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Mason Haire

Psychology In Management

July 2025 - TD Magazine

30 Days to New-Hire Competency

Emily Mason has spent more than a decade in the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries, beginning her career in sales before moving into roles as a trainer, facilitator, and learning strategist. As the founder of Burges Red, she partners with organizations to elevate onboarding for new hires and newly promoted employees, creating experiences that drive long-term success. Known for her engaging and strategic facilitation style, Mason also speaks on topics ranging from onboarding to career development. She previously led membership engagement and growth for the San Diego ATD Chapter and currently serves as president-elect.

Emily Mason

Most managers measure success in outputs: bottom lines, quarterly gains, performance metrics, and incentives. But the forces that shape those outcomes are often invisible—rooted in relationships, communication, and how people support one another. Many management models overlook these dynamics, treating them as background noise rather than essential systems. Kevin Rockmann, professor of management at George Mason University and CGI corporate partner faculty fellow, argues that managers often lack a nuanced understanding of how employees actually work with and through one another, not just one-on-one with their supervisors. “We’re really trying to get both researchers and practitioners to think about relationships in a different way,” Rockmann says. “And really, the movement we’re working on here is to think more broadly about what relationships do in organizations.’’ For example, Rockmann’s paper in Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior—co-authored by Caroline A. Bartel of the University of Texas—draws on established research concepts of Pipes and Prisms to help managers better understand the often-overlooked importance of interpersonal relationships at work. The Pipes metaphor captures the channels through which the work gets done. They are conduits through which these central processes, like communication and coordination, keep the organization running smoothly. “We can’t really understand organizational effectiveness unless we understand how relationships serve as pipes,” Rockmann says. “To extend the metaphor, managers need to ask if their pipes are clogged? Or whether the pipes are even there?” This might occur, for example, when a new hire joins an organization and their relationship with an incumbent employee helps them navigate team dynamics, answers all their questions efficiently, and ultimately enables work to get done in a timely manner.Rockmann’s research shows that leaders should move beyond focusing solely on their one-on-one relationships with their subordinates and view how relationships function across teams or units of employees. Rockmann says, “My relationship as a manager with my employees matters, but it also involves looking at the Pipes—how are people connected with one another? Is each person getting the support and the help that they need? How well are we communicating and working together as a unit? So, it’s not just about my relationships, but about the relationships of the people I’m managing.” The Prisms metaphor builds on the idea that relationships don’t just get things done more efficiently and produce results—they also influence how subordinates interpret and respond to events and information. For example, when a manager communicates openly with their subordinates about challenges like limited resources or budget cuts, subordinates are more likely to respond with empathy, seeing the situation as a shared problem rather than a failure by their manager. “This is why we’re talking about relationships as a prism or as the most understudied contextual variable in organizations,” Rockmann says. “It’s untapped potential for not only researchers, but also practitioners to think about why things are working or why things aren’t working.” Prisms are the next stage of evolution in sensemaking for managers to recognize how their employees interpret workplace policies or changes, depending not just on what they are told, but also by whom and how. However, most managers still struggle to manage the “pipes,” let alone the more nuanced dynamics of how information is interpreted and processed across teams. Rockmann believes many managers overemphasize tangible incentives—like bonuses —and underestimate the importance of high-quality day-to-day relationships. Such relationships are a lens by which employees view everything in an organization: organizational changes, opportunities, technology, and so on. When the organization becomes a hub for relational support and positive relational interactions, so many other issues organizations face become easier. So, what can managers do? Across his work, Rockmann emphasizes making the cultivation of relationships part of the job itself, fostering collaboration in the KPIs on which employees are evaluated. Infusing such criteria into job descriptions, hiring processes, socialization experiences, and evaluation systems are all ways company leaders and line managers can signal to their subordinates that interpersonal relationships truly matter. When infused in this way, relationships become more of a strategic priority, not just a “nice to have” for the organization.

In the Workplace, Relationships Equal Reality

Carrie Addington is Associate Director, Learning Experience at ATD. She is a down-to-earth educator and people development coach with a passion for delivering effective communication solutions with a spirited energy. As a business consultant and educator for the past 10 years, Carrie has worked with a wide variety of business segments including retail, beauty, education, and nonprofits, and has worked with C-level executives, directors, managers, and high potentials.She has experience designing and delivering customized management and self-development programs, including personal coaching on strategy and communication. She has delivered training on key business management principles for small business owners through Bumble and Bumble University in New York, deemed the "Harvard of Hair" by the Harvard Business Review, to classrooms ranging from 20 to 150 attendees.Carrie has delivered on topics ranging from energetic accountability, leadership, and great feedback to cross-generational communication, resolving conflict, and presentation skills. Carrie is a part of the coaching network with the prominent, global executive leadership and management company, The Mind Gym and is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach. As a certified ATD Master Trainer, Carrie is knowledgeable about both the development and delivery of outcome-based learning programs.She has a master of fine arts, poetry, from George Mason University and serves on the board of the American Poetry Museum in Washington, D.C. Carrie is passionate about using her love of language and the arts to work with individuals on establishing deeper connections with their daily work.

Carrie Addington

Laura Dines is a learning design leader with a track record of developing innovative training programs and managing large-scale learning initiatives. She designs learning experiences that inspire growth, curiosity, and action. Her work includes award-winning educational television and video as well as virtual and face-to-face learning engagements.

As deputy director for TED Courses, she developed the learning framework for TED’s first-ever online courses. In just 18 months, her team launched nine courses with an impressive net promoter score (NPS) of 54. Her work in educational media began at the Close Up Foundation, where she produced a C-SPAN television program and videos designed to inspire high school students to become active citizens. She then joined PBS as an online producer for the PBS Democracy Project, which Forbes named the best political website of 2000.

Laura has led the establishment of curriculum and education departments for two international organizations, providing strategic direction for developing new training products to enhance organizational impact. In these roles, she recruited and hired diverse teams, standardized instructional design and development processes, and managed the launch of new learning management systems.

At a global consulting firm, she managed budgets, schedules, and staffing plans for large-scale training projects. She analyzed clients’ learning needs, facilitated stakeholder workshops, and led cross-functional teams in designing and developing classroom training, online learning, and blended programs.

Laura earned the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2008 and is skilled in managing both agile and waterfall learning projects. She holds an MEd in instructional design from George Mason University.

Laura Dines

When training new sales hires, organizations often treat everyone as if they all need the same information and have the same mindsets coming into their roles. That's a mistake.

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