In two decades as a Fortune 50 executive, consultant and researcher Ashley Goodall has developed expertise in several areas related to leadership, organizational culture and talent management. Here are some key areas where he helps organizations, leaders and teams.
How are leaders, in business and in HR, meant to navigate the swirl that we find ourselves in today? The onrush of AI; the question, foregrounded by the issue of DEI, about the balance between the people stuff and the business stuff; and, indeed, the fundamental identity and purpose of a company—all these are in play all at once and the job of finding a direction amidst the tumult is harder than it has ever been. Meanwhile, the traditional toolkit of HR—reviews and ratings and top-down initiatives—seems increasingly inadequate for the world we’re living in. Let me help.
I have spent two decades reinventing the people side of work, not in theory but in practice. Working with CHROs and senior business and HR leaders, I’ve created new approaches and systems at scale and have implemented them in organizations with tens of thousands of employees. Running through them all are these threads: that we are better when we make things simpler; that the complexity belongs in the people, not in the systems we ask them to use; that we must understand and appreciate human nature before we can help humans work; that tools must be useful to employees if we want them to be used; and that no organization can sustainably grow that does not help its people grow.
Whether in my advisory work or my executive roles, I have always worked the same way. We spend most of our time working together one-on-one on a complex initiative or in an area where you need a thinking partner. We review challenges and talk things through, and together we arrive at a path forwards. We focus on what is practical, simple, and clarifying. When our work and our ideation is based on a deep understanding of people and how they work, and organizations and how they work, we make fast progress. Our conversations are the catalyst for new ideas and concrete action.
My work spans leadership, organizational culture and talent management. Here are some key areas where I have helped leaders and teams.
The fundamental task of a leader is to help others do their best work. I help leaders get clear on the what and the how of their approach to performance and growth. I will work with you to:
Key concepts: Speak Real Words, Be Predictable (from “The Problem with Change“), “Reinventing Performance Management,” (Harvard Business Review)
Example: At Cisco, in support of a new CEO and new CHRO, I transitioned the organization to a new approach to leadership, spanning leader selection, training, expectations and evaluation, supported by a rollout of a new approach to performance management to 70,000 employees. Engagement increased by 10% in the years following these changes.
A crisis demands a balance of agility and stability. I help you figure out how to move—and what needs to be reinforced. I will guide you on:
Key concepts: Honor Ritual, Focus Most on Teams (from “The Problem with Change”)
Example: For a leadership team struggling with a complex reorganization in the midst of the pandemic, I created a weekly cadence of leadership team meetings to anchor on priorities, which in turn became the constant thread of organizational communications. This resulted in increased team and organizational clarity and ability to execute.
I will help you manage transformation within your organization. My work on the foundations of employee engagement and the human need for stability is valuable for any organization undergoing a major shift—whether in culture, technology or structure. I will guide you on:
Key concepts: “Creating Stability is Just as Important as Managing Change,” (Harvard Business Review)
Example: To restructure a large team whose mission had changed, I created a three-day offsite during which team members explored the overall mission and then designed both the work of their own subteams and also how they would work with all the other subteams. The result was greatly increased clarity of work and connection, and an organization that continued to generate innovation for more than four years.
Performance is an emergent quality of an organization. But what does it emerge from? I help you:
Key concepts: “The Power of Hidden Teams,” (HBR Big Idea), Focus Most on Teams (from “The Problem with Change”), “The Feedback Fallacy,” (Harvard Business Review)
Example: At Cisco, to lift team performance I introduced a team-based strengths assessment to the entire company, and followed this with weekly check-ins, team coaching, team leader training, team engagement surveys controlled by the team leader and real-time listening and intelligence so that company leaders could see which teams were thriving and which needed more help. Following these changes Cisco was named number one on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For in three consecutive years.
A talent strategy answers the question “how can we increase the overlap between what our people want from their jobs, and what our business needs from our teams?” I help you:
Key concepts: The Second Circle (from “The Problem with Change”); Lie #6 (People can Reliably Rate Other People) (from “Nine Lies About Work“).
Example: At Deloitte, I led an end-to-end refresh of the talent development strategy, which began with a two-day offsite for the senior leadership team, continued via the framing of six strategic conclusions around which to redesign every development program and ended with an entirely new curriculum being deployed in time for the opening of Deloitte University—now considered the central cultural touchstone of the organization.
Much of our experience of work is mediated by software, in particular HR software. In addition to working with business and HR leaders on their people practices, I also advise HR software providers on product design. I have expertise in team software, leadership assessment software, engagement measurement, survey and item design, and network visualization. My work in this space is grounded by the principle that good software must be immediately useful to the teams and leaders using it, not just to the organization overall.
With the exception of software design, where we’ll agree process and deliverables on a case-by-case basis, a project in any of the areas above will typically fall into three phases. The initial assessment phase is focused on background research and client interviews to confirm the starting point, expectations and organizational context. I’m doing most of this myself and reporting progress to you. The assessment phase will last from two to four weeks.
The ensuing design phase is intensive and iterative, and focuses on both the immediate program, tool or other objective, and also on the plans for pilot roll-out, data collection and impact measurement. We form a team of your people to do this work—and shape it together—and I check-in frequently with you and each team member. Depending on scope and complexity, the design phase will last from four weeks to three months.
During the final implementation phase, the focus shifts to initial and sustained adoption, to troubleshooting, to project enhancements and to measurement. If we get things right, this phase never ends—but my work typically tapers after four to eight weeks or until we find another fascinating problem to tackle. Your team is executing during this phase and I’m supporting.
I am known for challenging the “lies” or myths in the world of work and will help you take a fresh look at how work gets done and where organization performance emerges from. If you want to make your organization more human-centric, adaptable and future-focused while also evolving leadership and talent practices to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world, let’s talk
