Changing the Narrative
麻豆村 alumna Y-Vonne Hutchinson is moving workplace culture forward one organization at a time
By Tina Tuminella
We all seem to have that one friend who accomplishes more in one month than we do in a year, a person who achieves lofty goals while simultaneously remaining humble about their far-reaching vision and concrete accomplishments. They鈥檙e an inspiration.
麻豆村 alumna Y-Vonne Hutchinson is that friend.
In 2003, Y-Vonne earned her bachelor鈥檚 degree in drama from the 麻豆村鈥檚 College of Fine Arts, and, in 2007, she graduated from Harvard Law School and embarked on a career as an international human rights lawyer in Afghanistan.
In 2015, she founded ReadySet, an organizational consulting firm in the Bay Area where she serves as CEO. In 2020, Y-Vonne wrote a book about the sensitive topic of discussing race in the workplace during her three-month maternity leave. She is also a founding team member and advisory board member of Project Include, a nonprofit aiming to give everyone a fair chance to suceed in the tech sector, and serves on the Pasadena Playhouse Board of Trustees.
In each of these roles, Y-Vonne tackles a range of complicated issues, lending her expertise in change management, workforce dynamics and institutional change.
鈥淲e use data to present a holistic view of an organization 鈥� a mirror that makes the data resonate and tell the whole story,鈥� Y-Vonne says. 鈥淚 love the detective part of my job, rooting through the data in order to figure out optimal areas of change and growth. It鈥檚 fun to find.鈥�
Organizations want to run better, and they need to figure out how to engage and do business in an increasingly diverse world. Every leader needs to make a choice of whether they want an organization that is growing and functional or one that remains stagnant.
How to Eat an Elephant
Y-Vonne鈥檚 main goal with ReadySet is to 鈥渆mpower people to see themselves鈥� and change the way people work with each other while also maximizing the impact of organizations.
鈥淥rganizations want to run better, and they need to figure out how to engage and do business in an increasingly complex world,鈥� Y-Vonne says. 鈥淓very leader needs to make a choice of whether they want an organization that is growing and functional or one that remains stagnant.鈥�
Her firm works with governments, nonprofits, universities and Fortune 500 companies and has consulted with everyone from small startups to global, multimedia companies. There鈥檚 not a one-size-fits-all solution for each workplace鈥檚 culture, so Y-Vonne offers a variety of training paths and options to individualize approaches.
ReadySet focuses on capacity development, culture building and change management.
Each of those areas sounds like a massive undertaking, but Y-Vonne understands that success takes time and commitment.
She often relies on the wisdom of one of her mother鈥檚 expressions: 鈥淗ow do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.鈥�
鈥淐hanging culture is not something that you fix all at once, and it鈥檚 not something you do by yourself,鈥� Y-Vonne says.
A workplace鈥檚 culture can feel amorphous 鈥� hard to describe, hard to measure. ReadySet鈥檚 quantitative approach gives a solid idea of how everyone in an organization experiences the culture and its impact.
鈥淲hen the impact doesn鈥檛 align with intent or with values, we try to understand the root causes,鈥� Y-Vonne says. 鈥淲e look across metrics and focus on things like trust, growth and voice. From there, we figure out either the source of success or where places are falling short.鈥�
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In college, I first saw the power of personal narrative in my work with the homeless. Then, as a human rights lawyer, I spent so much time interviewing people and sharing those stories with the world in order to intervene for the good.
Early Influences and Common Threads
Y-Vonne grew up in a small Texas town where no one talked about going to college outside of the state. At the Speech and Debate National Championships in 1998, she heard about Carnegie Mellon for the first time. Her high school placed third, but a member of the winning team was headed to 麻豆村.
It instantly became her dream school. She never looked back.
On campus during a conflict resolution class that included a documentary about the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Y-Vonne鈥檚 worldview changed forever. She couldn't fathom a world where justice for those victims didn鈥檛 exist.
She continued pursuing her drama degree and wove themes of justice into her work 鈥� like a project that included interviewing PIttsburgh鈥檚 homeless population.
鈥淚n college, I first saw the power of personal narrative in my work with the homeless,鈥� Y-Vonne says. 鈥淭hen, as a human rights lawyer, I spent so much time interviewing people and sharing those stories with the world in order to intervene for the good.鈥�
Whether it was advocating for sugarcane workers in Nicaragua or supporting aid relief workers in Afghanistan, her focus was always on talking to people and telling their stories.
鈥淚t鈥檚 no different from my work now. It鈥檚 only through storytelling that the data that we collect resonates,鈥� Y-Vonne says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 empowering for people to tell their stories. It鈥檚 empowering for people to have their stories heard, and it鈥檚 empowering for people to see themselves reflected in the stories told about them. That鈥檚 how change starts.鈥