Charlotte Wylde, Author at Future of Field Service

Episode 357

In this special International Women’s Day 2026 episode of the UNSCRIPTED Podcast, host Sarah Nicastro is joined by Hannah Knowles, coauthor of Love Notes and keynote speaker at Art of Brilliance, for a thoughtful conversation about self-care, leadership, vulnerability, and the power of small consistent habits.

Together, Sarah and Hannah explore a timely message for women everywhere: prioritizing yourself is not selfish. From navigating guilt and overwhelm to building resilience through everyday habits, this episode is a powerful reminder that the smallest actions often create the biggest shifts.

If you are leading through change, balancing competing priorities, or trying to show up better for yourself and others, this conversation offers practical insight and encouragement you can put into action right away.

What’s Discussed in This Episode

Why self-care is a strength, not a weakness
The importance of being kinder to yourself as a woman and leader
How consistency beats intensity when building healthy habits
The role of small daily actions in creating meaningful long-term change
How to use the question “Is this useful?” to manage mental clutter
What glimmers are and how they help retrain the brain away from negativity
Why the Eat, Move, Sleep, Relationships framework matters for wellbeing
How leaders can help teams navigate uncertainty and change more effectively
Why perspective shapes how people experience change
The value of transparency, vulnerability, and humanness in leadership
What “I’ll go first” means in the context of leadership and equality
How the Give to Gain message connects self-care, role modelling, and collective progress

About the Guest

Hannah Knowles is a keynote speaker and trainer with Art of Brilliance, an organisation focused on helping individuals and teams move from surviving to thriving. She is also the coauthor of Love Notes, a recently released book described as a collection of quotes, short stories, meaningful insights, and moments of lightness centred on what gives life meaning: love.

In her work, Hannah helps people focus on what they can control, build resilience, and take practical steps toward feeling better each day. Her perspective blends wellbeing, leadership, personal growth, and positive action in a way that is both relatable and immediately useful.

Watch Here

Watch Episode 357 of the Unscripted Podcast here:

Prefer to listen instead?

“Start with you. Because, truthfully, that version of you, if you’re looking after you, puts you in a better position to handle the challenges that life can throw at you.” — Hannah Knowles

This episode of the UNSCRIPTED Podcast is a must-watch for leaders, working parents, and women navigating the constant demands of modern life. Sarah Nicastro and Hannah Knowles offer a refreshing conversation on self-care, leadership, resilience, change management, and personal growth, showing that small habits, honest reflection, and the courage to go first can create a lasting ripple effect.

FAQ

What is Episode 357 of the UNSCRIPTED Podcast about?

Episode 357 explores self-care, leadership, change, and the International Women’s Day 2026 theme through a conversation between Sarah Nicastro and Hannah Knowles.

Who is Hannah Knowles?

Hannah Knowles is a keynote speaker and trainer at Art of Brilliance and coauthor of Love Notes.

What are the key themes of this episode?

The episode focuses on self-care, consistency, glimmers, leadership through change, vulnerability, and the idea that prioritising yourself helps you show up better for others.

Why is this episode relevant for leaders?

It offers practical insight into managing uncertainty, supporting teams through change, and modelling healthy, human leadership.

By Sarah Nicastro, Creator and Editor in Chief, Future of Field Service

Sunday, March 8^th was International Women’s Day – while we do our best to feature women’s voices at Future of Field Service as frequently as possible, we’re proud to put extra emphasis on doing so this week.

We’re starting today by sharing the voice of our community. If you’ve followed Future of Service for long, or listen to the UNSCRIPTED podcast, you already know that it’s built upon the idea of collective knowledge. We believe that there’s greater value in bringing together the insights of many than focusing on the expertise of few.

That same core philosophy prompted me to seek input for today’s article. Yes, I have my own opinions on topics related to International Women’s Day – and I’m happy to share them. But I believe it’s always worthwhile to consider the opinions, views, and experiences of others; this topic is no exception. So, I created a short set of questions and made an open invite to anyone within my LinkedIn network to share what’s on their hearts and minds. What follows is a curation of diverse viewpoints sharing some very wise words (that happen to surface some common themes, which is food for thought).

Give to Gain

For reference, the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Give to Gain.’ According to the website, “The IWD 2026 Give to Gain campaign encourages a mindset of generosity and collaboration. Give to Gain emphasizes the power of reciprocity and support. When people, organizations, and communities give generously, opportunities and support for women increase. Giving is not a subtraction, it's intentional multiplication. When women thrive, we all rise.”

I’d like to extend a massive thank you to each person who contributed – I know you are all quite busy, and I genuinely appreciate you taking the time to share with me, and our audience, your opinions, experiences, and suggestions. Here’s a list of the contributors (alphabetized here, but for the sake of flow I have randomized order within responses to each question):

Candi Robison, VP, EAM Strategy & Innovation, IFS Ultimo
Dawn Ellery, Independent HR & Benefits Consultant and Author
Dawn Neitzel, Academy Director, Nutrition Plant Engineering, GEA Group
Dot Mynahan, Sr. Director, Safety and Workforce Development, National Elevator Industry, Inc.
Julia Hilton, former VP, North America Strategic Planning at Schneider Electric (currently seeking new opportunities)
Linda Tucci, Sr. Global Director, Technical Solutions Center, QuidelOrtho
Lyndsey Rojas, CMO, IFS Ultimo
Madhu Oza, Director, Global Technical and Service Excellence, Abbott Laboratories
Megan Schlam, VP, US Services Execution, Schneider Electric
Tanya Singh, Chief Commercial Officer, Biotronics3D & Co-Founder, FemTech Healthcare Network
Vee Baker, retired marketer; Student Mentor, University of Bath School of Management; and Poppy Appeal Organizer, Royal British Legion

When you think about the current state of gender equality, what is one thing you find most frustrating or that makes you feel most inspired?

Megan Schlam: “What inspires me is watching women lead with both strength and authenticity, especially in environments where transformation, collaboration, and operational rigor matter. When I see women stepping confidently into complex roles, elevating others, and driving results without compromising who they are, it reminds me that progress is real and accelerating. And it reinforces that building inclusive, high‑trust, high‑performance cultures isn’t aspirational, it’s happening, and I get to be part of shaping it.”

Dawn Neitzel: “What inspires me most is how quickly things change once opportunity becomes intentional. I’ve seen women enter technical and service roles for the first time and very quickly become top performers — not because they were ‘given a chance,’ but because they were finally given access. Often the capability was always there; the pathway wasn’t.

What still frustrates me is that gender inequality today is rarely overt. It’s subtle. It appears in assumptions — who is asked to travel, who is considered ‘ready,’ who is invited into informal technical discussions, or who is encouraged to pursue leadership. These are small decisions, but over time they shape entire careers. The encouraging part is this: equality doesn’t require massive programs first. It starts with awareness and daily leadership choices.”

Candi Robison: “The pattern is still there: women are expected to prove competence repeatedly, while others are assumed competent until proven otherwise. It shows up in who gets the ‘stretch’ work, who gets interrupted, who gets credit, and who’s labeled ‘too direct’ or ‘too emotional.’ HOWEVER, I am also seeing more women sponsor women—loudly and specifically. The shift is real when someone says, ‘She’s ready,’ attaches a concrete opportunity, and stays in the room long enough to make it stick.”

Dot Mynahan: “It was heartbreaking to read about Amber Czech being killed on the job by a male co-worker in Minnesota. Workplace violence needs to be a non-negotiable zero tolerance issue. At a minimum, we need to reinstate safeguards like the EEOC to help women report abuse and have it addressed appropriately.”

Tanya Singh: “What inspires me most is the caliber of women I see leading across healthcare technology today: engineers, founders, operators, clinicians, commercial strategists. The capability gap is gone. The ambition is unmistakable. What remains frustrating is access. Access to capital. Access to influence. Access to the rooms where strategic and financial decisions are shaped. Gender equality is no longer about proving competence. It is about redistributing opportunity in a way that reflects the talent already present.”

Dawn Ellery: “Most frustrating to me is the gap in research about women’s experiences across all life stages – especially for women outside the box, creates a ripple effect of inequity. If we want ‘Give to Gain’ to be real, we need to give attention, funding, and serious research to the full range of women’s lives, so systems are built for reality, not stereotypes.

I’m inspired by the women before me who gave so much – time, strength, sacrifice, resilience – often without being named or celebrated. They carried parts of womanhood that aren’t shared equally across genders and weren’t talked about openly. Their giving created gains we sometimes take for granted, and it reminds me that visibility, advocacy, and support are not ‘extras’ – they’re how progress happens.”

