# Melinda Stallings

Melinda Stallings works in talent acquisition and HR, with a focus on helping organizations lead change and keep teams aligned. Stallings speaks about these topics at recruiting and HR events.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/melinda-stallings/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melindastallings
- Topics: leadership, recruiting, hr, leadership-development, talent-acquisition, change-management
- Based on 9 dated posts, latest 2026-10-05

## Summary

Useful for practical change leadership talks that connect recruiting problems to HR alignment.

- Best for: HR consulting firms or HR technology vendors booking change management sessions for talent acquisition leaders.
- Not for: Consumer or enterprise brands seeking paid sponsorships with fixed deliverables, rates, and audience guarantees.
- Check first: Ask for session outline, exercises, learning outcomes, and whether it is solo or co-led with Jim Durbin.

### Takeaways

- Change stalls without communication and shared language, not because of a bad idea.
- HR, talent acquisition, and talent management should not operate as separate islands.
- A department may recruit against a ten-year-old job description while AI reshapes work.

## Main ideas

- **Change stalls without communication and shared language, not because of a bad idea**: Stallings argues that initiatives rarely fail at the concept stage. They launch, then lose momentum because the organization never built communication or a common vocabulary around them. Without shared language, transformation cannot be efficient. The fix, they say, is alignment: updated tools, courageous conversations, and every department speaking the same language.
- **HR, talent acquisition, and talent management should not operate as separate islands**: Stallings's second recurring position is that people functions must act as true allies to the rest of the organization and to one another. Treating HR, talent acquisition, and talent management as isolated areas prevents change from taking hold, they argue. Bringing them together is a precondition for transformation, not a nice-to-have.
- **Lead change without burning people out—and make disruption positive**: Stallings's promoted session is titled "Leading Change Without Burning Out" (also billed as "Leading Through Change Without Burning Out"), framing change as something to sustain people through rather than push through at any cost. They describe the approach as "positively disruptive": practical answers to real, everyday employer challenges, discussed alongside talent attraction, engagement, retention, the future of hiring, and AI. Ask for details on the session's methods and outcomes; the available posts establish its framing and audience, but not how it works.

## Work to read

- [Leading Change Without Burning Out: TalentNet Live session announcement](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/melindastallings_talentnet-talentacquisition-activity-7437135236510982144-8PHg)
- [Leading Through Change Without Burning Out: TalentNet Live co-led session announcement](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/melindastallings_talentnet-talentacquisition-recruitmentmarketing-activity-7437844922558226432-ab7a)
- [Why shared language matters in organizational change](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/melindastallings_talentnetlive-changemanagement-humanresources-activity-7440392893384761344-ATxr)

## Brand relationships

- **TalentNet Live** (disclosed_partnership)

## Partnerships

The posts describe event speaking rather than a published sponsorship programme. Stallings appears as a session leader at TalentNet Live in Austin on 13 March 2026, co-presenting "Leading Through Change Without Burning Out" with Jim Durbin, and shared attendee discount codes for the conference (disruptguest, disruptguest20). A follow-up clip expands on the session’s argument: change initiatives falter without shared language, and HR, talent acquisition, and talent management need to align rather than work in silos. Stale job descriptions serve as a concrete example. For a HR consulting firm considering a change-management keynote or workshop, ask for a booking route and terms for paid engagements; the posts establish the topic and format but not the commercial arrangements.

## Alternatives

- Jackye Clayton: Choose Jackye Clayton when the buyer wants a session that starts with the hiring process: how job descriptions are written, how requirements contradict each other, and how screening algorithms filter people before a recruiter sees them. Clayton’s posts offer two concrete teaching hooks: a “Contract Blah Blah Blah (Remote)” posting that was actually three days a week in Austin, with a “Lead” title that excluded strategy and process redesign; and a Spirit Airlines layoff case where more than 5,000 displaced airport operations workers risked being screened out by exact-title or keyword matching. For a talent acquisition audience, that supports a workshop on challenging hiring-manager requirements, auditing requisitions, and checking whether screening systems match the work. Clayton also points to a LinkedIn Learning class about job descriptions, a ready-made instructional asset for the buyer to discuss.
- Gabrielle Carlson: Choose Gabrielle Carlson when the buyer wants a workshop on building or scaling the talent acquisition function. Carlson’s posts lay out a five-point operating model: structure enables speed; workforce planning beats requisition management; metrics should drive decisions and demonstrate results; hiring managers are the biggest variable, so TA leaders must coach rather than coordinate; and employer brand starts inside the business, with process reflecting culture and retention. A second post argues that recruiting is a revenue driver and that TA leaders should answer business questions such as what revenue is at risk if roles go unfilled and which roles unlock growth. For a consulting firm whose client needs to build TA capability and tie it to business outcomes, Carlson offers a concrete agenda around structure, metrics, workforce planning, and hiring-manager discipline.
- Katrina Ungar: Choose Katrina Ungar when the buyer wants a recruiting-partnership workshop, especially for beauty or wellness brands. Ungar’s posts describe a search partner who stays close to the work, restarts a search when the role changes rather than forcing candidates into an outdated profile, keeps candidates engaged during brand-side delays, shares market feedback even when it is unwelcome, and brings perspective on compensation, positioning, and resistance. A second post uses a BeautyMatter office sign — “Work Hard & Be Nice to People” — to argue that internal values are experienced through interviews, decisions, leadership communication, and how people are treated, not just through a careers page. For a client whose change effort is really about hiring values and candidate experience inside a consumer brand, Ungar offers a specific, values-led angle.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/