Rick Cobb and Margie Rodino spent decades inside organizations, watching the same gap show up again and again: people say what matters to them, and then do something else. CQ Seek You is the book they wished existed.
Rick Cobb and Margie Rodino met [how/where]. Between them, they’ve spent more than seventy years in human resources and organizational development — inside companies going through the messy, human work of change. Somewhere along the way, they noticed the same pattern surfacing in boardroom after boardroom, coaching session after coaching session: the gap between what people said mattered to them and what they actually did with their time wasn’t a discipline problem. It was a hardwiring problem, nobody had ever taught them to look at the autopilot running their choices.
At fifty-six, Rick was diagnosed with ADHD, and [what that revealed / how it reframed the work] — the clearest example either of them had seen of how much of what gets called “personality” is really just wiring nobody ever examined. CQ Seek You started as the book they wished they’d had years earlier — for the people they were coaching, and for themselves.
[PLACEHOLDER — the real story: how Rick and Margie met/started working together, and the actual ADHD-at-56 narrative in their own words — this is flagged in the direction doc as the most distinctive, human detail available, and it shouldn’t be drafted secondhand]
70+ yrs combined HR/OD | WBBM Newsradio contributors | Coaches & OD practitioners
Margie Rodino
Co-Founder, 2discern, Inc.
Co-Author, CQ Seek You
Margie Rodino has spent her career proving that culture is not a poster on the wall. It is a system that either supports how people actually behave or works against it. As a human resources and culture executive, and now co-author of CQ — Seek You, she has spent more than 30 years aligning corporate strategy with the people meant to carry it out.
Margie is co-founder of 2discern, Inc., a human capital advisory firm she built with Rick Cobb to help organizations close the gap between the culture they claim, and the culture employees actually experience.
Throughout her career, Margie has held executive roles including Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Talent Officer, and Chief Culture Officer, most recently leading the people side of a major business transformation in a manufacturing environment: reimagining Culture, Human Resources, Retention and Recruiting, and Employee Well-Being for a next-generation workforce. Her experience spans large organizations, family-owned firms, and entrepreneurial businesses across manufacturing, financial services, telecommunications, and healthcare, including leading HR teams supporting more than 22,000 employees and integrating another 8,000 through several acquisitions. She also brings hard-won experience at the negotiating table, having chaired labor negotiations to unprecedented results.
Margie is a sought-after speaker on workforce and workplace development, the employee experience, and employee health and well-being, and has consulted with the Chicago Public School System and Northwestern University. She is a graduate of Northern Illinois University and a Certified Compensation Professional.
Margie lives in the Chicago area, where she remains, as ever, more interested in what people actually do than in what they say they will do.
Truman (Rick) Cobb
Co-Founder, 2discern, Inc.
Co-Author, CQ Seek You
Rick Cobb is an expert in human capital management, workforce development, and transition counseling, who has spent his career working extensively with C-suite executives and Fortune 500 companies.
Prior to co-founding 2discern inc., Rick served as an Executive Vice President at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global leader in outplacement and coaching solutions. He oversaw relationship development and transition counseling across North America and led the team responsible for global business strategy and international expansion. While there, his input, innovations, and concepts helped the company achieve unprecedented growth in an increasingly commoditized and consolidating industry.
Having worked on a diverse array of workplace and talent challenges, Rick is adept at helping leaders make the tough calls that need to be made. He is strategic, unbiased and has experience in assessing core issues, ferreting out the true edges of a problem, and then presenting practical and economical paths forward. He is a firm believer in solving challenges through innovation, creativity and focused behaviors, so clients aren’t spending money on the same old solutions.
A connector at heart, Rick brings to every engagement a passion and strong interest to build genuine rapport and the relationships necessary to successfully implement progressive improvement strategies. He’s driven to inspire others to achieve excellence, greater success, and fulfillment in their careers.
Recognized as a thought leader and expert voice on workplace and employment trends, Rick is a regular contributor on WBBM and has made multiple appearances on CNN, CNBC, Fox Business MSNBC, NBC as well as NPR and WSJ Radio. Currently, he is writing a book on decision making.
Rick was a founding board member of Career Star Group, where he served for eight years. During his tenure, the organization grew from 6 to 70 countries, becoming the largest global outplacement provider organization in the world. His work on the board greatly expanded his perspective, and network of resources. He also served as a board member of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Cook County in Chicago. Rick is a graduate of Drake University.