Linda Tucci: “One of the most frustrating aspects of gender equality is how often progress is uneven – women may be well represented at entry/mid-levels yet still underrepresented in senior executive decision‑making roles. What inspires me, though, is seeing more women advocate not just for themselves, but for each other. When women actively sponsor and open doors for other women, the pace of change can accelerate in a very real way.”

Julia Hilton: “The thing that makes me feel most inspired is seeing women in leadership, both in technical fields and corporate leadership. Being a good example and inspiring young girls to know what’s possible is such a critical responsibility for females in leadership and one that can be a big difference maker.”

Lyndsey Rojas: “When I think about gender equality in enterprise tech and B2B, I feel both inspired and impatient. Inspired because I’ve seen extraordinary women step confidently into leadership roles that felt out of reach 23+ years ago when I started my own career. Impatient because in many rooms, especially in industrial and enterprise software, there are still few women at the table. What gives me the most optimism is the next generation. The women entering our industry today expect to lead. That expectation alone is progress.”

Madhu Oza: “I am a bit concerned about the lack of understanding about women going through perimenopause and menopause while trying to have a fulfilling career. It’s considered too unsexy to talk about women who are not in the bloom of youth. I wouldn't say I'm frustrated about it, but it definitely requires attention. Even if we leave the emotional aspect of this out, it doesn't make sense from a business perspective to leave behind a whole generation of one of the sexes, who may be at their intellectual best but undermined by symptoms that even they struggle to understand.”

Vee Baker: “As I look back on the 40+ years since I started work, I see so many positive changes for women in the workplace over my lifetime. Yes, there is more to be done – in pay equality especially – but I am grateful and inspired that we can achieve so much in a ‘relatively’ short space of time.”

Can you share an example of where you have “given to gain?”

Tanya Singh: “In my role at Biotronics3D, I have intentionally created space for emerging female leaders to step into high-stakes environments, commercial negotiations, board discussions, investor conversations, international panels. Visibility builds confidence, and exposure builds capability. Through the FemTech Healthcare Network, giving often means amplifying voices that might otherwise be overlooked, connecting founders to advisors, offering strategic guidance, or simply opening doors that accelerate momentum. The gain is tangible. A stronger leadership pipeline. A broader commercial ecosystem. A more resilient and collaborative industry. When we give deliberately, we multiply collective performance.”

Linda Tucci: “Early in my leadership journey, I was given such a great gift that a leader I admired proactively stepped in to mentor me. It had such an influence on the trajectory of my career that I made a conscious choice to invest time in mentoring and developing others—even when it stretched my capacity. I’ve found that by giving trust, visibility, and honest feedback, I gained stronger teams, deeper loyalty, and better outcomes. The return isn’t always immediate, but over time it creates a culture where people are empowered to step up and lead alongside me.”

Dawn Neitzel: “In learning and development, one of the most powerful things we can give is visibility and confidence. I have intentionally asked women — especially early in technical or operational careers — to lead workshops, present expertise, or teach others. Many were hesitant at first because they felt they needed to be 100% ready. But once they shared their knowledge publicly, something shifted: they were no longer just participants; they became recognized experts.

What did the organization gain? Higher engagement, better knowledge sharing, and stronger internal role models. What they gained was ownership of their expertise, and what I gained as a leader was a stronger, more confident organization.”

Dot Mynahan: “In 2017, a co-worker and I started FORWARD, an Employee Resource Group for women in field operations at Otis Elevator. By providing a structure to support women in a male-dominated part of our industry, and access to role models who had been successful in the organization, I saw women’s careers thrive. Even though I retired from Otis in 2023, I remain in touch with many of the women and continue to celebrate their career successes.”

Dawn Ellery: “One example for me is the candid nature of my relationship with my daughter. I’ve tried to ‘give’ honesty – age-appropriate truth, real conversations, and emotional accountability instead of perfection. What I’ve gained is trust. The more we practice openness, the more connection we have, and the safer it feels for her to be honest too.”

Candi Robison: “Early in my leadership journey, I made it a habit to ‘give away’ what I was learning—frameworks, customer stories, how to navigate the organization, how to build influence without burning out. I started mentoring across functions, not just in my own org. What I gained was multiplication: stronger teams, faster onboarding, better cross-functional trust, and a bench of women ready to lead and who were ready sooner because they didn’t have to learn everything the hard way. In a fast-paced environment, that compounding effect is a strategic advantage.”

Vee Baker: “Since retiring, I have continued the relationship I started with my employer at a particular University. Although I am out of the direct world of work, they continue to invite me to speak, mentor, run mock interviews and such, which lets me interact with students from around the world and continue my support for young women in the workplace. I am honored to be asked and gain so much from understanding their priorities and perspectives – even if these are not always 100% aligned with my own thoughts.”

Julia Hilton: “I’m passionate about mentoring. Many times, my mentees have been early to mid-career females looking for a role model and thought partner for their career journeys. I have been so blessed to be part of many mentees’ growth journeys and receive in return such kindness. My life has been enriched greatly by being part of mentees’ experiences and learning from them.”

Lyndsey Rojas: “The theme ‘Give to Gain’ resonates deeply with me, because I’ve always found that you actually do gain WHILE you’re giving. Throughout my career, I’ve mentored women and men at every stage, from high school students exploring tech for the first time to senior professionals fifteen years into their careers redefining their ambitions. What I’ve learned is simple. Mentorship is never one-directional.

Yes, I’ve given time, perspective, introductions, and sometimes tough advice. But I’ve gained just as much: fresh thinking (new channels to reach people don’t have to be so by-the-book), new perspectives (I remember a time when I was speaking with a young woman fresh out of a data science study, and how she saw what’s next blew my mind), better questions (things that never even occurred to me!). A reminder that leadership is about creating space, not controlling it.”

Megan Schlam: “One of the clearest examples of giving to gain for me has been the time and energy I’ve invested in our interns. Interns require a meaningful upfront commitment—coaching, context‑setting, real project ownership, and the space to learn through both wins and missteps. It would be far easier to give them small, contained tasks and move on. But when I’ve chosen to invest deeply, pairing them with leaders, bringing them into customer conversations, giving them stretch assignments, I’ve seen extraordinary returns.

A number of interns I’ve supported have grown into strong full‑time talent within our organization. Some are now thriving in roles far beyond where they started, whether that’s taking on operational responsibilities, stepping into customer‑facing positions, or joining parts of the business that weren’t even on their radar at the beginning. Watching them find their footing, develop confidence, and then accelerate into roles where they’re now contributing at scale is one of the most rewarding parts of leadership.”

Madhu Oza: “Very small, but I mentor budding women leaders in Abbott Singapore. To be honest I’ve learned a tremendous amount from my mentees. In fact, talking to them reminds me to reflect upon things I do at work and in my personal life. Of late I've had one very gratifying experience whereby one of the very talented young women I mentored has turned into a rising manager and leader in a different business altogether. When I started talking to her, she was highly talented but afraid to step out of her comfort zone. Today she is leading a completely new team in a function that she admittedly had no education or experience in. But her talent and her leadership qualities really shine through. I hope to have contributed at least in some small way to her courage and her growth.”

What tactics or actions have you witnessed firsthand are most effective in truly creating gender equality?

Dawn Ellery: “I’ll be honest: I haven’t witnessed enough sustained, consistent action that truly creates gender equality – there are still too many gaps. And I also think equality gets harder when we pretend gender differences don’t exist. You can’t ‘not see’ that women are the ones who physically have children and the impact that pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and caregiving realities can have on life and work.

What I have seen work when progress is real is when support is made structural, not exceptional: clear parental leave, flexibility without career penalty, benefits and accommodations that reflect real needs, and transparent criteria for promotions and opportunities.”

Lyndsey Rojas: “If there’s one action that truly drives equality, it’s sponsorship. Not just advising someone but advocating for them. Saying, ‘She’s ready.’ Putting someone’s name forward. Trusting them with scale before they feel fully ready.”

Dot Mynahan: “Sadly, I think the fastest way to move the needle when it comes to creating gender equity is to tie it to money. And, while progress can be made by funding development programs and implementing formal sponsorship programs, immediate change starts to happen when progress is measured and rewarded through incentive pay.”

