Talent Edge Weekly - Issue #365

AI and the labor force, designing decisions rights for AI and humans, 3 performance management tools, determining successor readiness, and internal mobility.

Author

Brian Heger
September 20, 2026

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Welcome to this new issue of Talent Edge Weekly!

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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.

GO BEYOND TALENT EDGE WEEKLY

My Private Community for Internal HR

If you’re an internal HR practitioner who wants to go deeper with me and other HR practitioners to help accelerate your talent priorities, apply to my private community, Talent Edge Circle.

Now let’s dive in.

Brian Heger
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THIS WEEK'S EDGE 

AI AND THE LABOR FORCE

A new 20-page report outlines four scenarios for how AI could reshape the labor force, with talent implications for each. I zoom in on the risks of premature entry-level job cuts.

I have written extensively about scenario planning and its value in preparing for the different futures an organization might face, including the talent decisions involved. This new 20-page report from The Conference Board outlines four AI-driven scenarios and potential talent implications for each. While there are many insights and recommendations in the report, one implication I want to focus on is the future of early-career and entry-level roles. One recommendation for CEOs is to critically evaluate premature decisions to reduce these roles based on the assumption that AI will absorb the tasks they perform. The report warns that these decisions, coupled with senior departures, can "erode critical institutional knowledge." One of the many suggestions I have made in previous posts on this topic is that, rather than reactively reducing or eliminating these roles, organizations should reimagine their purpose in an AI-enabled environment. One recent example comes from Geotab, which shared how its student talent program puts this into practice: pairing interns with its internal AI assistant on real business challenges while teaching them to evaluate outputs critically and apply human oversight. Geotab has brought in more than 1,000 interns, with many going on to full-time roles after graduation. For organizations reimagining their entry-level roles while protecting their future leadership pipeline, I am resharing this June 2026 World Economic Forum report, which offers several tactics.

AI AND ORGANIZATION DESIGN

A practical framework for determining how humans and autonomous AI should share decision-making based on two factors: ambiguity and risk.

One of the reasons I value frameworks, and spend time developing many of my own, is that they help organize and simplify complex topics. That simplification is critical because it builds shared understanding, fosters better discussion, and enables more informed and faster decision-making. One topic where frameworks can be particularly helpful is how organizations redesign work around AI, including decision rights: Where should AI have authority to decide or act? Where should humans remain involved? Who ultimately owns the outcome? These were among the questions that surfaced in a recent discussion in my private community for HR practitioners, Talent Edge Circle, on AI and organization design. Against this backdrop, I am sharing an MIT CISR framework for determining how humans and autonomous AI should participate in decisions based on two factors: ambiguity and risk. Ambiguity reflects how clearly the available information points to an answer, while risk reflects the consequences of being wrong. The result is a 2×2 framework with four types of decisions (routine, consequential, exploratory, and strategic), helping clarify the appropriate role for AI, where human judgment is most important, and who remains accountable. For HR, the opportunity is twofold: help the organization work through these decision-rights questions, while also applying the same discipline within HR itself.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Three of my one-pagers to help leaders strengthen execution by recalibrating goals and capacity, improving ways of working, and reallocating resources to critical priorities.

As organizations quickly approach the final quarter of the calendar year, there is still time to influence critical business objectives. I am resharing three of my performance management tools that can help leaders accelerate execution by focusing on three areas. 1) Recalibrate goals, priorities, and capacity: As new work gets added, this tool helps determine what should change, stop, or receive additional resources so teams do not simply absorb more work without making trade-offs. 2) Examine ways of working: Even well-defined goals can be undermined by slow decisions, unclear ownership, excessive approvals, or other operating barriers. This tool helps identify where the way work gets done may be constraining performance. 3) Reallocate resources to priority work: Strategy execution ultimately depends on whether critical priorities have enough talent, budget, and capacity behind them. This tool helps leaders question whether resources are still aligned with what matters most. Taken together, the three tools reinforce a simple point: performance management is not only about setting goals and evaluating results. It is also about continually removing the barriers that keep people and teams from delivering them. As you enter the next quarter, where is there an opportunity to use one or more of these levers to accelerate execution on your most critical objectives?

SUCCESSION PLANNING

A conceptual paper introduces developmental readiness as another lens for successor readiness. I connect it to additional ways of making readiness discussions more practical.

One focus of succession planning is accelerating a successor’s readiness to perform effectively in a role they do not yet occupy. However, we can improve how we define readiness by going beyond general labels such as ready now, ready later, and future potential, often tied to arbitrary timeframes (e.g., 18 to 24 months). While these labels can provide useful directional guidance, by themselves they lack the specificity needed for more meaningful succession planning. I’ve shared other ways to think about readiness, such as the number of development moves away a successor is from being ready. Another is asking ready for what likely scenario?, since a turnaround, rapid growth, or transformation can influence readiness for the situation a successor may inherit. A recent conceptual paper adds another dimension: developmental readiness, or how ready someone is to benefit from development. Two successors may have similar development gaps but differ based on motivation, career stage, life circumstances, or whether they actually want the role. This is one reason transparency matters: listing someone who has little interest in the role or cannot pursue the required development may overstate bench strength and create succession risk. Where could you improve how you define and accelerate readiness to better account for business needs, successor aspirations, and what each successor is willing and able to do to become ready? These are the types of practical discussions we have in my private community, Talent Edge Circle.

INTERNAL MOBILITY

A new study examines what helps employees succeed after an internal move. I translate one finding into practical ideas for strengthening the transition.

With internal mobility (IM) being a key talent strategy, I’ve shared many resources on IM, from reducing talent hoarding and restrictive policies to using technology to enable internal movement. While many IM strategies focus on surfacing opportunities, matching people to roles, and making internal movement easier, other important aspects receive less attention, such as how we set employees up for success once they move into a new internal opportunity. A new Journal of Applied Psychology paper offers useful insights on this question. While the full paper requires journal access, one finding that stands out is that prior relationships with members of the team they are moving into can accelerate the transition and help set the employee up for success. For me, this is useful because organizations can influence it through how internal moves are structured. For example, if talent processes such as talent reviews and succession planning identify people for potential future roles, we can create early exposure through project work or cross-functional assignments with those teams. This can build relationships and credibility while giving the future team a view of the employee’s performance and capabilities. Internal mobility success is not just about matching people to opportunities, but setting them up for success once they get there. And that work can often begin before a full-time opportunity becomes available. If you’re conducting talent reviews, one question to ask is: How are we building early relationships and exposure into the talent actions that follow?

MOST POPULAR FROM LAST WEEK

AI & ORGANIZATION DESIGN

A new article explores how AI is reshaping organization design, from spans of control and layers to decision rights. I tie in insights from a recent Talent Edge Circle discussion we had on the topic.

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