:06): The need for a growth mindset

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Links:

Learn more about FranklinCovey’s Global Trust Practice

Connect with Stephen on LinkedIn

Follow Stephen on X

Follow Stephen on Instagram

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

This episode features an interview with Rachel Happe, Founder and Digital Workplace, Organization, and Community Strategist at Engaged Organizations. She started Engaged Organizations to focus on helping organizations adapt to new technologies and accelerate knowledge supply chains while improving trust, transparency, and agility. She is a sought after speaker and expert on the impact of technology on engagement, relationships, and culture and has keynoted at several digital workplace conferences.

In this episode, Shawn and Rachel discuss treating employees as assets rather than machines, rewarding human contributions, and valuing emotional and social aspects in the workplace.

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“We still have this mechanistic system and the human system, and we're still treating humans like machines. I wrote a post a while back, because I was getting really annoyed reading about how AI could help employees. It was all like, ‘It can do these 10 tasks for you.’ And I'm like, ‘If that's all we are, we should go home.’ It's the mindset of what we think employees or people's  value is. The example I use in presentations is diamonds. Why are diamonds valuable? They're rocks. De Beers made them mean something. You know who can't make something mean something to somebody else? AI. The value of people is activating other people. And value is meaning.” – Rachel Happe

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:20): Getting to know Rachel

*(10:27): Rachel’s career background

*(15:42): Employees are not machines

*(21:50): How to calculate the value of community

*(32:21): The role of AI in community 

*(42:39): The current and future state of valuing humans

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Links:

Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn

Learn more about Engaged Organizations

Email Rachel

Read Ed Zitron’s They’re Looting The Internet

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

This episode features an interview with Sandy Gould, Chief People Officer at Pinwheel. Sandy has nearly three decades of experience in human resources and talent acquisition. He has worked for companies like Disney and Yahoo where he led recruitment and diversity efforts. Sandy’s mission in life is to help people unleash their super powers and lead with authenticity. 

In this episode, Shawn sits down with Sandy to discuss strategies for building company culture, insights into building trust and fostering psychological safety, and injecting humanity into HR.

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“There is one mission for HR, and I can state it in three words. Amplify everything human. That's our job. If it's helping the CEO understand and have empathy with their employees, if it's helping the employees decode the CEO and executives, yes, we should do that. Helping to amplify and enhance your relationship skills, your communication skills, your connection, your problem solving, anything. How you think, training, learning, resources, strategy, you name it, we should be amplifying every part of it that's human. But, we are not there to be a substitute. There is no substitute for direct relationships and direct communication and direct feedback.” – Sandy Gould

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:32): Getting to know Sandy

*(09:02): Building company culture 

*(14:41): Sandy’s take on superpowers

*(26:55): Creating trust and authenticity

*(34:10): The challenges of authenticity 

*(47:23): How to scale authenticity in an organization

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Links:

Connect with Sandy on LinkedIn

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

This episode features an interview with Kosheno Moore, Vice President and Digital Community Leader for Regional Center Satellite at Fidelity Investments. Prior to joining Fidelity, she served as the Manager of CX Communications at Workday, Head of Communities at Aurea Software, Principal of Employee Communications at Jive Software, and spent 7 years at Agilent Technologies in various roles.

In this episode, Shawn and Kosheno discuss strategies for creating meaningful digital connections, the future of D&I within corporate culture, and how to foster a sense of belonging among employees.

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“In order to create a sense of community in a digital environment, you have to not just think about the technology itself, like anyone can deploy any technology. It's almost moot point what technology you use, but it's about the strategy piece of it. It's about the bringing people together piece of it. Which means like, what's going to motivate people to come together? Can we organize people around certain themes? In order to do that, you need to be able to create communication messaging, and you need to do that in so many different forms of media, and you need to tap into different audience source. Community management, I think, really forces you to be omnichannel. And yes, communication is a big component of it, but it really challenges us to think cross-disciplinary, like you want to be strategic, you also want to be tactical, you also want to be multimedia savvy, and a great communicator, too. I think that's the beauty of it. I think when it's done well, community management strategy and technology, a robust technology platform, I think those could be win-win.” – Kosheno Moore

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:26): Getting to know Kosheno

*(07:37): Kosheno’s career journey 

*(19:39): The challenges of building digital communities

*(31:35): The impact of community size

*(41:58): Kosheno’s thoughts on D&I strategies

*(46:22): The future of human connections at work

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Links:

Connect with Kosheno on LinkedIn

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast