57. Your Company Wasn't Built to Grieve with Molly Graham

Molly Graham (0:00)

There's nothing more disjointed than somebody doing it in all hands. That's like, everything's awesome now. And you're like, wait, what? Like, we just did a layoff or whatever, you know?

Rodney Evans (0:08)

Right. It's like, well, not for me.

Molly Graham (0:09)

Yeah. Also, are you delusional? Should you be running this company?

Rodney Evans (0:16)

Hey, everyone. This is At Work with The Ready, a podcast about work design and how organizations can make change work in their favor. I am Rodney Evans, and I am joined today by the one and only Molly Graham. Hey, Molly.

Molly Graham (0:28)

Hi, Rodney, how's it going? Thanks for having me.

Rodney Evans (0:30)

So good. I'm so glad you're here. Molly has spent almost two decades inside of vast growing companies like Facebook, Quip and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, helping them through messy, high stakes moments where every single thing about the organization has to change or evolve. She's also the person behind Give Away Your Legos, which is a very sharp metaphor for the identity shifts that come with growth and change and maturation as leaders. These days, Molly is focused on building community and sharing her wisdom through the Glue Club and weekly conversations on her podcast, WorkLife with Molly Graham. Molly, welcome to At Work with The Ready.

Molly Graham (1:09)

Thanks so much. This is so fun. I'm glad to be here.

Rodney Evans (1:12)

Absolutely. I have really been looking forward to this. But before we dig into all of the things, we must check in because we always do. The check-in round question for today is the following.

What is a risk that you have taken that everyone thought was a bad idea?

Molly Graham (1:30)

It's a custom-made question for me.

Rodney Evans (1:34)

Not now.

Molly Graham (1:34)

Not now, Molly.

All of them, literally. I think one of the hallmarks for me of the risks I've taken in my career are basically that everyone is wiser than me, particularly my dad told me they were a bad idea not to do them. The first one I ever took though that viscerally, I remember all these conversations with people being like, don't do that, was when I was asked to move from HR and recruiting at Facebook and go work on a mobile phone. It was like this nascent project with no one on it, and even I was like, why are we doing that? I was so excited about what I would get to learn on the project that I felt like I had to do it. But literally, my dad was like, don't do that, why would you do that? Sheryl Sandberg was like, that project will be dead in a couple of months, you'll still have a job, so fine if you want to do it, do it. But most people were not like, go do this, Molly. I do have a friend that said, you've proven you're good in HR and recruiting, why don't you go see how actually good you are? And I've always thought about that as such a good little shove off that cliff.

Rodney Evans (2:37)

Oh, I love that, that's amazing. I, similar to you, have a lot of professional risks that people really looked at me sideways about, but I'm gonna actually do a personal one, which is, I'm not sure everyone thought I should marry my husband.

Molly Graham (2:53)

That's a good one.

Rodney Evans (2:55)

Which is wild because my husband is definitely the MVP of our relationship. Like when people are like the better half, like it's obviously him on every really than every score. But I think that I'm very extroverted and social and he's not. He's like a thinker and like a sort of like a slow burn and like more like introspective than I am. And I think a lot of people around me that know me really well, just were like, I don't get this. Like usually you date people who are like carnival barkers like because they're like you and the two of you are just like magic. And then now you're like with this nerd who's just like very kind.

And as it turned out, it was a really good decision. We've been together for like 20 years and we're very, very happy. But I really do feel like at the time, people who knew me extraordinarily well thought I had lost my mind.

Molly Graham (3:49)

Do they admit that to you now?

Rodney Evans (3:51)

They do.

Molly Graham (3:51)

Okay.

Rodney Evans (3:52)

They're all like I should have married someone like Ed. Everyone is like I should have married someone like Ed.

And they're all correct. They should have. Their husbands suck and my husband's the best. And that's how that goes.