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Hoang Murphy: I came into this conversation pretty dubious…Hey, [merging] is not as easy as some people might think. That even when you’re all well-intentioned, when you all want the similar outcome, things can get in the way. And so one of the things that I wanted to then really make sure is that then whenever something tough happened, that we would then be in conversation. And the best way to be in conversation is then to be in relationship.
“To honor the gift fully, we also then had to make sure that there was power balancing and equity in that. And that meant that she needed to be my boss.”
And so…I checked in with my board chair and said, “Hey, are you super connected with the board chair at Haven [Housing]? (The organization we’re merging with.) Because if not, I think you all should do lunch and coffee.” And at that point, they hadn’t had a one on one. And I hadn’t had a one on one either, and so we both had those independently. And that’s what’s really important. It also shows trust: trust in my board chair that they were going to have conversations that were productive and meaningful and important, and then they’re signaling trust to me that I was going to echo that as well.
It was also important, though, that part of this process that we should have been more thoughtful maybe right from the jump, is that after meeting Shereese Turner—shout out, was the board chair of Haven, is now on our board, incredible, amazing, she’s the vice chair of our board—I needed her on my board. That for this to truly…honor the gift fully, we also then had to make sure that there was power balancing and equity in that. And that meant that she needed to be my boss. She needed to be one of the folks that I had to report to, that I was accountable to. So that makes sure that this isn’t just a promise that we’re making; this is something that I can be held to account for. And as a CEO, I’ll just let you know, CEOs usually struggle with being held accountable. I think it’s really important for us, then, to provide that accountability structure for ourselves, especially in this process, because it does build trust. And you know, it’s easier for people to grant you trust if you grant it first. And so I always try to grant it first.
