Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #352

Managing critical roles, human-based skills, succession planning cheat sheet, three forces redefining leadership transitions, and enabling internal mobility.

Author

Brian Heger
June 21, 2026

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Welcome to this new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

First, a shout-out to Laura Logan, Sr. Director of Talent & OD at Dairy Farmers of America, for referring new subscribers to Talent Edge Weekly. Thank you, Laura, for your support of this newsletter!

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PRESENTED BY Draup

Most workforce planning is reactive: teams chase whatever job title trended last quarter, then re-hire for the same skills under a new name. The companies pulling ahead are doing something different: investing in the capability itself.

Draup's latest paper identifies the five capabilities that pay off regardless of which title trends next. And it provides actions you can take now with your organization.

Learn how to stack these five capabilities to elevate the impact of your workforce planning.

THIS WEEK'S CONTENT

Below are links and descriptions of the topics covered in this issue. If you're interested in my deep dive, you can read the full newsletter.

Also, check out my job cuts tracker & Chief HR Officer move of the week, which is an excerpt from my CHROs on the Go platform.

TALENT EDGE CIRCLE - my private community 

👉️ If you’re an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other internal HR practitioners on talent topics tied to your most critical priorities, learn about my private community, Talent Edge Circle.

A special thanks to Adam Gibson, Global Practice Director, Workforce Strategy & Skills at LHH, and author of Agile Workforce Planning, for joining me and the Talent Edge Circle, last week for a discussion on workforce planning!

We covered everything from how to get started when the capability is still being built, to planning horizons, scenario planning, the role of skills- versus role-based planning, technology selection, getting executive buy-in, and more.

If you’re looking for someone to support your workforce planning strategy and approach, I recommend connecting with Adam to see how he can help. And be sure to pick up a copy of his book on agile workforce planning!

 â¬‡ď¸Ź Now let’s dive in.

THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

CRITICAL ROLES AND AI

A new McKinsey article revisits the firm's Talent to Value framework, arguing that in an AI era, value is no longer created by critical roles alone.

Identifying and managing critical roles remains an important talent strategy for creating organizational stakeholder value. These roles often make up a small share of total roles, sometimes around 20%, but they have a much larger impact on strategy execution. I've shared many of my tools on critical roles, including two recent cheat sheets on identifying risks in these roles and determining if they are staffed with top talent. As AI reshapes how work gets done, a key question is emerging: how does the concept of a critical role and who occupies it need to evolve? A new McKinsey article this week explores that question, updating its Talent to Value Framework for an era in which value is no longer created by roles alone, but by humans and AI agents working together. It covers five steps, and I highlight two. Step 2 asks: where can people and AI agents work together in ways that create the most value? The third step reframes who should occupy those roles, suggesting the goal is no longer simply matching the best person to a critical role, but assessing how much that person can amplify value with AI. One implication for determining who occupies a critical role is: prioritizing individuals who build AI fluency, reimagine workflows through AI, and know when to use AI versus when human judgment is needed. With this in mind, how might you need to redefine your approach to managing critical roles?

AI AND SKILLS

A new BCG article argues that over-reliance on AI erodes critical human skills such as judgment and creative thinking, and offers six strategies to address it

Layoffs and job cuts have dominated much of the recent headlines about AI and its impact. The Challenger Job Cuts Report, a monthly tracker of U.S.-based corporate layoff announcements, reported that AI led cited reasons for job cuts for the third month in a row. Separate from the job cuts narrative, a less visible risk is quietly compounding: organizations leaning too heavily on AI may be weakening the human capabilities they need most. A new BCG article argues that without deliberate design, widespread AI adoption leads to distributed de-skilling: the collective erosion of critical thinking, judgment, and problem framing across an organization. Half of the leaders surveyed say they are already seeing this, and more than 60% expect it to become a real threat within three to five years. The skills most at risk, such as judgment, problem framing, and creative thinking, are the same ones considered most essential to long-term performance. The article offers six strategies. Two stood out: redesigning work so humans retain ownership of judgment (Shell requires early-career employees to frame problems and build a baseline before using AI); and making human skill development visible in performance management (at CNIL, managers assess employees on their ability to challenge AI outputs, not just use them). As organizations identify the human skills most essential to their strategy, I am resharing a 39-page World Economic Forum report, New Economy Skills: Unlocking the Human Advantage.

