Welcome to “Executive Library,” a series presenting books written by Forbes Councils experts on business topics.
by Britton Bloch, Forbes Human Resources Council
KDP Publishing
October 23, 2026
Our Take:
In Performance by Design: Leadership, Governance, and Trust, Forbes Human Resources Council member Britton Bloch argues that a strategy is only as strong as the organization’s capacity to deliver it. Rather than treating workforce planning, technology adoption, and leadership accountability as separate agendas, the book brings them into a single conversation about how leaders build organizations where people and businesses can succeed together. For CEOs and business leaders, it offers a practical lens for aligning growth ambitions with workforce capacity, critical skills, and leadership readiness. For technology leaders, it examines how AI and automation reshape work, where human judgment remains essential, and how accountability should follow decisions across systems and teams. For HR leaders, it connects workforce planning, internal mobility, and talent development directly to business continuity, career opportunity, and organizational health.
About this book:
Performance by Design: Leadership, Governance, and Trust starts from a pointed question: are your workforce decisions and systems building the capability your strategy will depend on next? Artificial intelligence, shifting skill requirements, employment fraud, and work redesign are placing consequential choices in front of every leader, and those choices determine who gets to contribute, how expertise is preserved, where careers can advance, and whether teams have the trust and support they need to do their best work.
Britton Bloch brings workforce planning, internal mobility, leadership accountability, technology, and trust together into one practical discussion. Performance by Design explores how leaders can deliver today’s results while developing the people, knowledge, and systems that tomorrow’s work will demand. Along the way, it encourages readers to ask the questions that often get skipped: who owns a decision, what evidence supports it, whose experience may be overlooked, and how problems will be surfaced and corrected.
For leaders accountable for both outcomes and the people who produce them, Performance by Design is a guide to building the conditions for healthy teams, meaningful opportunities, and performance that lasts.
About the author:
Britton Bloch, Forbes Human Resources Council, has built her career on the link between talent strategy and business performance, a relationship at the heart of Performance by Design. As Vice President of Talent Acquisition Strategy and Head of Recruiting at Navy Federal, she leads the organization’s approach to attracting and developing the people its mission depends on. Her perspective was shaped across industries and business models: more than a decade building and running a national recruiting firm in Chicago, leadership roles at Marriott and Fifth Third Bank where she aligned talent strategies with mission-critical business goals, and ten years at IBM, where she led talent for the company’s North America and Canadian Client Innovation Centers and was recognized repeatedly for innovation and client leadership. Her work has since earned honors including Chief Talent Officer Magazine’s Talent Management Trailblazer Award, UNC Chapel Hill’s Impact Award for service through research, teaching, and community leadership, and OnCon Talent Acquisition Leader of the Year. Her writing has appeared in Forbes, Newsweek, Fast Company, and HR Executive Magazine. Britton holds an MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and is a PhD candidate in Organizational Leadership at Shenandoah University.
Reviews:
“A brilliant analysis that breaks down existing human capital systems as a set of disconnected gears unable to work in sync. It traces the root causes of this fragmentation and offers an innovative framework for reassembling the systems.”
— Jason Kamiya, Major General, U.S. Army (Retired) and Former Fortune 100 Senior Business Executive
“Bloch reminds us that enduring organizations are built when systems honor human potential and leaders act with both courage and care.”
— Jorge L. Gutierrez PhD., Executive Adviser, Leadership Scholar, and Faculty Mentor, Shenandoah University
“This book is exactly what you’d expect from someone with her depth of experience: straight talk, real insight, and advice you can actually use. A must-read for anyone serious about the future of work.”
— Ryan Paugh, President & Co-Founder, Forbes Councils
If you are a Forbes Councils member who has published a business book, contact your concierge to learn how to get it featured in this column.
