Transcripts are edited for readability and clarity.

Nigel Prentice: I am here with a very inspirational guest for this episode who I’ve grown to love to work with here at IBM. And she is a person who’s been an inspiration for me as I’ve seen her progress in her craft and her work here at the company. I can’t wait to introduce her to everyone.

Nigel Prentice: But first as always, I want to get into a few quotes. The first one here is, “The moment I said yes to the challenge, the moment I was open to having the conversations, suddenly in that instance, my life was changed. I grew more courageous; I shed some shyness, some awkwardness, some social fear.” That’s from Shonda Rhimes, award-winning screenwriter, producer, and author.

Nigel Prentice: Secondly, I’d like to share this with you. “I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false and to incur my own abhorrence.” And that’s from Frederick Douglas, noted civil rights activists. The idea behind those two quotes is this idea that I’d like to explore with our guests around courage. And it’s a value that I value very highly. And I can’t wait to get into it with our guest, Renee Albert. Renee, how are you?

Renee Albert: I’m doing great, Nigel. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Nigel Prentice: Of course, thanks for being here. So, when I see your name, I see initials behind it. Renee Albert, MA, MPM. What are those initials?

Renee Albert: Absolutely, so those are for a Master of Arts. I received a degree that’s for my master’s in business leadership from Bethel University.

Renee Albert: And then the MPM is the Master of Project Management from the business school at Western Carolina University.

Nigel Prentice: And my point is to say, that you are someone who is not defined only by your credentials. Certainly, the credentials are there, but from what I know about you, there’s so much more texture to your career and to your life story.

Nigel Prentice: So, let’s get into it a little bit. Where are you from Renee?

Renee Albert: So, I was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. I grew up out west in Washington State, just a little bit south of Seattle.

Nigel Prentice: Okay, and what was it that your parents did for a living?

Renee Albert: So, my dad was an accountant for GE for many years, and my mom was an art teacher. She was a substitute art teacher for a while. And then she moved into having a home-based daycare which was interesting because that included a very big art component, right. So, the kids in her home-based daycare were always doing art projects, et cetera. So reminded me a little bit of what I was growing up.

Nigel Prentice: Oh, so you were always doing art growing up?

Renee Albert: Oh yeah. So as kids, we— as far back as I can remember, we were always drawing, coloring, painting, sculpture. My mom, you know — it’s so funny, when I think back on the art, and the types of crafts she used to do, she was like a little Michelangelo of sorts, right. She was into a little bit of everything. She did paper mâché. She did — I remember her doing like soap carving. She got into carving for a little while. She also did stained glass. We literally had a kiln. And my mom was doing stained glass at the house. And so, we would do like little stained-glass projects, and she would, you know, do all the lining and the lead lining and all the things.

Renee Albert: And she sews, she weaved, quilted. All the things. So, yeah. So, growing up around that you know, I dabbled in it here and there and had my fair share of art, you know, exposure growing up. So, yeah.

Nigel Prentice: Wow, sounds like — sounds a lot of fun. Sounds like a living room and a playroom I want to be in like right now. I mean, that’s really interesting because I think there’s something to be said about — I look at that at two levels. I look at number one, it’s obvious, okay, your mother put paint brushes, and materials to make in your hands. That is an obvious connection into maybe something that came later as you pursued your education and later career in design. Clearly, it’s all about making. But there’s also the accountant side, that’s your father. And there’s also the entrepreneurial side, which is also your mother. if I look at your family at a deeper level, there’s actually what feels like a diversity of professional interests, and a little bit of human centricity too.

Nigel Prentice: You can’t really be a daycare leader if you’re not really human beings, right. Unless you’re really in the people that order to have the patience and all it takes to guide young people. Did you think about it in that way, in terms of — sort of a breadth, a wide breadth of exposures in your early childhood?

Renee Albert: So, you know, great question. Yeah, I’ve been reflecting on it lately. I definitely see pieces of my mom and that influence and pieces of my dad and his sort of more, you know, business focus. You know, really kind of logical, straight narrow side. And, I definitely have both of that sort of yin and yang in me for sure.

Renee Albert: I think it’s definitely come out as I’ve gotten older as I’ve kind of gone out — as I went out into the world and explored life and dipped and dabbled. You know, where is it that I wanna go? What’s interesting? What interests me? And what’s pulling me? It’s definitely been both sides.

