Dr. Madeleine F. Wallace With Windrose Vision

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Dr Madeleine Wallace with Windrose Vision. Welcome.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Hi. How are you this afternoon?

Lee Kantor: I am doing well. I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your firm Windrose vision. How are you serving folks?

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Yes. So Windrose Vision is a consulting company and we assist organizations in their transformation. We focus on four areas the finances, the employees, their partners. And also like, what do they do? And then based on that, we come up with a strategy so it can increase the increase the performance. And we identify different areas where maybe a new market. So we use my framework that is called the sync framework. That is a snapshot ambition act and measure. And the snapshot is when we assess the needs. And then the envision is where we identify where we want to go. And then on the third step that is the act is where we have a plan and we execute the plan. And then number four, which is the most important, is where we actually assess progress and assess whether or not we have achieved the goals that we established in the envision step.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How’d you get involved in this line of work?

Dr Madeleine Wallace: So my father and mother, I’m from Peru and my parents had a vocational school in Peru. And they used to teach back then like shorthand, typing, accounting, Bookkeeping. And guess what happened in the 1980s? Well, in the 1980s, my parents couldn’t transform. They couldn’t re-engineer themselves and buy the computers and start teaching computers. So my parents had to close the business and we had to move to another city. And that was a cultural shock for me in everything, but also in that I saw my parents from being owners of a business to become employees, and that really shaped the person who I am today, because I want to provide the the tools for businesses to succeed and to transform because it’s technology that is changing everything. I so that was my first book, and then my parents also were excellent mentors. They were ahead of their time in terms of the role of women and also the different roles for men. So I decided to write my second book and my second book is about thrive in the AI and digital age. And again, I use my framework to help individuals and also organizations to upskill and reskill. And so all of this was motivated for what happened to my parents.

Lee Kantor: And then what got you to America?

Dr Madeleine Wallace: That’s right. So then I, I wanted to come to the United States to study. So I came to the United States by my own. So my my father’s passed away, but I came by myself. So I went to the I did my undergraduate and then graduate school. And I say my motivation has always been get as many skills as as many as you can. And that is going to be something that nobody can take away. So when I was in graduate school, I was teaching at the university, but I was able I had a teaching and research assistantship. So as long as I taught my classes and as long as I took the coursework required for my PhD, I was fine. But since I was an international student, I couldn’t work outside the university. So during university I went to University of Tennessee. I taught sociology, social problems, and statistics. So since I couldn’t get out of the university, so then what I did was I took a lot of classes in engineering, in political science, in statistics. And that has given me, um, these different perspectives. So you have a problem. I can look at it from different angles. So what it was challenging or became an obstacle in the past has become my biggest asset for my company because I can do projects from diverse fields. Um, and I used to be the director of performance and evaluation for the National Institutes of Health. And I know I don’t have a background in biomedical. I’m actually a sociologist and statistician. So but because of my, I would say, interdisciplinary background, then I’m able to assess the effectiveness of programs and be able to come up with a good framework for organizations and individuals to achieve their goals.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you left academia, did you immediately start your own practice or did you work for an enterprise level organization?

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Okay, so when I left academia, I had a unique opportunity that my husband moved to a small town because he’s an engineer. So that’s when I started doing working with nonprofits. So I started working with nonprofits and then from nonprofits. We moved to Washington, DC. And then in Washington, D.C. what we did was, um, I work for large companies, for corporate America, large federal contractors. Like, um, um, back then was like ICF. Um, well, still today, Northrop Grumman. So huge companies. And they have large contracts. So then I left consulting, and then I went to the government and I worked for the National Institute of Health. Then I left the National Institute of Health, and I created my new company, vision. So I have experience in different areas and in different sectors. The nonprofit, the for profit academia, um, you know, the government and of course the small businesses. My company is a small business.

Lee Kantor: Now, what’s the pain uh, your prospective clients are having right now where Windrose can help them.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: So I think there are two going on. Um, one is about how to incorporate technology into their business processes, specifically AI, but in a way that they can actually see return on investment. And many times we spend too much time on social media because we think that’s going to be the one that is going to give us the most. But many times you need to put it into your processes. So even though we have made a lot of progress on that, I still I still think that is a challenge because you really have to see your return on investment and it may take a couple of years. And the other one that is the my second book is the one about. Individuals specifically how they are going to upskill and reskill. Since the job marketing is changing constantly and many people think they are going to be replaced by AI, right? So my book, I have a different exercises. I have also an assessment for the skills, and provide a perspective where individuals can basically engage in what I call a sprints. And on those little sprints they gain new knowledge, new skills, and then they are ready to go ahead and and decide what career they need to or what path they need to go through. So my point is that everybody is overwhelmed, right? So what I provide in my book for individuals is to say, hey, this is your career profile based on what you want right now at this point in time.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: That gives them like a push for them to try different things. And once they try different things on those little sprints, then they can go ahead and decide what path they go. It’s very different than the traditional approach. They tell you, oh, start with your goals or start with your career vision, when actually you don’t really know. We don’t really know. There is so much going on. So my book is very action oriented to give individuals basically the tools so that they can change their career, pivot their career, um, decide what they want to do. So that’s for individuals. And then for HR departments. For companies, my framework can be used for HR because it tells them what to do if they want to upskill their current employees because, you know, AI is everywhere. But how do you implement something that is going to work and and take into consideration, like the people you know, your staff, uh, consideration, your finances, your partners, you know, your customers? So I provide the, again, the framework for them to say, hey, you can do this, and this will help you to, uh, your employees to gain your skills. And these are different strategies you can do to be effective and actually see the return on investment, which is the biggest challenge.

