They had the pay. They had the benefits.
They organized anyway.
Twenty years of HR and one union campaign later, I learned the two things every leader needs and loses first: care and curiosity.
Fifteen years leading HR through some of the hardest moments an organization can face taught Chelsea Stoll something most leaders don't expect: people don't organize because of what's missing from their paycheck. The plant she worked with had excellent pay, excellent benefits, and was the top producing plant in the company. They organized anyway, because somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling like a local, the kind of place where people are known, not just counted. Chelsea teaches leaders how to build workplaces that still feel like a local, no matter how big they get.
"I've stood on the side of leadership, and I've stood on the side of the picket line.
I know what it costs when the two stop seeing each other."
— Chelsea Stoll
THE RESOLUTION
Every workplace can be a local.
A local is a place where you're known, not just counted. Three things build one, whether you're leading ten people or ten thousand.
The Stance
Care
The willingness to notice someone before anything else happens. It's what has to be there first.
The Practice
The Multi-Perspective Practice is the tactical workshop behind all three: a four-step method for practicing curiosity on purpose, so care turns into real connection instead of good intentions.
Curiosity
The active step of asking, and actually finding out who someone is and what they're carrying.
The Outcome
Connection
What exists once care and curiosity are real, not assumed. It's what the plant had lost.
SIGNATURE TALKS
What 20 years in HR taught me about trust.
The plant taught her what happens when people stop feeling seen. She's spent every year since making sure it doesn't happen again.
The Problem
Why People Organize
What a union campaign at Fortune 250 manufacturing plant taught me about the moment trust breaks, and what leaders can do before it does.
The Practice
The Multi-Perspective Practice
The four step framework hiding inside your childhood MASH game: Map, Adopt, Speak, Honor.
The Rebuild
We Unionized. Now What?
What it actually took to rebuild a workforce split 50/50, and teach leadership a whole new operating system.
STILL IN THE FIELD
Being seen isn't a lesson from Chelsea's past. It's the work she's still doing, right now, county by county.
Alongside speaking, Chelsea leads Versed HR, a boutique consulting practice for public sector and nonprofit organizations. Right now, that means active engagements with counties, cities, and mission-driven organizations across Iowa, on the same kinds of labor relations and workplace culture challenges she teaches on stage.
Every talk is built on lessons she's still testing in real workplaces this month, not just ones she remembers from fifteen years ago.
“It's hard to leave one of Chelsea's sessions without feeling motivated, inspired, and ready to take action.”
KRISTIN ESCHWEILER, WOMEN LEAD CHANGE
CHELSEA HAS WORKED WITH
BEYOND THE STAGE
The story behind the work.
From the plant floor to the boardroom to the stage - Chelsea’s career has been one long lesson in what it means to love the people you lead.
LET’S CHAT!
Ready to bring love to your stage?
Tell Chelsea about your audience, your event, and what you want people to walk away feeling.
She promises she is fun to work with!