The Good Trouble Group is here to stir the pot
A new consulting firm founded by two former senior public servants aims to turn local businesses and organisations into “magnets” for out-of-state workers.
Alison Lloydd-Wright and Kayla Johnson last night launched their new consulting firm: The Good Trouble Group.
Offering services like strategy development and delivery, stakeholder engagement, leadership advice and event facilitation, the duo’s new firm is on a mission to make local businesses, organisations, and even places “irrisitable” for interstate and international talent.
They hope to play an important role in filling the skills crisis in South Australia, where 351 occupations are currently in shortage. Further, 60 per cent of recruiting employers report recruiting difficulties according to Skills SA.
The attraction of Gen Z workers is another piece of the puzzle for The Good Trouble Group, which noted that ABS data shows that while the actual number of 18-27 years olds in South Australia has increased, their proportion of SA’s population has decreased by 3.8 per cent since 1971.
“We are starting this business because we’re super passionate about South Australia, and particularly about South Australia being a magnet for the young talent that South Australia will need to grow our workforce, including keeping the amazing talent that we develop here,” Lloydd-Wright said.
“We saw that there was a gap in making sure that industries and businesses have the right strategies, culture and leadership to do that, to be irresistible to talent from South Australia and around the world.
“We also want to be able to promote South Australia as a destination to live and work. We know that a number of employers are trying to recruit interstate and internationally and are coming up against some challenging misconceptions about South Australia.”
Johnson said that these misconceptions about the state were less negative than they might have been a decade ago, but are “just a bit neutral” now.
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“People just don’t know much at all, which on the sliding scale is better than negative,” she said.
“But some of the things we’ve heard in travelling for work… someone once told us that they would move to Brisbane because they wanted to be near beaches; they didn’t know South Australia had any beaches.
“Also, the year-round nature of things happening here is another. People are well aware of Mad March but certainly less aware of the other festivals that are happening through the rest of the year.”
The business’ name has its origins in the American civil rights movement, Lloydd-Wright explained, and is “about being unafraid to make noise if it is in the cause of justice and progress”.
“We thought that was such a great fit for us because are politely disruptive and positively provocative,” she said.
“We’re going to challenge the way things are done in a way that’s positive and supportive, but gets to real outcomes.”
Alison Lloydd-Wright and Kayla Johnson hope to take their lessons from the public service to the private sector. Photo: Brad Griffin.
Former public servants
It’s a leap out of the public service and into a new realm for longstanding public servant Lloydd-Wright who has held various positions in the state government since 2008 – including most recently as deputy chief executive of community, culture and place in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet – but the new business aligns with what she was doing for the state government.
Johnson too has worked for the state government in various roles since moving to Australia from the United States about eight years ago, and was most recently the director of population strategy at the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.
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“We have experience in creating the magnetic pull that attracts talent at the state level, and in this business we’re trying to take that down to an enterprise, industry and even ‘places’ – local council – level to work directly with employers, industry groups and others who know they need to be attractive to the Gen Z workforce that’s going to make up 25 per cent of Australia’s workforce in the next two years,” Lloydd-Wright said.
“We were both in population strategy and a lot of that work is absolutely translatable to an industry and enterprise level.
“We did a lot of work to understand what young talent is actually looking for and how that differs from what some old school leaders and thinkers believe it to be.”
Lloydd-Wright said she was excited about the limitlessness of the private sector.
“No one knows more about the limits of what the government can do and should do than a senior public servant,” she said.
“This is an opportunity to step away a little bit from those obligations and requirements and be able to apply a creative, provocative and progressive approach to these challenges.
“The talent attraction piece is a speciality, but we also have long histories in leadership and culture, strategy development, stakeholder engagement, facilitation and events. We’ll be offering all of those as well, which were something I was doing consistently in previous roles.”
Johnson added the departure from the public services “means we’ve got the freedom to try some things that are maybe a bit out there or might fail”.
“But first iteration failing isn’t a big problem because we can iteratively fix it and on one’s wearing that other than us which is both terrifying and delightful,” she said.
The pair will cast a broad net when approaching industry and organisations, looking to assist those trying to attract various professionals like engineers, doctors, early years educators and even school principals.
“It’s everything,” Johnson said.
“Across the board, there’s a real need for talent. The net is wide.
“There is a real opportunity as well that we want to explore which is all these people – if you think across 350 occupations that hundreds if not thousands of businesses – if they’re all doing recruitment, how can we amalgamate some of them to have a bigger impact?”
Lloydd-Wright said The Good Trouble Group also wanted to assist South Australia’s small to medium business sector.
“They can’t necessarily go to the jobs fairs,” she said.
“We were recently at South by Southwest Sydney which has a lot of young people in tech looking for work. How can we aggregate up our offer with other people who also need talent and put South Australia on the stage?”