Renee Albert: So, as you can tell from my master’s degree, there’s that whole business side and that business aspect. And then I have an undergraduate of BFA in graphic design. It’s all playing out, you know, I like to be proud, I guess.

Nigel Prentice: I like it. I like it. Let’s jump to the current and then we’ll go back and fill in a number of details and stories, which I can’t wait to get to. What are you doing now for IBM?

Renee Albert: Now, I am working with IBM Design Program Office, and I am on the leadership and learning team as a program lead for events and eminence. So that involves putting together a variety of learning events. And it’s really not just putting them together, it’s the creating, the development and then the production of it, right. So, it’s kind of a 360-degree creation process for learning events for our entire design community.

Renee Albert: The Design Program Office is the governing body, I guess, for lack of a better word for our entire designer population across IBM. It’s been a really fun and interesting journey working with that program and working in design and being a part of that bird’s eye view of what’s happening all across IBM.

Nigel Prentice: That’s right, the Design Program Office often has had the mission to create a culture of design and design thinking at the IBM company. Nigel Prentice: Okay. So now quick geography lesson for folks — and I’ve spent some time in Washington State, so I’m somewhat aware — where is Walla Walla, Washington and what were you doing there?

Renee Albert: So, Walla Walla, Washington is actually on the Eastern side, sort of down in the far Southeastern corner of the state, really close to the Oregon border. And that’s where I initially went to school. I was attending a private school down there, small town. I’m sure these days it’s probably grown fairly exponentially as a lot of places around Washington have, but you know, it was a small college town.

Nigel Prentice: And you went from there to Minnesota and that’s where you started to explore professionally, I think some of the themes that began to run through your adult life. You wanna talk about that and then your undergraduate work as well?

Renee Albert: Yeah, so, I went through this period of sort of self-discovery and self-exploration, and I was kind of at this point in school where I needed to move on and was just looking for something different, something new. I was sitting at home, on my parents’ couch just kind of, you know, hanging out, And I had like this revelation. If I’m gonna go out in the world and see something new or experience new things like now is the time.

Renee Albert: So, I thought, you know what, let me head to a part of the country I’ve never been, seen. I just wanted to just explore. Fortunately, I did have some friends that lived out there — that I knew out there. So, I wasn’t completely flying blind totally over to Minnesota. But, I thought, you know what, I’m gonna go. I’m gonna check it out. I’m gonna see what happens. And, I got up, packed up my things, packed up a bag. I said, “mom, dad, I’m going to Minnesota.” And got on a plane and, and there I went.

Renee Albert: When I first got there, I was, kind of hanging around an experiencing some different things and seeing what was going on.And then, as always with life, you can’t live for free. I was like, okay, now it’s the time to get out. I gotta find a job. I gotta do all the things. My first job out there, I landed at a little nonprofit and this is sort of where my little foray into design began.

Renee Albert: I started working for a very small nonprofit. I got a really great job as an administrative assistant. It was a three-person office. It was the general counsel, there was the director of membership, and then myself. My role as the administrative assistant was to help out creating different artifacts and managing communications for this nonprofit organization.

Renee Albert: So, I was, doing all of the flyers and invitations and bits and pieces of artwork and things for our membership. I had a knack for it.

I had a good eye. I picked up the computer skills really quickly.I’ve always been pretty adept with computers. I picked up the design there pretty quickly, and they started to give me more and more projects. I really sort of blossomed there and really built up a great amount of design work. That was cool.

Renee Albert: However, I was just an administrative assistant. My ambitions were peaking, and I wanted to, go out and see what else was out there. So, I applied and got a job at the University of Minnesota and worked there as an administrative assistant. I started there — oh gosh, what was my title when I first started? I was like an administrative associate, something along those lines, but I was working in an office where that was my role to create their newsletters, design their flyers, all of their quote unquote material.

Renee Albert: I worked there for a while, and I eventually was promoted up to administrator. Long story short, Minnesota was where I really honed my craft of design and developed and really got into that love of design. I think from those very early days, even in the nonprofit, there’s something fun and exciting. Sitting down with a blank canvas and just creating something from scratch.