Lee Kantor: Now? Um, what’s your vision of how AI is going to impact the business world? Is it a tool that everyone is going to be able to leverage? If you can kind of figure out how to best leverage it, or is it going to be a tool that’s just going to obliterate, you know, a lot of the working class and they’re going to be kind of left behind.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: You know, that’s a that’s an excellent point. Um, okay. So basically. We do need to understand how AI functions. We have to have a clear understanding of that. It doesn’t mean that all of us have to become programmers, or have to become the ones who develop the technology or use the technology. So I favor an approach where technology and AI and humans, they interact and they collaborate. And because the individuals will still have agency and we have creativity and ingenuity. And that is something that right now, of course, technology is evolving. I at this point. Well, I know just recently what happened yesterday about the new tool that everybody is talking from China. So but my point is that the, the context, we still have to work on the context in terms of AI. And I still believe that it’s a collaborative effort. However, it’s true on certain industries. Yes. Something that is very manual, something that is repetitive. Of course. Um, that’s going to change. That’s what happened in the past with other technologies. But again, I think it’s the individual responsibility and then the companies responsibility to upskill and reskill. So it’s not like it was in the past that somebody’s going to tell us, oh, you all you need to do this. You need to do that. That’s what my book is so important because we are the architects of our own destiny, and we are the ones who actually have to learn about and say, okay, these are my skills.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: This is how I can contribute. And in my book, I mentioned about three areas that we need to keep. So you need to see your skills in terms of the technology trends, the emerging technology, and what is going on in your field or in the field that you would like to be. So all I’m trying to say is that yes, there are jobs that are going to disappear, especially those that are very repetitive, but then it is up to the individual to go ahead and say, hey, this is what is going on with technology, but I can do this other because I have these critical skills. So we still have to analyze. We still have to interpret. Now let’s see that the technology interpret everything. Well I still believe it’s going to be new jobs and new opportunities. We have to have this optimistic view about the future Otherwise, we’re going to become what we were. It’s inertia. And if you if you don’t do anything, then it’s when things happen. But if you constantly move, then you’re going to make progress. You’re going to find out where where your skills can be applied. That’s what in my book I mentioned about sprints. Like we have to constantly try to learn something new. Even myself like right now.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: And I’m teaching myself French with this little app and I’m doing like 15 days, 15 minutes a day. And it’s hard, but actually it is good for my brain. So my point is like we have to learn every day something new and then we will be okay. Then when changes happen. And my last point is that it is up to the business. It is up to the business owner or the company, the role that they want the technology to play. I think the optimal way is that technology does not replace humans. Actually, they work collaboratively, But it could be that some companies or some business owners, they decide that they don’t want that approach, and they go to the other extremes where they say, I’m only going to use, you know, technology. But then I think it depends on the field and depends, um, how they want to take their business to the next level, because it could be that maybe in the future, in about ten years or maybe five years, then people will say, oh, I want the personal touch. I don’t want these robots. I want to go back to, you know, an actual waitress at a restaurant instead of a robot. So you see what I mean? So I guess it’s also a personal decision of the company and all the business owners for how they want to incorporate AI.

Lee Kantor: Now, who is the target for this book? Is it a young person that might be in high school or college or at the beginning of their career, or is it someone at all stages of their career?

