GAIL HACKSTON
Interim Director of Change, Transformation and Communication
Strategic Communicator. System Thinker. Problem Solver.
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I help leaders turn complex change into coordinated action.
I work with CEOs, executive teams and transformation leaders to identify where change is needed, understand what’s actually happening across the organisation and anticipate where progress may break down.
I drive alignment, feedback and action in both directions: from leadership through the organisation, and from teams back into leadership.
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Change and Transformation
The plan is only part of the change
Organisations can have a clear strategy, an experienced programme team and a detailed delivery plan, yet still struggle to move.
Decisions can be made but fail to travel through the organisation. Leaders can leave meetings with different interpretations of the next steps. Teams can optimise their own part of the system - and ignore all others. Communication can increase while understanding (and buy-in) falls.
Meanwhile, a small number of people quietly connect the gaps, translate between groups and keep everything moving.
These aren’t separate problems. They’re different signals from the same organisational system.
I help leaders look across that whole system: strategy, leadership, structure, governance, communication, relationships and delivery.
Together, we establish:
Decisions can be made but fail to travel through the organisation. Leaders can leave meetings with different interpretations of the next steps. Teams can optimise their own part of the system - and ignore all others. Communication can increase while understanding (and buy-in) falls.
Meanwhile, a small number of people quietly connect the gaps, translate between groups and keep everything moving.
These aren’t separate problems. They’re different signals from the same organisational system.
I help leaders look across that whole system: strategy, leadership, structure, governance, communication, relationships and delivery.
Together, we establish:
- what is actually happening, rather than what the reporting suggests;
- where strategy and organisational reality have come apart;
- how people are making sense of the change;
- where decisions, information and responsibility are getting stuck;
- what the formal programme is missing;
- what leaders need to do next.
In this context, my mission is simple:
Connect humans. Reduce friction. Increase alignment.
Transform how organisations actually operate.
Connect humans. Reduce friction. Increase alignment.
Transform how organisations actually operate.
What I do
Interim change and transformation leadership
Executive change intensive
Executive advisory
Workshops and Action Accelerators
- Senior embedded leadership for organisations facing significant change, transformation or organisational redesign.
- I can step into a Change Director, Communications Director, Transformation Director or related senior role, establish what’s needed and take responsibility for moving the work forward.
- This is particularly suited to complex organisations where change crosses functions, professional boundaries or established power structures.
Executive change intensive
- A focused intervention for an acute organisational problem.
- You may have a transformation that has stalled, an executive team struggling to align or a widening gap between the formal plan and what’s happening across the organisation.
- I’ll help you diagnose the problem, bring the right people into the room and agree a practical route into action.
Executive advisory
- Continuing support for a CEO, executive sponsor or transformation leader.
- This provides experienced challenge, diagnosis and thinking space without adding another permanent role. We can work through live decisions, organisational signals, leadership dynamics and problems that don’t fit neatly inside the programme structure.
Workshops and Action Accelerators
- Structured sessions that help leadership teams understand a problem, reach decisions and move.
- These range from executive alignment and systemic communication sessions to focused workshops on grey space, hidden Fixers, change conditions and organisational flow.
Let's Connect
If you’re leading a difficult transformation, dealing with an acute organisational problem or looking for experienced interim change leadership, tell me a little about what’s going on.
You don’t need to arrive with a defined brief. A useful first conversation can help establish what the problem is and whether I’m the right person to support you.
You don’t need to arrive with a defined brief. A useful first conversation can help establish what the problem is and whether I’m the right person to support you.