Renee Albert: I will say, I was really blessed. They really gave me creative license. At the time, I’m not gonna date myself here, but at the time, working with the tools that we had they really kind of gave me like creative license to kind of design what I wanted. So, I just kind of came up with all these different ideas for conference brochures and signage and I got to just run with it and have fun. And then that carried over into the University of Minnesota and that role. At the university, you know, there was a lot more fodder to work with, right.

Renee Albert: We had better access to tools and things like that. It was cool. It was a cool time. It was a really cool time to just explore. And that really propelled me and got me excited and wanting to delve into design more.

Nigel Prentice: What would you say is the importance of being aware of the resources around you and taking advantage? How important is that do you think?

Renee Albert: Mm, great question. I think it takes a certain amount of, for lack of a better term, just a certain amount of courage to be able to just experiment and be willing to work with what you have and figure out what you need, and then being resourceful and finding those senses of support that can help you build and grow. I mean, that’s not the greatest answer, I sort of feel like you really have to dig deep in those circumstances and be willing to start from nothing essentially, and just have that courage to build and build fearlessly.

Nigel Prentice: You are now at the helm of a giant program inside of IBM running a corporate enterprise design function. As an administrative assistant, as a staff member — University of Minnesota and in other positions you haven’t even talked about yet, design wasn’t even in your title and yet you’re already an entire adult at those points, right. So many of us approach design from parallel fields. That’s where I hear you go when you say, be willing to start from zero. And it’s almost as if it’s zero in terms of maybe the outcome that’s coming. But the reality is you already had a lot of assets in your inventory, and one of the main ones would be, grit, and that fearlessness, and courage which I thought was a fantastic answer to that question.

Nigel Prentice: Where did that courage take you next? You have Minnesota — and then you shared with me this title that I just have to read out loud from the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, anatomic pathology at the UW Medical Center. First of all, which UW is this?

Renee Albert: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. That’s University of Washington. I was in Minnesota, I was missing home and really wanted to get back to the West Coast. And so again, it was one of those things —and my poor first husband at the time — I just said, “you know what, let’s move back.”

Renee Albert: I wanna go back home. And he — you know, bless him. He was right there with me on it. He’s from Minnesota, grew up born, and raised there and so for him, it was kind of a courageous step for him to uproot his whole situation and come with me. I came out a month ahead of my husband and again, I was staying at my parents. I’m looking around for a job and came across this really great position at the School of Public Health, the department of epidemiology, and went, applied, got the job.

Renee Albert: That was just a really wonderful experience. Interestingly, what was so great about that — so I was in student services, but what was really great about that was I really got to also tap into my creativity side and my design side. I started a newsletter, and I helped build out the initial website that they had.

Renee Albert: And so, it was cool. I always got to weave design into that experience. And so, I was with epidemiology for several years. And then I moved to biostatistics, and I say, I moved to biostatistics. It was upstairs in the School of Public Health. But it was a great. It was really great because being within the School of Public Health, it’s like everybody knew everybody, right.

Renee Albert: Epidemiology and biostatistics were really tied together. So, I never got too far away from the students that I was working with. And you know, everybody knew each other, and everybody was always kind of connected. That was a really great experience. And again, in biostatistics statistics — again, focus in on students, but I got to really feed into that creative side there as well.

Renee Albert: And design continued to be a part of that experience. I will say when I went back to Washington, one of the first things that I did was look into — let me get this degree in design because I knew that that was something that I loved.

Renee Albert: When I was back in Washington, I went to the Art Institute and got my BFA while I was working.

Nigel Prentice: Did the career of design come up at home previously? Had there ever been a thought that you could be a designer one day?

Renee Albert: Yeah, so absolutely. You know, and it was always something that I considered, and I had in the back of my mind. And I will tell you my experience when I was getting my degree, I began to realize that while I love the visual design aspect that output of design, what I was really drawn to were the stories behind the creation process. And that was really what was kind of feeding my creativity and my design process. Like I really just, I loved kind of, you know, having a backstory to what it is I was, I was putting out there.

Renee Albert: That’s where I really kind of started to realize that, you know, I could be a designer and then I started to kind of look into what types of roles — I don’t know that I necessarily wanna sit down and, you know, just create design. I kind of always had this business side.

