Marna HaleBailey

I started my career in 2003 with the Department of Public Utilities for the City of Cleveland, where I was a training and project director and training and development specialist. I developed, designed, and developed a lot of training programs that were used by the Department of Public Utilities and the City of Cleveland. While I was there, I learned about change management and became familiar with it, eventually meeting people and becoming a change management practitioner. I got my certification in change management from ProSci, which is one of the foremost companies that gives certifications. As a change management consultant, I work on the people side of change to achieve the required business outcomes. I follow change management theories and use implementation tactics to pull people along, involving them through the process so they feel included in it, buy into it, and are ready to move forward when it's time. I help people not only adopt the change, but also embrace the change by understanding the benefits the change brings to the company. Because I have two degrees in English, I'm often asked to write change management documents. I try to create butterflies instead of ending up with new and improved caterpillars. I got my training in English from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and my master's from John Carroll University here in Cleveland, Ohio. I write communication plans, sponsor roadmaps, training plans, coaching plans, and I even wrote a whole coaching program for the Department of Public Utilities that I was asked to do by the Cleveland City Council to solve problems. I write resistance management plans, change impact assessments, change management for technology implementations, the change communication triangle with communications, networking, and integration, stakeholder analysis, and stakeholder engagement plans. I became a consultant on my own in 2014 and have worked for the State of Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, ConocoPhillips in Bartlesville, Oklahoma with their cybersecurity department, Eversource Gas in Boston, Massachusetts, the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, Fannie Mae, and Case Western Reserve during COVID. For resistant employees, specifically resistant union employees who did not want to change, I brought in software games, specifically Family Feud with the hardware, software, everything, and had them put their jobs into the game. I gave them barcode scanners because that was something they were going to have to change and start using, and offered them free lunch, prizes, t-shirts, and mugs. These disgruntled employees just fell in love with their jobs all over again. I've also worked with artificial intelligence with CNET Systems and Global Logic, where I was involved in programming information into the system, which had to be backed up with old newspaper clippings or magazines for authority. I'm also a poet and writer, and my latest publication is Confessions of Cinderella Blue, where I rewrote the story of Cinderella to give pre-teens and teenagers a crystal ball into the future about what kind of things they can expect as they grow up. I worked with the late Shirley Chisholm while I was at Spelman, and she made me think about and realize how a lot of the poverty that many people face, especially women, stems from having children too early. My husband, who is a musician as a hobby, put a lot of it to music, so it's very entertaining to children, and it's on YouTube right now.