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Thank you for asking that. It is at all stages of their career. Because, um, since everybody is facing the same thing, that is the AI revolution, but all of us are at different stages, so the different tools are applicable to different stages. So my those who started early in their career. So my um, my book launch was last week, it was last Wednesday. So I had um, two testimonials, one from a scientist who is basically the end of their career, and a young person who’s one of my mentees. Um, they both found the exercises very helpful. Like for Doctor Phillips, she found out that by doing the career profiles, she was a chameleon because I had different career profiles and people choose. And then based on that, they go to different, um, activities. So she found out that, hey, she’s not at the end of her career, actually. She has these skills that she can transfer and she can mentor others. So she was able to find meaning and and that is very important. And then so it’s not the end of her career, it’s just that she’s going to go ahead and pursue these other things and she’s going to try. And then we have Michael, who Michael just starting his career. And he has tried several springs, meaning that he has taken a lot of certifications.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: And that’s what I call a skill right now is what is called a skill based hiring. So you develop your portfolio skills, AI skills and also soft skills. And then based on that, you are deciding where you want to go. So he felt he did this exercise that I call a scenario planning where you have the best, worst unbalanced scenario based on responses to some questions. So then it helps you to strategize and to be resilient. So when something unexpected happens, you say, oh, I can do that because it’s practice. You already envision this scenario where there’s going to be issues. So you try to say, how am I going to address that? And also you envision this scenario where everything works the way you want it. So then you know also how you’re going to address it. But more importantly you need to identify if you really like it. You know, because nowadays we’re also in this shift where people want to do what they want to do. But the problem is like they don’t know what they want to do and they want satisfaction at their job. So it’s a lot of things that were demanding for the job. So that’s what I advocate. You have to try. There is a period where you do your exploratory sprints, and then we move to the next phase.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: And it’s more realistic because you already look at the pros and cons. So anyway, so then you are more realistic in terms of terms of your balanced scenario, because you have looked at your skills, you have looked at all these challenges. You try to envision, do I really like the program? Like in my case, I know how to program, but I don’t like it. I mean, no, I don’t I don’t see myself starting programing and you know, that’s not me. But I did it when I was in graduate school and also my business. I do it sometimes, but it’s something that I don’t enjoy it. So but how do I know that? Because I did it. So that’s the same thing for all of us nowadays. We really have to try and say, okay, is this for me or not? And okay, if it’s not, then how can I leverage what I know to be able to get, um, a career path or to be able to move forward? And so I think it’s a beautiful time. I know people are afraid. I don’t think so. I think it’s for the first time we have choice. You upskill, you reskill, and you don’t do any of that, then it’s your responsibility.

Lee Kantor: Now, what do you say to the young person especially, and maybe even a little older that have been told, look, you have to follow your passion and everything else takes care of itself. You know, find the thing that you’re passionate about. Is that really the path forward in this, or is it something that you got to kind of maybe lean into your superpowers, but there’s certain skills that you have to have if you want to future proof your career.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Yes. So I think people shouldn’t follow their passion because passion is something that doesn’t last. I think people should explore their interests. When you explore their interests and you actually do what you think you are interested in, then is when you really find out if you’re going to enjoy it or not. So that’s what I do, what is called exploratory sprints. So I advise everybody that they do need to go and try different things. So in my book you have a career profile based on your career profile that push you? Basically, you decide what you want and then based on that, you do different. What I would call it tries. I call it sprints because I base it on the agile methodology that is used in programing. So then you try different things and then you realize, oh, oh, I thought I was interested or no, in in being a marketing person and using AI. But then I realized that I don’t like to do that. Okay, so but the only way is that you try. So you have to pursue different things and try. And then after you hire, you know, you have enough data where you can make informed decisions. I think we jump into, oh, I really want to work at home, but what are you going to be doing at home? What skills can you do from home? So you see, I don’t think we think through it.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: It’s just, oh, I have a passion for this. Well, let’s see you do it every day. If actually you’re going to have a passion for it. So I would advise everybody it’s true. It’s a skill base. And eventually I believe it’s going to be the thing that skills are going to become. A certifications are going to become more important than degrees than going to college. But colleges right now are also changing. So we have to wait for the college and universities to keep up with the change, because the curriculum has to change to accommodate the new change, the new technologies. And for some, you still need to go and do the education. Um, but for others, no, you just have the skills and you can get a job with that. So there are several efforts of the big companies Google, Apple, IBM, Cisco, these other huge companies that are providing training for AI and training on different areas. That is for free. So I’ll advise everybody to go and check because Everybody has to be into this upskill and reskill. And it’s something that I think when somebody tries it, then they’re going to feel empowered and they’re going to find their path.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: But if they’re going to wait for somebody else to take the initiative for them, I don’t think it’s going to work and then increases the anxiety. So to me, if you are somebody has anxiety for the future, the first thing that we advise is go ahead and try a new skill, take a course or something and apply it. And that’s how we find out. That’s what happened in the trainings in companies nowadays. They train the people, but if there are no opportunities to actually apply it, then it gets lost. So I think I can help us with training and it can be tailored to the individual. So you see, that’s a way where humans and AI can work together, because we want to train the new generation quickly. So then we can use AI. But again, it’s not going to come out with everything. Thing we have to collaborate with I at this point to teach them what to do. So you see, I see the collaboration there to training new programmers or new people in cybersecurity or even on areas where we thought that is not going to be any technology involved.

Lee Kantor: Now, if somebody wants to learn more about Windows Vision your firm or get a hold of your book, thrive in the AI and Digital Age. The seem four step career guide and workbook. Is there a website that they can go to connect with you or somebody of your team?

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Yes. So I have a website that it is Madeleine wallace.com. And I have there my two books and also my book is available in Amazon. So I have both books in Amazon. But if you go to my website you can find them there too. And they can direct you to the Amazon website.

Lee Kantor: And that’s m a d e l e I n e w a l l a c e com.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Yes. Thank you. It is the French spelling. My grandfather gave me that name. He traveled a lot. And, uh, back then, I believe there was a miss universe from France. And. Yeah. So it’s also like the same name as the restaurant. Um, so. Yeah. So the spelling is the key. So thank you for for telling me the spelling.

Lee Kantor: Sure. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you.

Dr Madeleine Wallace: Thank you. Lee, I really appreciate this opportunity to share some insights and and thank you to your listeners.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.