Renee Albert: I’m a really great ideas person. I have a lot of really great ideas. So, I always thought I’d be a really great art director, and you know, I’ve got a lot of really great creative ideas that I personally don’t have time to sit down and spin up, right. So anyways, as I was kind of growing and developing, I was really realizing that it was the ideas behind the design. And behind that visual, that was really driving me.

Nigel Prentice: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And from there, it sounds like you really latched onto this idea of storytelling. I mean, talk about that for a little bit.

Nigel Prentice: Now that you’ve got some, you know, additional career stops under your belt and you’re in the role that you’re in now; how does storytelling do you think help really define or even inform ahead of time the user experience?

Renee Albert: Yeah. So, storytelling to me — I feel like that’s the starting point.

Renee Albert: Like, what’s the story? What are we building here? What are we creating here? What’s the story behind that creation? And really being able to tap into the elements of what makes a good story and expressing that story to the world, it really is an art form.

Renee Albert: I always advise young writers, young creatives to really tap into their own authenticity because I think one piece of storytelling is to be able to tell a story authentically from your perspective. So, you have to really know, what is a good story to you? and what does that sound like? What does that feel like? Taste like? Smell like? I learned to read when I was really, really young, so I’ve always been kind of an avid reader. I tell folks, you know, read a lot, learn what a great story is and read all different kinds of things.

Renee Albert: Just absorb as much as you can and find what resonates with you. Because when you find that thread and you grab that thread, then you’re gonna know. So, when you start to tell a story, you’re able to tap into something inside of you that speaks authentically from your voice, but you have to find that voice first.

Renee Albert: I think sometimes, you know, sometimes folks can rush past that and that’s okay. You know, every everything’s a prototype. Life is a journey. But really, it’s about just really tapping in and finding that authenticity and finding that voice.

Renee Albert: And then that storytelling, I think, just comes naturally. Then it comes into everything that you do. I’ll just pause there. I’ll put up here at the end of that sentence.

Nigel Prentice: I think where you might have been about to go is something I want to dig a little deeper on to get your thoughts. You said something really intriguing about good design starts with a good story and that might be me, free styling what I just heard you say. When you first joined IBM, you were hired in as a content writer. I think when I met you, you were doing that and a few other things. You weren’t necessarily on a design team. What advice would you have for a practitioner who’s on a product team — how can they start their design process with storytelling?

Renee Albert: Mm, sure. I think just starting from the ground level. Just being a really good listener and listening to the needs of people. What are you hearing? What are you learning? Always be in like that learn mode and then just really be willing to take those steps to sort of map out what that story could look like. I’m trying to think of like a real tangible example to give here.

Nigel Prentice: Do you ever find that a story that is being told sometimes can map to a journey or an experience? Renee Albert: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I think that happens all the time and I think that’s just kind of a natural part of like our life process, right. A story can map to a journey or an experience, and really, it’s about digging into that creative mode and be willing to tap into imagination a little bit and looking at what this might be like. Lke what — you know, having the courage really to kind of look into what things might be like and what might that story process sort of work itself out to be, right.

Nigel Prentice: Oh, I love that. I love that. And I’ll, and I’ll remind ourselves and folks out there that one of the best storytellers in the business world in recent generations is actually Steve — Steve Jobs.

Renee Albert: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Nigel Prentice: You know, he wasn’t a designer. Most people might categorize him as a product leader or product manager, that type of person. Maybe you could react to this a little bit, Renee. Who owns the domain of storytelling or is that even a valid question?

Renee Albert: Mm mm, interesting. I don’t know that anybody really owns it. I think it’s all of our responsibilities. I think we all bear a little bit of weight of being able to tell that story and tell it fully, and kind of live it to an extent. Like, I’m a real like visceral, sort of emotional designer and writer, right. I really like to tap in and really dig deep. I think we all bear responsibility of that because I don’t think we can just sit back and create without having that connection. There’s gotta be some kind of connection when you do design really well. I think sometimes you can just look at design and you can just tell, like, love went into that.

Renee Albert: A — a piece of fashion a really great painting, or a beautiful digital artwork. You can just tell there is love and emotion and connection there. There is a story that is being told in those threads of that garment. In the lines that somebody drew and then turned into a digital piece of artwork, whatever it may be. I think when we all do that, when we all come together, and we just share in that, beautiful things happen.

Renee Albert: I’m kind of a visionary, so if that comes across as cheesy, I apologize. But I really do believe that beautiful things can absolutely happen when we’re all just feeling that connection and that flow.

