Today we’d like to introduce you to Domonique Townsend.
Domonique, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am a former corporate leader turned corporate consultant helping organizations optimize their work approach to support, engage and retain their working women and mom talent as the CEO of We Optimize Work. I run my company as a mom of four and Engineer who decided to combine my corporate experience (a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a leader in creating initiatives that saved over $3 million in improvement projects) with my passion to position women and working moms for success.
During my professional career, each chance I could get, I would facilitate innovation sessions that included employees from the plant floor to C-suite executives. Employees from different departments had the chance to share ideas they had to improve efficiency and processes that support company performance. Employees would light up as they were able to collaborate with leaders and other employees to bring their idea to fruition. Leaders had the ability to see the value of listening to their employees and including them in initiatives and projects. I often faced adversity and challenges due to being a black female working mom professional in the office and manufacturing space. Bridging the gaps of employee utilization for my peers, including myself, was solved through my choosing to serve as a liaison and creating programming and ways to show the value of consideration and inclusion of employee ideas. My outlook has provided collaborative opportunities that enhanced work performance, maintained and/or increased retention of employees critical to the talent pipeline and created a culture that appreciates all of who their employees are and what they bring to the table. I knew for a long time that it was my calling to have a larger impact in the corporate space in how they approach work as I noticed this gap occurred in various forms in all companies I worked for or worked with. When the opportunity presented itself, I founded We Optimize Work. We have been in business for two years now and are growing our consulting business.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The journey to where I am today has not been a smooth road, but I see it as a beautiful journey of lessons, wisdom and awareness on my own capability to lead change and impact in my space as an entrepreneur. Especially as a wife and mom of four. As I reflect on my entrepreneurial journey, there is one experience in particular I would like to mention that is a part of why We Optimize Work focuses on bridging existing gaps within the corporate space that affect professionals of color and women. I remember speaking with an interim CEO for a company I worked for tell me, “Domonique, the culture isn’t ready for you. I know you are likely to make good change as you have done in the past, but we simply aren’t ready.” This was after I excitedly proposed project opportunities that could bridge the gap between plant floor associates and executive leaders and have a significant (millions) cost saving due to innovations in how particular segments of the company approached work.
Throughout my career, I’d used this approach, succeeded several times and was fully confident how the workplace could evolve in a more engaging, innovative environment. To me, this was no surprise as this happens often for people who have approaches that look different and even appearances that are different than what people are used to in the workplace… The comfort of reactionary problem solving hosted in the guise of several meetings where the outcome almost always sided with outdated approaches to satisfy the leaders adamant about not changing would always outweigh interacting with the employees who directly performed the work and listening to the needs and ideas of internal customers….employees. This challenge led me to operate in the beginning journey of entrepreneurship, begging to be heard and valued for what I had to offer. What I’ve learned is the importance of early adapters, the people, the leaders, the companies who are willing to make decisions that require change and adaptability in approaches. The lack of this intentionality is the root cause that impacts the retention rate of women, working moms and marginalized professionals.
We’ve been impressed with We Optimize Work, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We Optimize Work helps business executives create human centered work approaches to retain their high-potential women professionals in their company. We use a unique approach that is modeled using engineering principles and understanding of the key challenges that high-potential women and organizations face related to increased engagement, productivity and belonging of women in the workplace.
Our firm is best known for quickly building relationships with employees and executives to help them design program plans that align with their company values and culture with effective actions to reach their short and long term goals. Based on my research and personal experience, companies don’t fail due to the lack of innovative products or positioning in the market. They fail because the innovation only focuses on the product or service and not the people who perform the work. Because of this millions of women in the workplace downshifted or left their careers paths altogether as a result of the pandemic which exposed the long existing gaps. Currently 57% of women reported they are considering leaving their place of work in less than 2 years, for women professionals of color, the percentage is even greater. The Great Resignation, predicted by economists is to occur within the next coming months. Companies have a chance to be proactive in how they support their high potential women professionals.
Our signature Women Who Lead program is adapted by our clients who purchase a number of seats for their women professionals to receive the support to sustain their career path and goals within the company. Women are provided with systems, strategies and coaching over the course of 12 months that equips them to navigate meeting critical needs while managing demand outside of work and finding time for themselves. Our analysis of their progress in the program allows for us to recommend plans of actions for executive leaders to implement to ensure their company continues to adapt solutions that support all of their employees. Companies who invest in our Women Who Lead program can achieve up to a remarkable 100X ROI in saved turnover costs and prevention of loss productivity due to turnover.
Our second signature service is the Internal Executive Roundtable Facilitations. These are great for companies who are seeking to make an existing or new initiative more robust to impact their employees. Our most requested areas of focus that help companies win in phenomenal ways are: return to office planning and sustainability, women in the workplace: engagement, retention and productivity planning, company initiative evaluation – process creation and standardization, strategic planning and action implementation.
Our big hairy audacious goal (bhag) is to support the retention of 1% (equivalent to 310,000) of professional women and working moms across the nation over the next five years. This accomplishment will save companies $16B in turnover costs and reduction of loss productivity. I believe we can reach this goal with the right company and organization partnerships. Highlights of our current accomplishments include increasing engagement by 177%, achieving $1.7 million in continuous improvement savings in 12 months, and adding 20 hours of capacity/week for executives experiencing burnout.
Our unique framework has been taught to over 1,000 employees in 2020 and over 5,000 employees altogether.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Since I could remember, I was the person who always thought of a plan to make something work, create something or find ways to do things differently to help others. When a problem was presented, I would connect the dots. I was also a talkative person (still am!)Being a Preacher’s kid, ”PK”, may have something to do with that, my parents would enter me to speak in oratorical competitions and speak on Sundays during Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays and events that required me to remember poems and recite them for crowds of people. Growing up, I was a bubbly person who almost always wore a smile on my face. And my entrepreneurial spirit was stemmed from my parents, my mom who is a singer and dad who was a preacher, editor and author. Seeing them produce things from their talents and passion always inspired me to run my own little businesses. I designed t-shirts and would sell them to my friends. I would even design prom dresses and style hair throughout the school year. The ability to freely use my creativity and talent to the fullest stuck with me. Growing up, I danced so much!!!! I was a majorette and tap dancer. To know me is to know my desire to be a backup dancer for Beyonce in one of her upcoming videos is still on my bucket list today!
Contact Info:
- Email: dtownsend@weoptimizework.com
- Website: https://www.weoptimizework.com
Image Credit:
Mian photo is taken by Joel Williams of Music City Media.