Tanya Singh: “Three levers consistently move the needle:

Active sponsorship: advocacy in decision-making rooms, not just mentorship conversations.
Structural accountability: measurable targets around leadership representation, pay equity, and commercial ownership.
Entrusted authority: placing women in roles with real P&L responsibility and strategic accountability.

Equality accelerates when women are trusted with scale, not shielded from it.”

Candi Robison: “The biggest levers are structural, not just inspirational:

Sponsorship (not just mentorship): putting women in roles, not just giving advice.
Clear criteria for promotion and pay: defined expectations, transparent leveling, documented decisions.
Meeting mechanics that prevent bias: equal airtime, crediting ideas in the moment, rotating high-visibility work, and not defaulting women into ‘office housework.’"

Dawn Neitzel: “Mentoring gives advice. Sponsorship gives opportunity.

Real equality happens when leaders actively recommend women for projects, leadership programs, international exposure, and technical specialization — especially when they are not in the room to advocate for themselves.

Policies matter, but careers are shaped in conversations: succession discussions, project staffing decisions, and performance calibration meetings.

Equality accelerates when leaders intentionally ask one simple question:
‘Who are we overlooking?’”

Linda Tucci: “Gender equality doesn’t happen by good intentions alone, it happens when leaders are clear about expectations, measure representation and advancement, and are willing to challenge the status quo. Sponsorship, not just mentorship, has also proven critical: advocating for women in rooms where decisions are made can change outcomes.”

Vee Baker: “Openness is key for me. In the 1980s I worked in heavy industry for a short time before moving into technology and I can see now who then was open to assessing people on their skills and what they had to offer, not their gender, sexuality, etc. I can still clearly remember the names of those who were discriminatory even after so many years.”

Julia Hilton: “When the starting position is not equality, I’ve found it takes extra focus and effort to support and engage women. Welcoming women to the decision tables has always been a positive action – whether board rooms, Parent Teacher Organizations, Local community government or religious organization. Sometimes that requires a first step of association to build familiarity and awareness. Once the first females (aka brave pioneers) establish themselves in these forums, extending a welcoming hand to other women is key. Men build and leverage relationships more naturally. Through my career and life, I’ve been fortunate to have mentors – both male and female – who believed in me and opened doors. I will always be grateful for this and show my gratitude by paying it forward. Women must learn to prioritize this as we often have more nurturing priorities – whether for our community, family, partner.”

Megan Schlam: “The most effective tactic I’ve witnessed in advancing gender equality is being intentional about talent, specifically, taking the time to recognize potential in people who may not yet see it in themselves and being bold enough to nudge, sponsor, and advocate for them anyway. Some of the highest‑potential women I’ve worked with weren’t the ones raising their hands; they were the ones quietly delivering, influencing behind the scenes, and carrying complex work without seeking visibility. When leaders step in, naming their strengths, opening doors they wouldn't have pursued alone, and giving them stretch opportunities that signal genuine belief, it changes trajectories. That kind of intentional sponsorship not only accelerates individual careers; it reshapes the culture by showing that talent isn’t limited to those who self‑promote; it thrives when leaders actively lift up voices that deserve to be heard.”

**What is the most impactful way you’ve been supported that others could benefit from hearing and perhaps modeling?**

Linda Tucci: “The most impactful support I’ve received came from leaders who saw my potential before I fully saw it myself—and said so out loud. Being encouraged to take on roles that stretched me, coupled with the safety to learn and occasionally fail, made a lasting difference. Modeling that same belief in others is something every leader can and should do.”

Madhu Oza: “I have been incredibly supported throughout my career, firstly by my family. My husband and my father have both been instrumental in my equality from a career perspective in our family. That kind of support coming from within family can change how you think about equality yourself; it makes it part of your DNA, really. I've also had incredible support at Abbott. We truly have not just the policies in place, but they are practiced. I was nine months pregnant and one day into my maternity leave when I was promoted to director. They could easily have waited six more months until I came back to work but they chose instead to do the right thing at the right time.”

Megan Schlam: “One of the most impactful realizations for me has been that sharing our experiences can feel like bragging, when in reality it can be incredibly helpful to others. When we frame our stories as lessons learned rather than personal wins, it opens the door for connection, sparks new ideas, and sometimes even builds relationships we didn’t expect. Being open about what’s worked for us gives others permission to do the same, and that’s where real growth happens. Take the phone call, spend the time to mentor, create relationships.”

Candi Robison: “Early in my career the most impactful support I received was from my direct line leadership (MEN) using their credibility to open a door and then coaching me to walk through it with confidence.
It wasn’t vague encouragement—it was specific: ‘Here’s the role, here’s why you’re qualified, here are the stakeholders who matter, and here’s how to tell the story of your impact.’ That kind of sponsorship changes careers because it converts potential into opportunity. It was also giving me specific access to education and a network that changed the trajectory of my life.”

Dawn Neitzel: “The most impactful support I experienced was a leader giving me responsibility before I felt fully ready — and making it clear they trusted me. They didn’t lower expectations. They raised confidence.

They provided guidance, feedback, and space to learn, but they did not protect me from challenges. That combination — trust plus accountability — builds real growth.

Many women wait until they feel completely prepared before stepping forward. Often, the growth actually comes from being trusted earlier. Leaders can model this by assigning meaningful responsibilities and clearly communicating: ‘I believe you can do this.’ That sentence can change a career.”

Tanya Singh: “The most powerful support I’ve experienced has been trust, being given responsibility early and being backed to deliver. That kind of support is not performative. It is practical. It says: You are capable. Now lead. Stretch builds credibility. Ownership builds confidence. When leaders extend trust, they do more than support, they empower.”

Dawn Ellery: “The most impactful support I haven’t consistently experienced is sponsorship – someone using their credibility to create space for me in rooms I’m not in. And I think naming that matters, because it’s still the gap for a lot of women.
What I’ve learned is that the support that changes careers is very specific: public credit, visible assignments with real scope, introductions that expand access, and ‘air cover’ when pushback shows up. That’s also the kind of support I’m intentional about giving others – because it shouldn’t be rare.”

Julia Hilton: “The most impactful way I’ve been supported is by a support network at home and at work that has taught me to be fearless. I may not always appear fearless, but that foundation has given me courage to try hard things, a curiosity to learn daily and to not impose societal limitations on what is possible. This support, coupled with advocates that have coached and mentored me professionally. Once I saw my growth and achievement, it built a desire in me to keep learning and growing. Trying new things doesn’t have to be scary. Nothing worthwhile comes easy.”

Lyndsey Rojas: “I owe much of my own career to people, to be clear both men and women, who did that for me: put me forward before I felt ready. In a male-dominated industry, many doors were opened by leaders who believed in me. And I was able to confidently walk through those doors because my own husband supported me every step of the way, especially while we were raising a young family.”

Dot Mynahan: “In terms of impact, the support I received from Otis Elevator in the development of FORWARD, our Employee Resource Group for women in field operations, was the key to our success. Our first organizational meeting was coordinated with our company’s quarterly Executive Board meeting so Board members could meet our outstanding women field operations leaders during a planned social hour event one evening. Senior leadership throughout the company made themselves available to participate in our monthly ERG calls. Our Communications team looked for opportunities to publicize our success in trade and HR magazines. Our membership skyrocketed because women in the field saw the support we were receiving from all levels of our company.”

Vee Baker: “Facilitating access to role models – not necessarily within the same company but allowing employees free rein to join and attend things where they will be found/seen.”

Any closing thoughts?

Candi Robison: “‘Give to Gain’ is a reminder that advancing women isn’t a special initiative—it’s smart leadership. When we invest in women’s growth, we get stronger teams, better decisions, healthier cultures, and better outcomes.
As a mother of a 35-year-old daughter, I’ll add this: I want her—and every woman—judged by results and character, not filtered through outdated expectations. The time for each of us to give what we can: time, advocacy, visibility, and the willingness to challenge bias is now. Every day. All year.”

Dawn Neitzel: “The future of Field Service is changing dramatically. It is becoming more digital, more connected, and more knowledge driven. The skills that will matter most are problem-solving, communication, learning agility, and collaboration. Gender equality is therefore not a social initiative — it is a business capability.

‘Give To Gain’ captures something important: supporting women is not about taking opportunities away from others. It multiplies capability across the entire organization. When we create environments where women can grow, we also create environments where everyone can grow. And that is ultimately what future-ready organizations require.”

Tanya Singh: “‘Give To Gain’ resonates because it reframes generosity as strategic leadership. Giving knowledge, capital, visibility, and opportunity to women does not diminish success, it compounds it.

