Norm Smallwood is a renowned authority in developing businesses and their leaders to deliver results, as well as a prolific author and thought leader in the field of human capability development. His expertise spans crucial areas such as organizational design, talent management, leadership development, and strategic HR—all focused on increasing business value through people-centered approaches and building distinctive organizational capabilities.
Norm's groundbreaking work has earned him significant recognition, including being named "Change Driver of the Decade" by HR Digest in 2024, receiving the "Lifetime HR Achievement Award" from Utah Business magazine in 2019, and being recognized by Harvard Business Review for doing "innovative and groundbreaking work on effective leadership." He was also honored as a Distinguished Alumni by BYU's Department of Organization Behavior.
As co-founder of The RBL Group with Dave Ulrich in 2000, Norm has built a globally respected education and consulting firm that equips client organizations to solve organizational performance issues. Their approach includes clarifying strategy, identifying and building distinctive business capabilities, increasing the quality of leadership, and developing strategic HR capabilities. In 2007, they formed The RBL Institute to join HR leaders across the world in a community of collaboration and best-practice sharing.
With a comprehensive academic background, Norm holds a Master's degree in Organization Behavior and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and English from Brigham Young University. He further expanded his academic influence as a faculty member in executive education at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Management between 2001 and 2003.
Prior to co-founding The RBL Group, Norm was a founding partner of Novations Group Inc. from 1985 to 1999, a research and consulting company focused on strategy and organization design, professional career development, and survey research. Earlier in his career, he gained valuable experience as an OE Advisor at Imperial Oil/Esso Resources and in Organization Effectiveness at Procter & Gamble, where he designed technician systems and worked extensively in socio-technical systems design.
Norm has co-authored eight influential books that have shaped the field of leadership and organizational development: Real Time Strategy, Results Based Leadership, Why the Bottom Line Isn’t/How Leaders Build Value, Change Champions Field Guide, Leadership Brand, Leadership Code, Agile Talent, and Leadership Sustainability. Additionally, he has published more than a hundred articles in leading journals and newspapers including Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. His Harvard Business Online blog on Personal Leader Brand was highlighted as one of the ten most read for the year.
Beyond his professional accomplishments, Norm has demonstrated a commitment to service through his board membership with HELP, an organization focused on economic empowerment to help people rise out of poverty through sustainable development programs. He also served on the HRCI (HR Certification Institute) board from 2019 to 2022.
Norm's approach to consulting focuses on partnering with clients to align leaders and their organizations to foster high-performance cultures that resonate with both customers and employees. His definition of success is increased confidence in the future by investors, customers, and employees, leading to higher market value.
When not transforming organizations, Norm enjoys spending time with his wife Tricia, their children, grandchildren, and their unique collection of pets including a school of koi fish, Frank the Great Dane, and Stein the Bengal cat.