SUCCESSION PLANNING

My cheat sheet consolidates four of my SP resources into into one view, including SP questions, metrics, development role audit, and triggers that prompt SP reevaluation.

Succession planning (SP) continues to get more attention from CEOs, boards, and investors. A recent report by The Conference Board and Heidrick & Struggles found that 61% of CEOs and boards expect SP effectiveness to have a greater influence on company valuation over the next five years, especially as investors look more closely at succession depth and planned leadership transitions. In response to frequent requests for SP resources, here’s my one-page cheat sheet consolidating elements from other cheat sheets I've previously shared. It includes four components: 1) SP Questions: Ten questions to clarify an organization's approach, such as determining which roles to focus on and how to assess successor readiness; 2) SP Metrics: Twelve sample metrics that can help evaluate SP effectiveness. 3) Development Role Audit: Four starter questions to help determine when to redeploy talent from a high-impact development role, particularly when their continued placement in the role limits opportunities for developing successors; and 4) Trigger Events for Reassessment: Nine examples of events that may warrant an off-cycle reassessment, such as shifts in business strategy. To build on the last component, SP can become less relevant when not updated as circumstances change. While a regular SP process cadence can help, identifying trigger events that necessitate a more immediate reassessment outside that cadence can ensure plans stay relevant between review cycles.

LEADERSHIP AND TRANSITIONS

A new article by Michael Watkins updates his seven-shift framework for making transitions, including functional to enterprise leadership.

The ability to prepare employees for successful transitions into new and more complex roles has long been a cornerstone of development planning, leadership development, and succession planning for many organizations. While several frameworks guide these transitions, one widely used is Michael Watkins' (author of The First 90 Days) seven-shift model from his 2012 HBR article, which identifies key changes leaders must navigate, including moving from functional to enterprise leadership. In a new HBR article, Watkins revisits that framework, noting the seven shifts still apply but that three forces have changed what each requires: generative AI (shifting the leader from producing insight to governing human-AI decision systems), geopolitical instability (making external complexity a first-order leadership concern), and a compressed leadership pipeline (removing stepping stones that once prepared leaders for enterprise roles). While each force has meaningful implications, one I want to highlight is AI. Watkins reinforces that high-potentials need hands-on AI governance experience before stepping into enterprise roles, raising a practical question: how do we prepare people to lead in an AI-enabled workplace? With this as the backdrop, I am resharing my post about Zapier's AI Fluency Framework, which covers how the company defines and assesses AI fluency across its workforce. While still evolving, the approach might provide others with ideas for articulating expectations and integrating them into various talent practices, including development planning.

INTERNAL MOBILITY

A new article and underlying research highlight how occupational identity can become a barrier to internal mobility, even when employees have the capability to move into new and unfamiliar roles.

Internal mobility, or the movement of employees across roles and opportunities within the same organization, is a critical component of talent management. However, several factors can limit internal mobility, such as manager talent hoarding, restrictive policies, and other reasons I've shared previously in my one-pager on the topic. Another factor than can turn into a barrier and which is highlighted in this new article and the underlying research it references is occupational identity: the degree to which workers see their current role as part of who they are, not just what they do. For some, especially when a role, field, or career path feels unfamiliar or is not an obvious match, the reluctance to pursue it may have less to do with capability and more to do with identity. The article points to research where only a third of job seekers were willing to take a reskilling course leading to new opportunities, and some required a stipend just to consider a career switch. While the research is based on a small segment of job seekers, one practical implication is that offering reskilling and job opportunities alone is not enough. Organizations need to help employees envision themselves in new and unfamiliar roles, which is really a positioning and marketing opportunity. This connects to a point I made last week covering the Sidetracked: The Hidden Crisis in Mid-Career Mobility report (Burning Glass Institute and NYU SPS): better positioning and marketing of lateral moves can open up renewed interest in them as a way to grow and develop one’s career.

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

TALENT TRENDS

A new 44-page report with benchmark insights on workforce planning, employee development, and talent acquisition, among other topics. I expand on building proactive external talent pipelines.

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