In healthcare technology, when women thrive, innovation accelerates, systems strengthen, and patient outcomes improve. Gender equality is not a side conversation; it is a performance multiplier for industries and societies alike.

When women rise, ecosystems rise with them.”

Dawn Ellery: “There’s still a real scarcity mindset for women in many workplaces. When there are only a few seats at the table, it can quietly pit women against each other. I love this theme because it challenges that dynamic: giving - introductions, advocacy, credit, time - multiplies opportunity. It changes the culture from ‘there’s only room for one’ to ‘we build more room.’

Lyndsey Rojas: “When women thrive in our work spaces and careers, we do not take space away, we expand it. That in essence is what I think it means when we say, ‘Give to Gain.’”

Episode 356

In this episode of UNSCRIPTED, Sarah Nicastro welcomes back Sasha Ilyukhin, SVP of Global Processing Services & Services Solutions at Tetra Pak, for a candid, strategic conversation about what it really takes to unlock service growth.

Grounded in recent research conducted by Future of Field Service in partnership with Simon-Kucher, the discussion moves beyond theory to explore how a global leader has translated service ambition into measurable outcomes. While 85% of service leaders express optimism about growth potential, only 2% report delivering outcome-based services at scale.

Sasha shares how Tetra Pak has spent more than a decade building the trust, capabilities, and commercial models required to turn outcomes into a €2.2B service business - with half delivered through long-term, performance-based agreements.

Listeners Will Gain Insight Into

The evolution from a la carte services to outcome-driven partnerships
Why service should be anchored in value realization - not revenue targets
How employee experience directly fuels service growth and retention
The role of digital platforms like Factory OS in enabling cost, sustainability, and workforce transformation
Practical advice for organizations looking to scale beyond the “2%” of outcome-based offerings

Sasha makes a compelling case that every service already delivers outcomes - the question is whether companies are structured to identify, capture, and share that value effectively.

He also challenges leaders to think differently about:

Workforce shortages
Travel reduction
Knowledge management
Risk-sharing models

—all of which can become enablers of long-term differentiation in service delivery.

If you’re navigating the shift from transactional service to strategic partnership, or looking for real-world validation of what outcome-based service looks like in practice, this episode offers both inspiration and pragmatic guidance.

Because in the end, as Sasha puts it:

You sell equipment once. Customers come back for the service experience.

Watch or Listen to The Episode

You can watch the full conversation or listen on your preferred podcast platform.

Follow Along with the Conversation

02:50 - Sasha introduction + Tetra Pak services overview
06:55 - Service growth trends: research insights + industry optimism
09:23 - Why customers return: the power of service experience
10:58 - A la carte services vs outcome-based service models
12:20 - Tetra Pak’s service transformation + €2.2B outcomes business
17:45 - Value realization: every service delivers outcomes
23:42 - Service growth challenges: workforce, travel, knowledge management
30:21 - Employee experience as a driver of service growth
33:05 - Digital transformation in service + Factory OS platform
40:48 - Future opportunities: knowledge gaps, as-a-service, quality outcomes
43:48 - Advice for scaling outcome-based services beyond the “2%”
46:25 - Episode wrap-up

Stay Connected

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By Sarah Nicastro, Creator and Editor in Chief, Future of Field Service

Last week, I recorded the first episode of our soon-to-launch podcast called Frontline UNSCRIPTED. For years I’ve heard service leaders speak of the importance of listening to the frontline and have seen how those who are committed to sustainable growth truly invest the time, effort, and energy to do so on a regular basis. These service leaders realize how the unique perspective the frontline holds can help shape strategic decisions.

However, in other businesses, the voice of the frontline remains an untapped source of intelligence. I suppose in some instances, leaders may pay lip service to the value of frontline feedback without genuine conviction (and therefore follow-through). More commonly, I believe, various circumstances converge that prevent the investment of action aligned to the understood importance of frontline voice.

A mid-2025 Gallup survey showed that only 28% of employees in the U.S. strongly agree that their opinions count at work. Whether this reflects a gap in effort or effectiveness, it would behoove any leader to work to ensure the response in their organization would be far higher.

Personally, I learned so much just in this very first conversation for Frontline UNSCRIPTED; I was taken aback by how interesting it was to consider this new viewpoint. My hope is that these podcasts will give service leaders an opportunity to hear perspective beyond their own organizations in a way that will help broaden understanding and spark new ideas for how best to support, empower, equip, and nurture frontline talent. As well as serve as a reminder of the wealth of perspective that lies within your frontline.

The Inherent and Strategic Benefits of Listening

Companies that are applying ample effort in listening to the frontline are doing so not only because listening is a crucial leadership skill (which it is!) that helps employees to feel valued and respected (which is reason alone), but also because they recognize that the frontline holds a treasure trove of insights that help improve the business. Here are four key areas where the perspective of the frontline can prove invaluable:

Identifying the next most important problem to solve
Deciding the most beneficial next technology investment to make
Understanding true customer sentiment and uncovering where expanded value/growth can come from
Determining how to improve employee retention

In a recent podcast, I welcomed Jeffrey Yip, Associate Professor of Management and Organizational Studies at Simon Fraser University, who teaches leadership in the Executive MBA and Management of Technology programs, conducts research that addresses managerial challenges in work relationships and leading change, and has contributed to resources like HBR and Psychology Today. Our conversation centered around Jeff’s focus on helping leaders to listen to organizational pain through a process called “painstorming” and how doing so can significantly improve change management. This is another area where better listening can both define direction and ease transitions.

A Real-World Example from Walmart’s New CEO

One of the first actions of Walmart’s new CEO, John Furner, when he took the reins as CEO in February, was to encourage employees to share their struggles with him. He is reported to have sent a memo to the company’s 2.1 million employees saying, “Simple ask: Tell me one thing that slows you down or makes it harder to do your job.”

Furner has expressed plans to follow up his memo with time spent gathering employee feedback by visiting stores, warehouses, and offices around the globe. This combination of a memo that lets everyone know their input is not only welcome but sought, followed by investing the time to prove its sincerity by collecting different perspectives in person is impactful.

My inclination is that having been a Walmart employee for more than 50 years and having risen through the ranks himself to the company’s most senior role, Furner understands the wealth of knowledge that resides in the minds of the frontline. He is wise to illustrate the company’s commitment to listening to employee sentiment, as well to recognize that such a ‘simple’ ask is likely to uncover some of the best areas of focus for the company’s continued journey.

Leveraging the Frontline Perspective to Inform Service Innovation

In an episode of UNSCRIPTED that featured Tim Spencer when he retired after more than 35 years in service, having held leadership positions in companies such as Interblock Gaming, BUNN, and Scientific games, I was struck by his sentiment that echoed Fulner’s approach described above.

“Staying put is the same as moving backwards. So, I tried to find something, always, that needed a fix. And I looked to others to help me figure it out,” said Tim. “Then you iterate or innovate on that or find the next business problem to solve. A leader is always on the hunt for the next problem to solve, because every business has a problem somewhere. If you think you don’t, well, there it is.”

It’s to the advantage of service leaders to realize how familiarizing yourself with the daily lives, and particularly daily challenges, of the frontline is an excellent source of uncovering opportunity for transformation or innovation. Where are the bottlenecks in the processes that were ‘optimized’ for what service looked like three or five years ago? What manual processes, cumbersome systems, insufficient knowledge, or conflicting priorities are causing your employees the most frustration?

It’s also important to realize that while listening to the sentiment around the existing service operations will likely surface issues that could benefit from technology investment, that’s just one lever or tool to consider. Employee feedback will likely help you realize what next digital capability you should prioritize but be sure you’re also listening for the areas where you need to reimagine process, governance, incentives, and even leadership.

Solidifying Your Understanding of Customer Sentiment & Service Growth Potential

Another impactful area where frontline insights are helpful is in validating your understanding of customer sentiment. We’re all familiar with the debate around best customer sentiment measure – NPS, CSAT, or otherwise – as well as their validity. The volume of customer interactions the frontline has, and relationships many of them have developed, offer an anecdotal avenue to add context to your data.

Further, their day-to-day experiences in customer environments offer the frontline a unique view of customer challenges, needs, and opportunities that could serve as your next path to service growth. Perhaps they hear a recurring theme of where additional training or support could be beneficial, or they see potential for an adjacent service to consider expanding into. While you may focus your listening on uncovering where to focus efforts for operational improvements, don’t overlook the ability to call on a perspective that can be strategically valuable as well.