Nigel Prentice: Well, you and Steve Jobs as visionaries. You’re keeping good company, Renee. Let’s be clear. All right, so professionally, you’ve made a few additional stops and academically as well. I wanna quickly go through them and talk about your mindset at these moments. So, after all these things we’re talking about, you went and got a couple of bachelor’s degrees, which you talk about the top of the episode.

Nigel Prentice: What’s motivating you at those moments? I think it’s really interesting for people to hear all these parallel paths that find their way into design roles down the road. So, tell me about strategic leadership and then project management.

Renee Albert: Yeah, so, the project management piece actually did come first, before the strategic leadership. What really sort of propelled me to look into that was — it was really sort of a combination of a couple things.

Renee Albert: It was the work that I was currently doing. I knew that it could feed into that, but I also knew that it could help me explore. And after being in academia and in being in the public sector, I really wanted to move into the private sector.

Renee Albert: I had this vision of working in project management because I was good at it. I had a real knack for it. I was — you know— I’m good at organization and project planning and you know, all the things. And so, I was using that as sort of a springboard to help me make a career transition.

Renee Albert: I shouldn’t even call it a career transition because at the time it was really just sort of a job transition, right. I don’t think I really had discovered what career; quote unquote I was looking for. It was really sort of fueling a job transition. So, I got my degree. I was very fortunate enough to get a role with a tech company that was contracting for a large corporation. I was working in global information security, working for the director. And in that role, my primary job, again, here’s design — part of what my responsibilities were creating all of the presentations for the director and the team and building out those presentations. And so, the design piece was back and that was fun. But I was also using my project management skills because of course, you know, there was lots of parallel projects and things going on at the same time, that had to, you know, coincide, et cetera.

Renee Albert: That was that initial transition. That being said it, was a great job. Things were great there. However, I was a contractor. I knew that I didn’t want to contract for the rest of my life. I wanted a job, and I wanted something that was more — not that contracting wasn’t stable, but you had to re-up your contract every 18 months and it just was not a model that for me, personally, was something sustainable or something that I desired. I was super selective, and I think that was helpful for me because I knew there were certain things that I was looking for in a role, and writing was one piece of that. I really wanted to get back into something that was more of that creative piece that storytelling behind the design. You know, doing the presentations and stuff were great.

Renee Albert: I continued to hone my technical visual design skills, but I wanted to get back into that storytelling, back into crafting. I was really, really selective of the jobs that I applied for and this role, the content writer role at IBM, was one of the jobs.

Renee Albert: I was just fortunate and blessed to be offered the position and truly that changed my life. And I knew it. I knew it from the moment that I even first talked to the person that hired me. I just knew there was something really special and I can’t even put a finger on it. But I just knew that this company — this was where I am supposed to be.

Renee Albert: I just knew it from the start. I was super excited to get started here at IBM. I just dove headfirst into my role. And one of the wonderful things about this company is just all of the opportunity there is to learn and to grow.

Renee Albert: Again, that’s where I just wanted to sort of spread my wings and where I could and where I had time, I was learning. I was volunteering. I was connecting. I was networking. I was out there getting in touch and really tapping into those things that really resonated with me. And I really grew. Like from 2016, when I came here to this company, I could tell you that this, A, is a career and then B, there was a growth process there that has led me all the way to where I am now. It’s been a journey. I really just loved getting to know and learn about different aspects of the company. And my role too, I was very fortunate was a role where I got to intersect with all different business units. I already kind of had that piece of it, but then I really got to dive into the design thinking piece and connecting with the design community and you know, volunteering, connecting, working with — doing stretch projects, whatever I could get my hands on and really kind of dig my, my nails into I really did. and it has helped me just blossom and grow and, and you know, yada, yada yada, here I am today.

Nigel Prentice: Right, right. You know, there’s these ideas you, you keep returning to and I’m really interested in this concept that I’m going to refer to as self-reflection —

Renee Albert: Mm-hmm

Nigel Prentice: Do you journal or meditate or, do other sort of self-awareness and actualization exercises?

Renee Albert: Both, yeah. Yeah, I journal quite a bit. I use journaling as a loose term. I don’t sit and write like novels to myself, but I reflect on things that happen during the day that maybe I want to — maybe have a little less of you know, and just maintaining that self-awareness of this makes me happy. This is less fun. Maybe a little bit more of this, maybe a little bit less of this.

