Member Spotlight, Kathleen Beeman

Kathleen Beeman

ProbablyMonsters

Fun Fact

I live in Renton, Washington with my husband, Brad, and two daughters, Ella and Charlotte, and our dog Otis. I am an avid embroidery artist and baker, and, on the weekends, you will find me curled up with tea, an embroidery hoop, and a baked good!

I love all sports and enjoy visiting both WSU and Gonzaga for college sports and the Seahawks, Mariners, Reign, and Sounders for professional sports. I am obsessed with Doctor Who and Peloton (love me a good ride) and my daughters and I have really enjoyed having fun with all things Taylor Swift. They watched the Superbowl this year for the game and not just the commercials – which has been a great thing to watch them love the game I love!

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Background

I grew up in Spokane, Washington and earned my B.A. in Criminal Justice from Washington State University. After College, I worked at Macy’s and moved to the Seattle area after my husband got a job with Rite Aid. I began working at T-Mobile where the employee benefits included a very generous education tuition program, so I capitalized on the opportunity and got my M.A. in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga. That program is where I fell in love with the idea of behavior change through thoughtful whole-person approaches and it changed the entire direction of my career! I am now working for a video game start-up called ProbablyMonsters. The mission of this company is to redefine what it means to make games by focusing on creating a healthy, collaborative, and employee-centric company. The gaming industry is not known for being employee-friendly, so I’m excited to be a part of a revolution in how we can make amazingly creative and inclusive game experiences AND do so by giving people a healthy place to work and grow.

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Path to Change Management

I first started working in Change Management 8 years ago as a Graduate Intern at T-Mobile as they were rolling out new software to Retail and Care employees which eventually turned into an amazing opportunity to Project Manage the Agile roll out to the company. One of the things I had learned early on was that for any change initiative to be successful you need strong leaders and that led me down a rabbit hole of Organizational Development to help set up successful teams and then eventually to my absolute calling in life which is leadership Development! I feel like I work in a tangent Change Management field only because training is often classified as “HR” but to me learning and development is the ultimate change initiative because you are introducing new ways of thinking and acting! Over the years I have become a certification/learning junkie and am certified in Prosci Change Management, HCI Change Management for HR, Certified Change Management Professionals from the Association of Change Management Professionals, and SPHR from HRCI. I have been volunteering with ACMP for a few years now and am on the New Member Outreach committee and a co-chair for the Digital Learning Committee. I love being able to

represent the change discipline and share my passion with others! If you haven’t attended any of the ACMP Webinars I highly recommend them! I think career journeys are so interesting because like mine, you need to follow your heart and just enjoy the ride! Nothing was straight – but isn’t that beauty of change anyway?

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Biggest Obstacle Getting Established in Change Management

I think a lot of the obstacles I’ve faced in my life are mostly due to being counted out because I have been seen as a bubbly “girly girl”. I remember when I first started in Change Management, I received the feedback that I needed to cut my hair so that people would take me seriously and that I needed to lower my voice an octave because I was working with men and too high a pitch was not received well. I think you must stay true to yourself and find your support network. I believe that for women it is important to find a champion of your work and your whole being. I have been lucky that over my career I can find my people and have learned to speak up for myself. I love working with leaders that are still finding their voice and mentoring younger women to gain their voice and their confidence. As a mother to two little girls there is nothing more important to me than showing them that they are powerful and capable just as they are!

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Biggest Reward from this Career

The biggest reward I get is seeing people step into the unknown or messy spaces and come out the other side changed. In Learning & Development, there is a lot of vulnerability and empathy that goes into learning and changing, and it is so rewarding to be able to see someone’s journey and know that I was right there by their side! I also love seeing people make real human connections because so much of what we are missing are just those moments of belonging in our world. Being able to foster that through my classes and content is so special!

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Bucket List Yet to Accomplish

I would love to go to an NCAA tournament game! The dates just never seem to work out for me to attend, but one of these days I will get there and hopefully one of my teams will be playing.