Address Vs. Ignore Retention Woes with Frontline Input

For many service organizations, retention of frontline employees is a struggle. While it may feel easier to try and brush by this reality by either hoping it away or making some generic high-level ‘improvements,’ those willing to dig in to the truth of today’s talent’s needs will have greater success in this crucial area.

There are five generations in the workforce today, all with their own desires, preferences, and goals. What enabled long-term tenure among field technicians for a long time isn’t valid in today’s landscape; there’s an imperative to evolve. No better input than that of the frontline to help understand the perception of your employee value proposition, what should change, and what drivers are most important to the employees you want to keep.

Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to be expected. But having conversations regularly vs. avoiding them because the change feels overwhelming allows you to discover commonalities both in what’s working well and what needs to be reimagined.

For Service Leaders Who Want to Improve Listening

In an HBR article that stands the test of time, Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman explained six levels of listening. To become a better listener, consider how to put these steps into practice and which you may need to put effort into improving:

Level 1: Create a Safe Environment: Establishing a psychologically safe space where the speaker feels comfortable discussing complex or emotional issues.
Level 2: Remove Distractions: Focusing entirely on the speaker by eliminating distractions to show respect and improve concentration.
Level 3: Understand Substance: Actively seeking to understand the core message by listening for facts, asking clarifying questions, and summarizing to confirm understanding.
Level 4: Observe Non-Verbal Cues: Paying attention to body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and other subtle, non-verbal signals, which often carry significant meaning.
Level 5: Empathize with Emotions: Identifying and acknowledging the speaker’s feelings and emotional state regarding the topic, demonstrating empathy and support without judgment.
Level 6: Provide Constructive Feedback/Perspective: Acting as a "trampoline" by asking insightful, guiding questions that help the speaker see issues in a new light, fostering collaborative problem-solving

If you’re interested in taking your personal development a step further, give the podcast with Zach Mercurio, PhD organizational researcher and author of The Power of Mattering a watch below. Whether you're struggling with engagement, turnover, or the gap between the results you want and the results you're getting, Zach’s framework reveals that the magic happens not in programs, but in the daily interactions where leaders show people they matter.

Or listen here:

Episode 355

In this episode of UNSCRIPTED, host Sarah Nicastro welcomes back Josh Zolin, CEO of Windy City Equipment and author of Blue is the New White, to explore why soft skills drive hard results, how to bridge the gap between knowing something matters and taking action on it, and the key strategies to transform your frontline into irreplaceable talent. 

What You'll Learn

How to distinguish soft skills from character traits: Soft skills are transferable, learnable behaviors (communication, conflict resolution, empathy), while character is innate; understanding this difference is critical to building effective development programs.

The 250% ROI on soft skills training: Research from Harvard, Boston University, and the University of Michigan proves that soft skills investment delivers exceptional returns—yet most organizations treat them as secondary to technical training.

Why promoting your best technician can destroy team culture: The Peter Principle in action—a star individual contributor often fails in leadership without soft skill development, leading to turnover, callbacks, and team deterioration that costs far more than the original investment.

How to bridge the gap between stated importance and actual investment: Communicate the "WIFM" (What's In It For Me) to frontline employees; without explaining how soft skills advance their careers, increase earnings, and improve personal relationships, you're setting unspoken expectations that breed resentment.

The assessment framework for balancing hard and soft skills development: Use objective measures (quizzes, behavioral observation during onboarding) alongside practical technical assessments to identify skill gaps and tailor training intensity to individual needs.

Why leadership alignment destroys soft skills initiatives: Organizations undermine training investments when leaders don't model the soft skills they're asking employees to develop; alignment across the entire organizational culture is non-negotiable.

About the Guest(s)

Josh Zolin is the CEO of Windy City Equipment and author of *Blue is the New White*, known for his expertise in soft skills development and human ROI in the skilled trades and field service industries. With a unique background transitioning from Hollywood stuntman to field service technician, he has built a deep understanding of how transferable skills drive organizational success and employee retention. Zolin has scaled Windy City Equipment to the Inc 5,000 list for three consecutive years and launched the Blue is the New White Academy, an employee development platform designed to equip frontline professionals with critical soft skills including communication, empathy, and personal responsibility. In this episode, Zolin shares evidence-based strategies for closing the gap between knowing soft skills matter and actually investing in them, providing actionable insights on how to achieve a 250% ROI through targeted training and leadership alignment. His work has helped service organizations transform technical talent into irreplaceable leaders, making this conversation essential for those seeking to build resilient, high-performing teams in an increasingly competitive market.

Follow Along

01:25 – From Stuntman to Skilled Trades
03:20 – Changing the Narrative Around Trades
05:10 – Perception Shift & Industry Momentum
10:50 – Defining Soft Skills vs. Character
12:10 – Communication, Listening & Leadership
15:20 – Can Soft Skills Be Taught?
18:40 – Why Training Starts Too Late
19:50 – The 250% ROI of Soft Skills
20:05 – The “Techs Don’t Care” Myth
21:55 – Unspoken Expectations & Resentment
29:10 – The Unicorn Tech Promotion Mistake
35:05 – Practice, Discomfort & Growth
39:10 – Assessing Soft Skills in Hiring
44:20 – You Get What You Tolerate
47:35 – Leverage, Lifestyle & the Next Generation
49:05 – AI, Humanity & the Future of Service
52:00 – Final Reflections & Closing Thoughts

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Also, subscribe to our newsletter right here.

Watch here:

By Sarah Nicastro, Creator and Editor in Chief, Future of Field Service

Across countless service organizations worldwide service teams are closing deals, solving complex problems, and driving customer loyalty every single day – yet all too often the function is still treated like an afterthought in strategic planning meetings.

Walk into most boardrooms, and you'll hear passionate discussions about sales pipelines, product innovation, and market expansion. But when it comes to service strategy, some businesses have refused to see beyond the perspective of cost management. This disconnect can cost organizations millions in preventable churn, missed revenue opportunities, and burned-out field teams who feel invisible despite working miracles for customers.

Fortunately, there’s a growing number of companies that see service for exactly what it is – and what that can mean for their businesses. This recognition is due in part to leaders like Matt Tice, VP of Global Services at QuidelOrtho, who joined last week’s episode of UNSCRIPTED to share how he flipped the narrative.

After nearly two decades with the same organization, during which he’s navigated a spinoff from Johnson & Johnson, a private equity restructuring, an IPO, and ultimately an acquisition by Quidel, Matt has learned what it takes to position service as the strategic engine that retains customers, drives lifetime value, and creates competitive moats that sales alone cannot build.

His insights aren't theoretical. They're battle-tested across multiple organizational transformations and backed by measurable results: higher retention rates, stronger customer relationships, and an organization where commercial teams now say, unprompted, "We're all in service."

If you're a service leader struggling to get a seat at the strategic table, feeling like your function is perpetually underfunded, or watching your best people leave because they don't see a future in field service, Matt’s insights can likely help you. But before we get there, it’s important to reflect on why this tug-of-war exists in the first place.

The Bigger Picture: Why Service Leaders Battle for Organizational Attention

In many companies, service is still fighting a perception problem – one that's been baked into how most organizations think about business for decades.

The traditional playbook goes like this: sales wins the customer, marketing attracts them, product delights them, and then service... well, service manages the fallout. Handles complaints. Keeps things running. It's the operational equivalent of customer life support – necessary, yes, but not exactly glamorous.

This framing is reinforced by how we measure success. Sales gets credited with revenue. Marketing gets credited with pipeline. Service gets... a cost per ticket metric and a customer satisfaction score that's been "green" for three years running.

The deeper problem is that this siloed thinking costs companies enormous amounts of money. Industry research consistently shows that acquiring a new customer costs anywhere from five to 25 times more than retaining an existing one. Yet how many organizations are allocating their strategic resources proportionally? How many boards are celebrating retention wins the way they celebrate new logo acquisitions?

Matt encountered this exact dynamic early in his career, and it motivated him to build a fundamentally different approach. The challenge isn’t around service’s value – it’s around helping the broader organization connect the dots between exceptional service experiences and bottom-line business outcomes.

The lessons Matt shared during our conversation act as a playbook for making that connection undeniable, visible, and strategically aligned.

#1: Expand Service’s Positioning Beyond the ‘Problem-Solving’ Function

The first insight sounds deceptively simple, but it represents a fundamental shift in how organizations think about service. "Fundamentally, service is all about how we retain customers," Matt explains. "That customer experience becomes the glue that holds customers to our business. And we have hundreds of thousands of interactions every year with customers and really every single one of those is an opportunity for us to bind that customer to us."

