Interview with Evie Poole, Consultant, Business Analytics

We like to start these interviews with something fun. Will you tell us something interesting about yourself?

I have a very “black and white” side of my personality, and I have a creative side.

On the creative side, I love to teach. I’ve always had a love of helping people. I have been teaching at a local fitness studio for the last 10 years in Eugene. And I’ve always been involved in conditioning — my husband coached volleyball for 20 years and I did all the conditioning for his volleyball teams. So part of what’s fun at Syte is it really pulls in a lot of the teaching that I love to do.

I also love to plan events. I love to create experiences for people. I love facilitating and holding space for something to happen. I don’t need to be on the middle of it — if I can create something and step back and have people go “wow,” my job is done. I love it.

And then my background is accounting, bookkeeping, the “black and white” stuff — that is the part of my personality where I need to have organization and clarity, and I want specific start and stop. But I also want freedom within that clarity. As long as I know what the edges of the sandbox are, then you can turn me loose. As my mom used to say, “A dog that obeys is a free dog.” (laughs)

There’s been a healthy thread of balance between creative and analytical that runs throughout my whole life. I’ve always found ways to do both of them.

You mentioned a humorous story that felt like a good analogy for your professional work. Will you tell us that story?

So my daughter was two years old and we were at a newer park with a tall climbing wall. She was amazing at climbing. I’d always have to pull her off of things because other kids would try to follow her, and while she was going to be fine, it was dangerous for other kids. This day, there was a news crew there reporting on this new park. They were set up so the climbing wall was behind the reporter on camera. My daughter was climbing the wall — in a dress, no less — and I was such a proud mom. She got to the very top of the climbing wall, then hoisted her little body over the top … but she was so small, she couldn’t quite get her legs over. And then a gust of wind made her dress fly up — and she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. She was wiggling around, stuck at the top, and it was clear she couldn’t get over the top and she couldn’t slide back down either. I had to go save her, with cameras rolling. I went from proud mom moment to totally humbled.

Later in my life, I realized what a good analogy that is for professional work. You can go from feeling like a confident leader to the humility of having to do some of the not-so-glamorous “dirty work” in an instant.

Motherhood was a training ground for me. All the management, the scheduling, even just my love of bringing people in — it parlays into how I work with people at Syte. How I try to really see people and champion them and get the best out of them. How I recognize the situation and try to be honest about the parameters of what we’re facing with a big project. Even just my ability to remember when someone tells me they have an appointment, and hold that in my mind so when we’re in a meeting I know to get them out of there 15 minutes early so they can drive there — that comes from being a mom, but it’s also reflective of how we allow real life to be part of the equation at Syte.

That’s a great segue to the next question! What is your favorite part about working at Syte? What’s so special about this team?

My favorite thing is that I get to be me! I feel safe making mistakes — which is so important because my natural personality is I want to show up and be competent. I never want someone to question why I’m in the room. The way that Erin queues up our team allows me to be able to show up fully — and still know that it’s okay if I don’t immediately have all the answers. I may be out over my skis, and it’s okay for me to acknowledge that and grow from it. It’s the perfect growth environment where there’s a goal and there’s opportunity, but there’s also the groundwork that supports that growth.

And back to the “real life” part of the conversation — Erin allows for real life to be part of what we’re doing with our manufacturing clients. We recognize that there is more to just the project we’re working on, and it allows people to be real with us. So they feel very supported.

I also love that our clients’ values align with my values. There is such congruency. When I step into a room to work with our clients, I’m not having to curb my desire to communicate, to level up everyone in a situation, and to pour into the people who are there. So at the end, our clients say “Wow, I’ve grown and developed through this process.” These things are all part of who I am, but they’re part of who our clients are too — so when we come in to do a project, we (the Syte team) just kind of slide in and we fit.

How would Syte’s manufacturing company clients articulate the experience they have with you as a business analyst, do you think? What do your clients say (or what would they say) about working with you?

What they say is, “You do such a good job tracking everything,” or “You keep us on track.” What I think they mean, though, is that I grease the wheels. (laughs) I’m the oil for making things function. But for me, that is like 5% of the job. Keeping the project and everyone involved on track is the obvious and natural part of what I do. I think the bigger responsibility I have is that I help carry weight in a project that can clog up brain space. I hold all the important things so the team can pick and choose when something is a priority. So they can focus and there isn’t all this peripheral stuff going on, and no one has to worry that things are going to get forgotten. I hold space for people to focus on what’s important.

I also get feedback that people enjoy that I bring fun and a sense of “real” into conversations. When things get really serious, I can say the right thing at the right time to get people to chuckle a little bit. Like, “No one is birthing a baby here.” I try to bring a sense of joy, but also just keep things real. I think it helps create an atmosphere of freedom and growth, and room to try — which is conducive to real communication and connection.

You have such an interesting approach. What is your educational and work background?

I went to Oregon State and studied accounting, and then I worked in the accounts payable department of a huge motorhome company. When I had kids, though, I focused my life on them. I was home with our kids for about 10 years. I had some fun side businesses during that time — I sold Stella and Dot jewelry, I did sports conditioning for the volleyball team my husband coached, and I even volunteered to be the school librarian. I found that wherever I was, I would teach and champion people, and create an atmosphere that’s conducive to what needs to happen.

When my kids were a little older, my mom was looking to retire from her bookkeeping job and she told me that I was the only person she would trust to take care of this little company. I considered it and decided to go for it, and I fell in love with bookkeeping. I did full-cycle bookkeeping, so taxes and everything. I found that small business management was so fun. I knew the financial side, and I’d be working with an owner who was skilled in something else, and they’d be looking at the numbers but not know how to make decisions with it. So I was a bridge between the analytical information and how the owner could use that in the business to make decisions. I liked matching people to systems that worked with their personalities, and getting them engaged in the process in a way that made sense to them so they could start to feel confident in the decisions they were making.

Eventually, though, I got too busy. My kids were teenagers, and I was spread too thin, so I had to pull back from everything for about two years. That’s when I met Erin. At that time, about 4 years ago, I was clearer about where I wanted to spend my time and energy. I wanted to be able to bring my entire self in to the next role, not just do the books. So Erin threw me at the people side of things in a project and said, “Do your thing.” And I found that it’s nice to have a financial understanding of things so I can speak reality into that stuff, but I don’t have to dive into the weeds of being the head of an accounting department. I get to be the bridge between what we’re doing and the people involved.

Erin just has a way of seeing into you. She pulls out the gold from people and gives them time, space, environment, encouragement and challenge to help them grow into their own authenticity, expertise and leadership. She does this with our team here at Syte, and she does this with our clients’ teams too.

So you’ve been with Syte for a few years now. What trends are you noticing in the manufacturing industry that CFOs and CEOs of privately held companies should be keeping an eye on?

It’s easy to want to have some sense of government with a big project — like get procedure in place so everyone can follow it and we all know what the rules are. But you’re dealing with real people, and things aren’t always black and white. Operating from principle versus procedure can make a big difference in shifting people out of silos into more team orientation. To recognize that someone has unique abilities they’re bringing to the table, and to be willing to utilize those — it’s hard work as a leader to create an environment where people are using their own skillsets to make decisions, but it builds trust. It creates owners in a business.

But not everything has to be a big discussion. There’s a balance. There needs to be good leadership, and there needs to be private conversations and leadership conversations where decisions are made and vision is cast — and then we need a group of people that are allowed to have ideas about how to make that happen.