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The Problem With Change

The Problem With Change

The Essential Nature of Human Performance

Summary

'A crucial read.' Marshall Goldsmith

'A must-read.' Marcus Buckingham

Change and innovation are the cornerstones of dynamic and modern business.

Or so we are told.


Whether it’s a merger or re-org; a new process, policy, or IT “solution”; or reconfiguring the office layout, change has become the ultimate easy button for leaders, who pursue it with abandon and thereby unleash an endless torrent of disruption on employees. The result is life in the blender: a perpetual state of upheaval, uncertainty, and unease.

Yes, companies need to grow, innovate, and adapt to changing needs. But stressed-out employees rarely go the extra mile, chaos rarely produces agility or speed, and it’s hard innovate or grow while bleeding talent to turnover and quiet quitting. This is how change stymies the very progress that it seeks.

Drawing on decades spent leading HR operations at Deloitte and Cisco, Ashley Goodall explores the essential nature of human performance and offers a radical new alternative to the constant turbulence that defines corporate life. By prioritizing team cohesion (instead of reshuffling teams at will), by communicating in real words (rather than corporate speak), by striving for predictability (instead of charisma), by honoring shared rituals (instead of corporately-mandated bonding), by fixing only the things that are truly broken (instead of moving fast and breaking everything in sight) and more, leaders at every level can create environments that allow people to do the best work of their lives.

Reviews

  • Well-phrased wisdom about the futility of corporate life and how to combat it.
    The Financial Times

About the author

Ashley Goodall

Ashley Goodall is a leadership expert who has spent his career exploring large organizations from the inside, most recently as an executive at Cisco. He is the co-author of Nine Lies About Work, which was selected as the best management book of 2019 by Strategy + Business and as one of Amazon’s best business and leadership books of 2019. Prior to Cisco, he spent fourteen years at Deloitte as a consultant and as the Chief Learning Officer for Leadership and Professional development. Ashley has written or been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Business Insider, Inc. and The Harvard Business Review. Originally from the UK, he holds a BA in Music from Oxford and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is based in New Jersey.
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