When service is positioned as a reactive, post-sale function, it naturally gets treated as a cost center. Leaders ask, "How do we deliver service more cheaply?" rather than "How do we use service to keep customers from leaving?"

When service is positioned as the retention pillar, the conversation fundamentally changes. Now the question becomes, "How do we ensure customers feel so supported, so valued, and so dependent on our relationship that they can't imagine leaving?"

At QuidelOrtho, this reframing had a cascading effect. Matt didn't just tell people that service drives retention. He started highlighting specific retention wins, showcasing customers who renewed because of exceptional service delivery, and making visible the correlation between service quality and customer lifetime value.

What happened next was remarkable. The commercial organization began to understand service not as a separate department, but as a critical part of their own mission. Instead of viewing service as something that happened after the deal closed, they started seeing it as something they were directly responsible for. As Matt describes it: "For the first time ever this year, I heard, 'We're all in service because it has become such a critical part of the entire commercial operation here.'"

How to Apply This Action:

Stop measuring service primarily by cost-per-incident. Start measuring by retention rate impact and customer lifetime value contribution.
Create a "retention wins" showcase; monthly highlights of customers who renewed specifically because of service excellence.
Involve your commercial leadership in service strategy discussions. Make them co-owners of the retention mission.
Develop a clear narrative that ties service quality directly to customer growth and repurchase probability.

#2: Combine Storytelling with Data to Unlock Executive Support

One of Matt's most valuable insights came from his 18-month tenure in the finance organization – a deliberate career move he made that shed light on the inner workings of the business.

During his time in finance, Matt observed something fascinating about the leaders who successfully secured major investments: they didn't rely on either storytelling or data alone. They combined compelling narratives with bulletproof analytics, emotional resonance with intellectual rigor.

"When they walked in the room," Matt recalls, "they checked their bias at the door. They checked their emotions at the door, and they came in with really great storytelling. And it wasn't just storytelling; it was backed with robust datasets. It was really hard to argue the initiatives that they wanted to invest in because they had done all their homework."

This may be where many service leaders stumble. Some have strong relational skills, intuition about customer needs, and a natural ability to tell compelling stories about why service matters. But they might lack the financial rigor to back up those stories with impactful data.

Conversely, data-driven service leaders can build impressive dashboards and analytics but fail to create the emotional urgency that drives executive action.

Matt learned firsthand the importance of the combined approach. When pitching for investment in service improvements – whether that's technology, staffing, or process changes – he partners with finance to build the data story and with HR to gather employee metrics. But he frames it all through a narrative lens.

For example, instead of pitching "We need $500K for a new field service management system," Matt might pitch it like this:

"Our customers tell us that reliability is mission-critical to their operations. Seventy percent of their clinical decisions are based on our equipment. When we improve first-time fix rates through better information access for our technicians, reliability increases, which directly impacts customer retention. Our data shows that every 5% improvement in reliability correlates to a 12% improvement in renewal probability. Here's what this means in lifetime customer value across our installed base..."

Notice what just happened: storytelling (customer mission, emotional stakes) combined with data (the 70% statistic, the correlation between reliability and retention, the lifetime value calculation). The executive can feel the importance and see the numbers that validate it.

Another critical insight from Matt's finance time: focus on the metrics that matter to executive thinking.

Most service leaders pitch against EBITDA or revenue – metrics that won't show service's true value in every instance. Instead, Matt learned to pitch against lifetime customer value, a metric that tells the story service leaders need told: "If we invest in this service improvement, it doesn't necessarily drive revenue this quarter, but it keeps our customers in the fold for ten years longer, which is worth X amount of future value."

This reframing required strong partnerships. Matt deliberately cultivated a close working relationship with his finance partner and his HR partner, knowing that cross-functional credibility would make his case unassailable.

How to Apply This Action:

Build a finance partnership. Sit down with your CFO or finance business partner and ask them to help you understand lifetime customer value, cohort retention analysis, and the economic impact of customer churn.

Partner with your HR team to gather insight into attrition trends, time-to-productivity, engagement scores, and internal mobility. If your investment improves the employee experience, quantify what that means in reduced turnover costs, faster ramp times, or improved customer coverage.
Benchmark relentlessly. Know how your reliability, responsiveness, and customer experience compare to competitors. Executives respond to competitive gaps as well as competitive advantages.
Practice neutral delivery. As Matt observed in finance, successful leaders check bias and emotion at the door. Passion is important, but objectivity earns trust.

#3: Build a Customer-Centered Commercial Strategy

One of the most pivotal moments in QuidelOrtho’s journey came when leadership intentionally decided that service could be the company’s identity, not just a supporting function.

But that required clarity.

When the organization became a standalone company, service as a differentiator wasn’t yet fully formed. The turning point came when leaders asked a simple but powerful question:

If service is going to differentiate us, differentiate us on what?

The answer did not come from internal brainstorming sessions. It came from customers.

Matt and his team conducted a broad fact-finding mission to understand what customers valued most. What attributes were truly mission-critical? What could they not afford to lose?

One answer stood out: reliability.

Customers shared that up to 70% of the clinical decisions made in their hospitals were based on QuidelOrtho’s diagnostic equipment. That meant downtime wasn’t an inconvenience – it was a risk to patient care.

That insight became strategic fuel.

The team built a customer excellence scorecard around those critical attributes. Reliability wasn’t just a service KPI anymore; it became an executive-level metric reviewed monthly. Leaders across the organization began asking:

How are we performing on reliability?
How are we performing on time in full?
Are we meeting the expectations customers told us were non-negotiable?

This alignment did two powerful things:

It connected service performance directly to business outcomes.
It elevated service metrics into company-wide strategic conversations.

Instead of service reporting in isolation, it became embedded in commercial strategy.

How to Apply This Action:

Conduct structured customer interviews to understand the top 3–5 attributes that matter most.
Build an executive-facing scorecard around those attributes – not just internal operational metrics.
Ensure frontline teams understand how their daily work ladders up to those strategic priorities.

#4: Refine KPIs to Drive the Right Behaviors

Every service organization tracks KPIs. The difference between good and great organizations lies in how intentionally they evolve them.

When Matt stepped into his current role, he inherited a traditional scorecard: first-time fix, responsiveness, NPS, and other familiar measures. Many were green. On paper, everything looked strong.

But green can be deceptive.

Instead of focusing only on the reds, Matt examined the greens. Some metrics had been green for years but weren’t necessarily driving continuous improvement. Targets were being met, but perhaps not stretched.

First-time fix, for example, had remained comfortably above target. By re-baselining the measure closer to industry standards and raising expectations, the team unlocked additional improvement. That improvement tied directly back to reliability and customer retention.

The same scrutiny applied to customer feedback. Transactional NPS scores were consistently above 90%. Impressive, but lacking signal. The team began shifting toward customer effort scores and satisfaction metrics to gain more actionable insight.

This reflects an important philosophy: KPIs are not static. They must evolve with strategy.

Matt’s team reviews and sets KPIs annually alongside the operating plan and monitors them monthly. They’ve had periods of times where they were tracking too few metrics and too many. Today, the goal is clarity without oversimplification:

Operational excellence metrics (cost, productivity)
Responsiveness metrics (speed)
Effectiveness metrics (quality and resolution)
Customer-experience-aligned metrics (reliability, satisfaction, effort)

For service organizations in transition in terms of their identity within the business, there can often be real tension between productivity metrics and experience metrics. Overemphasize jobs-per-day, and you risk undermining quality and relationships. Ignore cost discipline, and sustainability suffers.

The key is intentional alignment: measure what customers care about and what drives business outcomes, not just what’s easy to track.

How to Apply This Action:

Review your “green” KPIs. Are they driving continuous improvement or just preserving comfort?
Limit frontline KPIs to a focused set that balances operational and experiential goals.
Regularly assess whether any KPI is driving unintended behavior.

Remember: metrics shape culture. Choose wisely.

#5: Invest in the Frontline Experience

You cannot position service as a differentiator without a workforce capable – and willing – to deliver it.

The field service landscape has shifted dramatically over the past decade. Long-term, 25-year field careers are unicorns rather than the norm. Expectations around flexibility, autonomy, and growth have changed.