Renee Albert: I do meditate, too. I’m actually a certified yoga teacher. That process was — that’s like a whole nother podcast. That process really helped me — I feel like get sort of centered and really kind of deep in that sense of self awareness.

Renee Albert: I kind of reflect, and I think back on where I was in my career at different points in my life. I didn’t have that same level of self-awareness and just sort of — ah, what — what’s the word I’m looking for? Just that sort of self-awareness and deep self-awareness that I’d like to think I have now. People may tell you different.

Nigel Prentice: It seems like this self-awareness likely emboldens you. Perhaps gives you a sense of trust in yourself really to be bold in your career and in your life in a general sense. You know, I just think about some of the transitions you’ve made office management to design. And then in your education, graphic design to communication design, more specifically. Physically, Washington, Minnesota, Washington, and there’s likely other stops in there.

Nigel Prentice: And so, it feels like you don’t have imposter syndrome. You don’t question whether or not you belong in this next step. You kind of embrace those next steps. Would you agree?

Renee Albert: I totally agree with that. I think some of this sort of hearkens back to growing up and how I was raised. I was always kind of a free spirit and us kids were always encouraged to, pursue our interests, and find what’s meaningful to us. And so I’ve always — I think maybe I’ve taken it to the extreme. I guess I’d never feel — what’s the word I’m looking for? Maybe blocked by anything. I guess I never feel like no barrier is insurmountable. I just need to look at that wall and figure out what’s the best way to get on that other side.

Renee Albert: I am patient, and I’ll figure it out. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but I’m gonna get there.

Nigel Prentice: Well, what you need to do is figure out how to bottle that thing up, whatever it is because so many people are hesitant to make a change. You know what I mean? And in fact, I, myself, could use that from time to time of just like, it’s gonna be okay. You know we could figure it out. You know, what do you have around you? Let’s push these things forward. Let’s talk about one thing that I run again up against a lot, and I bet a lot of people do as well.

Nigel Prentice: Sort of very design career focused question here. In recent years, we’ve all seen an increase in the number of job postings for content designers, communication designers, also content strategists. So, my first question to you about on this topic is, do you consider yourself a content designer or a content strategist? Would those titles apply to you?

Renee Albert: I would say so, yeah. For sure a content strategist, definitely a content designer. I think there’s some fluidity in the definition of those roles, but I think I fall into all of those things. I’ve worked with content in a variety of different manners.

Nigel Prentice: First of all, I agree. So awesome. And then secondly, what is your elevator pitch business case? I know I’m putting you on the spot, but you do have a strategic leadership masters, here. Let’s put you to the test for a second. What is your elevator pitch on why a design team ought to have a really good content design capability?

Renee Albert: At the end of the day, words have a lot of power and how we interact with those words is very important. And it’s a gateway — I would personally say as much as the visual into how I’m going to interact with that product or interact with that service. So, I really feel like you need to have someone with that — I don’t know if I wanna call it a gift, that is able to communicate in a way that your visual can’t. The touch and the feel of your product, can’t. You need to have that power of words.

Renee Albert: I think that we can’t underestimate how important that is because as many of us have tried, IKEA products, putting together— have you tried to put together some of these IKEA things and there’s no words, it’s just the thing. Sometimes that can be really difficult. I think it’s really important to have that clarity in the written word that communicates in a way that the other pieces of your design cannot.

Nigel Prentice: I think that’s right, and even though those IKEA instruction booklets don’t have the written word, they do have communication in them.

Renee Albert: They do, they do. Yep.

Nigel Prentice: Wouldn’t you say that corporations that prioritize communication and content design are gonna do better in the marketplace than those who do not?

Renee Albert: Oh, absolutely. I think that they’ve tapped into the power of words and the power of storytelling, right. And I think they’re gonna —at the end of the day, be the ones that excel cause they’re really finding that way to meet the user at that sweet spot. I just firmly believe that that content, and how we build our content, how we write, how we frame, how we design, how we express our content is a really important piece of that.

Nigel Prentice: That’s right. That’s right. A few minutes ago, you mentioned stretch projects and it was through one of these that you and I met a few years ago. And it’s with the Racial Equity in Design work. What about the Racial Equity in Design initiative resonates with you, Renee? Why did you get involved and how does that mission speak to you?

