Shonna Waters, PhD

Dr. Shonna Waters is CEO and Co-Founder of Fractional Insights, a research, advisory, and consulting firm founded by two organizational psychologists. She holds a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Statistics from the University of Minnesota, previously served as Vice President of Research at SHRM, and was an early executive at BetterUp, where she built teams in behavioral science and executive advisory. She is a Fellow of SIOP, the Center for Evidence-based Management, and the Institute of Coaching, and has authored two award-winning books on HR analytics and coaching.

Psychological Ergonomics: Engineering Discipline for the Human Side of Work

Shonna's signature framework, "psychological ergonomics," applies the same rigor physical ergonomics brings to the body to the human mind and organizational systems: designing work and technology around how people actually think and function, rather than forcing people to adapt to poorly designed systems. Since people costs typically run 60 to 70 percent of a company's total expenditures, she argues organizations can't afford to treat human capital strategy as a soft afterthought; it has to be engineered with the same precision as any other major capital investment. On performance conversations specifically, she advocates leading with curiosity and non-judgment, genuinely trying to understand what lights an employee up, which builds the trust needed to align someone's most engaging work with what the organization actually needs from them.

Topics Shonna speaks on

• Psychological ergonomics: engineering discipline for the human side of work
• Closing the strategy-execution gap through human capital design
• Why people costs demand the same rigor as any other major investment
• Leading performance conversations with curiosity instead of judgment
• Evidence-based coaching and HR analytics

Sessions with Achieve

Shonna is a featured presenter in the Achieve event "Listening@work 2025: Listen, Learn, Lead: Unlocking the Power of Employee Voice", alongside Bryan Breckenridge of Vital, Tomeka Hill-Thomas, PhD, Angela Cheng-Cimini of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Craig Forman of Culture C. The session is a candid discussion on bridging the gap between what employees say and what leaders actually hear.

Connect

• Dr. Shonna Waters on LinkedIn
• Fractional Insights

Want more on what it takes to close the trust loop between what employees say and what leaders hear? Learn more about the Achieve Leadership Network.