Matt shared that QuidelOrtho responded by:

Expanding remote work options where possible.
Hiring talent from broader geographies.
Maintaining in-person culture where it adds value.
Building apprentice programs to create bench strength.
Adding career progression layers within field service.

Compensation remains important to today’s talent, but it’s important to realize that it’s not the sole driver.

Data from industry organizations like Service Council shows that frontline satisfaction hinges on multiple factors:

Work-life balance
Technology usability
Autonomy
Reduced administrative burden
Clear growth pathways

That’s why Matt ties many service investments back to employee experience. When pitching to executives, he connects technology upgrades not only to customer outcomes but to reduced attrition, improved time to value, and stronger engagement.

Perhaps most critically, Matt emphasized the importance of frontline leadership.

Promoting a strong technician into management can be effective, but not always – and only if supported properly. Technical excellence does not automatically translate into the capacity for people leadership.

QuidelOrtho has broadened its leadership pipeline by:

Developing internal talent intentionally.
Bringing in leaders from IT, R&D, and quality.
Investing in leadership development to avoid setting new managers up for failure.

How to Apply This Action:

Build structured apprenticeship or bench programs.
Ensure your leadership promotions are capability-based, not just tenure-based.
Quantify attrition costs and include them in business cases for investment.
Ensure career progression is visible and attainable.

#6: Use Technology to Elevate the Relational

Matt’s philosophy on technology is clear, and one I happen to agree with: technology should complement the human relationship, not replace it.

In healthcare diagnostics, relationships are built over years. Field service engineers often become embedded in customer operations. Introducing automation carelessly risks eroding that trust.

Instead, Matt says QuidelOrtho is leveraging AI in ways that follow the advice of Elizabeth Dixon: to automate the transactional so humans can elevate the relational.

Examples include:

Voice-to-text transcription and automated call summaries.
AI-driven knowledge search across thousands of documents.
Reducing manual documentation burdens.

The goal is simple: free technicians and remote agents from low-value tasks so they can focus on empathy, problem-solving, and partnership.

How to Apply This Action:

Map frontline workflows and identify friction points.
Prioritize automation that removes frustration—not customer interaction.
Frame technology investments as relational enhancers, not headcount reducers.

Stay the Course

Positioning service as a differentiator is not about rebranding. It’s about disciplined execution across multiple fronts:

Reframing service as the retention engine.
Combining storytelling with data to secure investment.
Building customer-centered strategy.
Aligning KPIs to drive meaningful behavior.
Investing deeply in the frontline experience.
Leveraging technology to elevate human relationships.

None of this happens overnight. It requires intention, cross-functional trust, and sustained leadership focus.

But when it works, something remarkable happens.

You stop hearing, “Service is a cost center.”

And you start hearing, “We’re all in service.”

Episode 354

In this episode of UNSCRIPTED, host Sarah Nicastro sits down with Matt Tice, Vice President of Global Services at QuidelOrtho, to explore what’s gone into transforming service from an afterthought into a strategic business differentiator. Drawing on nearly two decades with the same organization, through multiple transformations, an IPO, and acquisition, Matt shares the six keys that enabled him to elevate service across the executive leadership team, embed it into customer strategy, and build a workforce equipped to deliver exceptional experiences.

What You'll Learn

This episode breaks down how QuidelOrtho turned service into a true commercial differentiator and earned enterprise wide buy in. You will learn:

How to position service as the retention engine that strengthens customer loyalty and repurchase rates
Practical ways to break down silos and earn a seat at the table across commercial and cross functional leadership
How to avoid getting pulled into daily firefighting so you can invest time in relationship building and influence
How to secure executive leadership support using strong storytelling backed by robust data and benchmarking
Why lifetime customer value can be a more effective investment lens than revenue or EBITDA alone for service initiatives
How to build a customer led service strategy by translating customer priorities into measurable outcomes
How to use KPIs for continuous improvement by challenging “green” metrics and refining targets that no longer drive change
How to shift customer feedback beyond high level NPS into more actionable signals like customer effort and satisfaction
How workforce expectations are changing and what that means for flexibility, career progression, and apprenticeship models
Where AI can help most by automating transactional work so teams can focus on relationships and customer experience

About the Guest(s)

Matt Tice is Vice President of Global Services at QuidelOrtho, where he leads global service strategy and execution across a complex diagnostics portfolio.

Matt has spent nearly two decades with the organization through multiple transformations, including a carve out from Johnson and Johnson, private equity ownership, the pandemic, an IPO, and the acquisition by Quidel that formed QuidelOrtho. He also spent time in finance after earning his MBA, which shaped how he builds executive alignment around service investments using data, storytelling, and commercial context.

QuidelOrtho designs and supports diagnostic analyzers and tests across healthcare, including solutions used for disease and cancer testing, respiratory diagnostics, and over the counter COVID testing.

Follow Along

Service as the retention engine and how to earn “we’re all in service” buy in - 00:04:55 to 00:07:09
Stop firefighting and create intentional space for relationship building - 00:09:31 to 00:12:31
How to win ELT support with storytelling, benchmarking, and lifetime customer value - 00:13:07 to 00:18:32
Building a customer led strategy and turning customer priorities into a scorecard - 00:19:03 to 00:20:54
KPI discipline for continuous improvement and why “green” metrics still need scrutiny - 00:21:47 to 00:30:27
Workforce shifts and AI as an enabler: automate the transactional to elevate the relational - 00:31:57 to 00:39:50

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Also, subscribe to our newsletter right here.

Watch here:

By Sarah Nicastro, Creator and Editor in Chief, Future of Field Service

Leading across 15 countries in Asia Pacific demands cultural intelligence, deep curiosity, and the ability to represent your region within a global enterprise.

We dove into all of this and more in last week’s episode of Stand Out UNSCRIPTED with Madhu Oza, Director of Global Technical and Service Excellence for APAC at Abbott Laboratories. Madhu’s role spans Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India, and Australia — overseeing capital equipment services for Abbott’s electrophysiology business. The scope is significant, but the complexity goes far beyond geography.

As she explains, the challenge is twofold: operational and human. “The complexity is in two major areas. One area is operations related, and the other is people related — and they’re very intertwined,” Madhu says. Here are four lessons Madhu shared during our conversation that could help any leader in a global role, especially in APAC.

#1: Cultural Intelligence is a Strategic Mandate

One of the most nuanced parts of leading across diverse markets is distinguishing between true cultural differences and simple execution gaps.

Madhu puts it plainly: “It is important to understand how culture pervades business practices… but at the same time be able to separate what’s cultural context from maybe poor execution.”

In other words, not every variance is justified — but not every variance is wrong.

She shares a powerful comparison between Japan and China to illustrate this point. In Japan, decisions are consensus-driven and risk-aware: “Change will take time. But when people have bought into it, then the execution will be top notch. And the ownership will be absolute.”

By contrast, in China: “The teams are very resourceful. They are entrepreneurial. They want to make change. They’re open to experimenting.”

Neither approach is better than the other — but each requires a very different leadership style and strategy.

Madhu also highlights a communication dynamic that often goes overlooked when working with teams on a global scale.

Referencing cultural research popularized by Erin Meyer, she explains: “A lot of cultures in Asia tend to be high context… there is a lot more that you’re communicating than just your words.”

In high-context cultures, leaders must “read the room.” Words alone are insufficient.

Her advice? Clarify rather than assume. Rally around shared goals. “Celebrate the differences where they are justified. Learn from each other. Drive toward the same goals every day.”

#2: There Is No Substitute for Presence

When asked how she’s built this deep cultural understanding, Madhu is direct: “You have to put in the time. And by time, I mean time immersed into that culture.”

And perhaps her most emphatic statement of the episode: “There’s no way to manage Asia Pacific from a screen. It doesn’t work.”

Presence, for Madhu, means more than office visits. It includes customers, partners — even accepting invitations into employees’ homes. “Those experiences teach you so much more than reading a book… You can read all the leadership books in the world, but actually meeting families and understanding viewpoints teaches you a whole lot more.”

Through all of this, her goal isn’t to “fix” or “help” teams — it’s to adapt. “It’s not about me helping or shaping them. It’s really just me adapting to understand how to most effectively provide my team what they need.”

#3: Connection Across Cultures Requires Intention

While Madhu’s connection to her teams is crucial, so too is the connection among teams. Field service leaders understand distributed workforces better than most. When COVID forced others to rethink connection, Madhu had already been navigating that challenge for years.

Her solution? Intentionally create what she refers to as common spaces. “What I like to do is create common spaces for people who are out there in the field doing their jobs day in and day out.”