Renee Albert: Yeah, I initially got involved through Jessica Tremblay. But that being said, my initial meeting with her had absolutely nothing to do with the Racial Equity in Design project. We had some meetings and some conversations, and the Racial Equity in Design leadership team was just spinning up. And she reached out to me and asked if that would be something that I would be interested in. The team was in need of a writer.

Renee Albert: And I absolutely 100% said yes. And because we had talked about it a couple of times in previous conversations, and I was actually — What was funny was before she reached out to me, I was actually gonna reach out to her.

Renee Albert: I love the mission, the goal. It’s really empowering to see the work that just the small leadership team has been able to accomplish. And the work that the leadership team has done to activate the second pillar and beyond. It’s been just a really amazing experience.

Renee Albert: I think one of the things that initially attracted me to it as a Black woman — as a Black woman at a big company, I think it’s really important for us to have a voice. And not just Black women, but Black men. I think a lot of the time it can be hard to have those vehicles of expression. For the Racial Equity in Design team to really latch on and say, “we’re here and this is happening,” and really kind of take a pivotal moment in society and build the community, and really connect the community in ways that I don’t know that the community would be as connected without it. I try to envision what IBM might look like today without some of the work that the Racial Equity in Design team has done.

Renee Albert: I feel that the company is in a different space. 360 degrees just from the work that the Racial Equity in Design team has done and being a part of that has been just a really exciting experience. It’s been very empowering to really dig deep and have conversations that I don’t know ever would be had if it weren’t for the work of the team. So, it’s been really special. Really special.

Nigel Prentice: Well, and in a large part thanks to you. You’ve been part of the team since the beginning, and you’ve been someone that I can rely on to — with incredible professionalism and skill navigate some of the most treacherous waters as it relates to program design, program delivery, the content we publish. So much of what we do is made possible by your specific hands. You’ve been amazing as well. So, for me, the title of this podcast is, It’s about time, and as we come to a close, I really am glad that we were able to frame this conversation around your life story.

Nigel Prentice: Not every conversation goes like this, but I’m really glad this one does cause it gives us permission to be who we can be in this world. So many of us look for validation outwardly and it’s a breath of fresh air to hear how you’ve navigated this crazy world by looking inward.

Nigel Prentice: I would almost say it’s about time for people to embrace themselves authentically. Be who you are and from that, gain the courage to follow your educational and career pursuits. It’s also clear from this conversation that it’s about time for content design to have its place at the table.

Nigel Prentice: Finally, on the racial equity piece we could go a couple of directions here, but would you like to give us it’s about time statement for Racial Equity in Design?

Renee Albert: I would say it’s about time we take it one step further. You know, what’s next? We’re starting to visualize the future. A lot of the work that we did initially was really based around dealing with what was at hand, which was important. I’m not discounting that; we were working on a lot of immediate things that needed addressing. But now we’re at that point where we’re looking forward.

Renee Albert: I’m so inspired by that work that member of the leadership team engaged in and really thinking about the future and visualizing that future and tapping into: What is it? What can it look like? What can we build together? Starts with imagination, right? It just starts with being able to have courage inward, to really take on that process of self-discovery, and then to step forward into the unknown.

Renee Albert: Sometimes it’s scary. But I think when you know yourself who you are inside and what you want and love, I don’t think any of us should be afraid to chase our dreams and go there. I think that for Racial Equity in Design, now, we’re at that point where, we’ve made changes, we’ve made some inroads — and there’s still work to do. That being said, we’re poised and ready to take it another step further and make those steps towards the future.

Nigel Prentice: Wow, that’s amazing. I’m inspired by those words. what you’ve inspired me to think about is that it’s about time for Racial Equity in Design, inside and outside of IBM, to be more than just reactionary and instead be more prescriptive in future thinking.

Renee Albert: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, absolutely.

Nigel Prentice: This has been a fantastic conversation, Renee. Thank you so much for joining me and sharing your journey with this. I, 100% percent guarantee that you are inspiring folks out there to pursue whatever course makes sense for them and to do so with courage and self-awareness. Thanks so much for this time and thanks for listening.

Renee Albert: Thank you so much, Nigel.