These spaces range from in-person country gatherings to virtual best-practice calls, collaborative competitions, and cross-country project support. The goal isn’t forced socialization — it’s shared purpose. “It’s about making sure that we take every opportunity to build that common space, that common understanding.”

She also emphasizes cross-country collaboration when possible — sending engineers from Australia or India to support launches in other markets. These moments reinforce something critical: they are not isolated operators. They are part of something bigger.

#4: Standardization Should Unify Purpose, Not Stifle Innovation

Global standardization remains a tension point in many organizations. Madhu believes in it — but selectively. “We consider absolute standardization as absolute efficiency… while that sounds right theoretically, that’s not how the real world works.”

Her philosophy is clear: “You still need the what. You still absolutely want standardization… but weeding out the things that don’t need to be standardized and can be left up to the best way that a team wants to accomplish that — that’s been a very big part of our journey.”

This balance preserves accountability while enabling autonomy — something increasingly critical in today’s talent landscape.

As global organizations mature, the tension between centralization and regional nuance will only intensify. Leaders like Madhu demonstrate that success doesn’t come from control — it comes from cultural intelligence, strategic representation, and intentional connection.

These are just a few of the insights Madhu shared; listen to the full conversation here.

Episode 1 - Assets UNSCRIPTED

Sometimes maximizing asset value is less about short-term optimization and more about building resilience over decades. In the first episode of Assets UNSCRIPTED, host Berend Booms speaks with Markus Göring, Director of Asset Value Controlling at Vattenfall, about why resilience has become a strategic priority for asset-intensive organizations operating in an increasingly uncertain world.

They explore where organizations most commonly lose asset value across the lifecycle, why risk-based maintenance is not optional but foundational to staying in control, and how deliberately balancing performance, cost, and risk over time is what ultimately creates resilient operations. Markus shares a pragmatic view on the realities of data and AI in asset management, the role of operational readiness in preventing value erosion between projects and operations, and why transparency, clear ownership of assumptions, and cross-functional alignment matter more than tools or certifications.

For leaders navigating short-term pressures, long asset lifespans, and growing volatility, this conversation offers a grounded, experience-based perspective on resilience as a strategy-not by trying to predict the future, but by staying in control and being prepared for it.

What You’ll Learn

This episode explores why resilience has become a strategic priority for asset intensive organizations, and what it takes to protect asset value over decades. Key takeaways include:

How organizations lose asset value across the lifecycle, often starting in planning and assumptions
Why risk based maintenance is foundational to staying in control, not an optional add on
How to balance performance, cost, and risk over long asset lifespans without losing sight of the strategy
Why operational readiness matters, and where handoffs from project to operations commonly break down
A pragmatic view on data and AI in asset management, including why predictive maintenance often falls short today
Why transparency, clear ownership of assumptions, and cross functional alignment matter more than tools or certifications

About the Guest(s)

Markus Göring is the Director of Asset Value Controlling at Vattenfall. Based in Hamburg, he leads an international team that supports asset value maximization across the full lifecycle, from business cases and investment planning to project governance, operational readiness, and optimization during operations and maintenance.

Follow Along

What asset value means at Vattenfall, and how sustainability and security of supply shape the equation - 00:03:56 to 00:07:13
Where organizations lose asset value across the lifecycle, from assumptions to decommissioning - 00:08:01 to 00:12:04
Balancing long term value with short term pressures using asset strategy and yearly planning - 00:14:23 to 00:19:06
Why risk based maintenance is not optional, and how criticality drives the maintenance approach - 00:20:13 to 00:25:59
The common pitfall in moving from reactive maintenance to control, and why operational readiness matters - 00:26:38 to 00:29:09
Data, AI, and the reality gap, plus where small, targeted use cases can create value now - 00:31:06 to 00:37:19

Why analytics and process improvement should enhance employee experience and customer outcomes - not feel like oversight. A powerful reminder that trust drives results.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Also, subscribe to our newsletter right here.

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Epsiode 353

Leading multiple countries across Asia Pacific requires far more than operational excellence—it demands deep cultural understanding, intentional relationship-building, and the strategic ability to represent your region within a global enterprise. In this episode of UNSCRIPTED, host Sarah Nicastro sits down with Madhu Oza, Director of Global Technical and Service Excellence for APAC at Abbott Laboratories, to explore what it takes to build trust, bridge cultural divides, and amplify regional impact while maintaining alignment with global standards.

Whether you're navigating the complexities of international leadership or looking to elevate your team's impact on the world stage, this conversation is packed with actionable insights to help you lead with cultural intelligence and authenticity.

What You'll Learn

This episode explores how regional leaders can drive results and build alignment without losing the nuance of local context. Key takeaways include:

How to separate true cultural context from poor execution or lack of ownership
Why you cannot lead a multi-country region through a screen and what “being on the ground” really unlocks
How to build connection and cohesion across dispersed field teams without relying on constant in-person travel
How to represent your region effectively within a global headquarters that designs processes for the markets it knows best
A more realistic approach to standardization that protects the “what” while giving teams flexibility in the “how”
How trust, curiosity, and employee experience shape service excellence initiatives and customer outcomes

About the Guest(s)

Madhu Oza is the Director of Global Technical and Service Excellence for APAC at Abbott Laboratories and a Standout 50 leader. Based in Singapore, Madhu leads capital equipment services across 15 countries in Asia Pacific, supporting installation, maintenance, and issue resolution across a highly diverse regional footprint.

In addition to her APAC leadership role, Madhu also oversees global service excellence initiatives focused on service enablement, including tools, processes, and analytics designed to improve operational performance, employee experience, and customer outcomes.

Follow Along

1. Why You Can’t Lead Asia Pacific From a Screen

00:08:58 – 00:11:34
Madhu explains why regional leadership requires immersion, not management by video call. Visiting countries, meeting customers, and stepping into cultural context are non-negotiable.

2. Japan vs. China: Two Very Different Approaches to Change

00:04:59 – 00:07:52
A compelling comparison of consensus-driven risk awareness in Japan versus fast-moving, entrepreneurial experimentation in China and what that means for leading change effectively.

3. Building Connection Across Dispersed Field Teams

00:12:47 – 00:18:47
From smaller in-person gatherings to virtual workspaces and cross-country collaboration, Madhu shares practical ways to prevent disconnection in remote service teams.

4. Representing Your Region at Global Headquarters

00:22:55 – 00:26:56
Madhu discusses how to advocate for regional realities using scale, data, and visibility and why “marketing your team” is essential to building influence.

5. Standardization That Actually Works

00:28:28 – 00:29:59
A grounded perspective on global consistency: define the hard requirements, eliminate unnecessary standardization, and give teams ownership of execution.

6. Curiosity Over Control in Service Excellence

00:45:20 – 00:47:01
Why analytics and process improvement should enhance employee experience and customer outcomes - not feel like oversight. A powerful reminder that trust drives results.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Also, subscribe to our newsletter right here.

Watch here:

UNSCRIPTED Podcast Episode 357: IWD 2026 – A ‘Love Note’ for Women Across the World

UNSCRIPTED Podcast Episode 357: IWD 2026 – A ‘Love Note’ for Women Across the World

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What’s Discussed in This Episode

About the Guest

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FAQ

What is Episode 357 of the UNSCRIPTED Podcast about?

Who is Hannah Knowles?

What are the key themes of this episode?

Why is this episode relevant for leaders?

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Stronger Together: Industry Leaders Reflect on International Women’s Day

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Give to Gain

When you think about the current state of gender equality, what is one thing you find most frustrating or that makes you feel most inspired?

Can you share an example of where you have “given to gain?”

What tactics or actions have you witnessed firsthand are most effective in truly creating gender equality?

What is the most impactful way you’ve been supported that others could benefit from hearing and perhaps modeling?

Any closing thoughts?

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Listeners Will Gain Insight Into

Watch or Listen to The Episode

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The Inherent and Strategic Benefits of Listening

A Real-World Example from Walmart’s New CEO

Leveraging the Frontline Perspective to Inform Service Innovation

Solidifying Your Understanding of Customer Sentiment & Service Growth Potential

Address Vs. Ignore Retention Woes with Frontline Input

For Service Leaders Who Want to Improve Listening

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Human ROI: How Soft Skills Drive Hard Results

Human ROI: How Soft Skills Drive Hard Results

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What You'll Learn

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**What is the most impactful way you’ve been supported that others could benefit from hearing and perhaps modeling?**