Media

Always-On Succession Planning for CHROs (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Early in his career, Elcio Barcelos was asked a question in a job interview that completely stumped him: What's the purpose of the HR function? He didn't have a good answer at the time. But the question stayed with him and ultimately shaped how he views the work of HR.

Today, his answer is clear: the purpose of HR is to enable business outcomes through talent.

Everything else—engagement, benefits, development and culture—connects back to that core idea. If you accept that definition, the role of HR simplifies to one objective: ensuring every seat in the organization is filled with the right talent, with the right skills, at the right cost, in the right place, doing what the role requires.

Barcelos leads HR for an organization of 70,000 people. That's 70,000 seats. And, in his view, the CEO role is no different from any of them.

Start at the Top

When Barcelos became a CHRO for the first time, he immediately prioritized CEO succession. He approached the board and emphasized the need to ensure the right CEO was in place, supported by a robust succession plan. The response surprised him.

"Why are you asking about that?" some asked.

His answer: because it starts there.

At U.S. Bank, Barcelos led a four-year effort to build a comprehensive succession management process—identifying and developing internal candidates, implementing structured evaluations and ultimately naming a successor.

The real test, however, came later—and unexpectedly.

When It Gets Real

In early 2025, Barcelos received a call on a Saturday: a senior operations leader had died unexpectedly. By Monday morning, U.S. Bank had activated its emergency succession plan, providing clarity to 15,000 employees about leadership continuity.

Four weeks later, another call. A plane crash. The company lost its chief administration officer, who was also the designated emergency CEO successor.

Two major losses in four weeks.

Again, by Monday morning, the organization had named a successor for the CAO role and identified a new emergency CEO successor.

"You cannot go through a CEO succession process without having an emergency successor in place," Barcelos said. "Because anything can happen."

This is not theoretical. It is operational reality.

Always On, Not Once a Year

U.S. Bank continues to conduct annual talent reviews, but Barcelos is clear: succession planning cannot be treated as an annual exercise. It must be continuous.

He refers to always-on succession planning as "the truth serum" because it forces organizations to confront reality—who is ready, who is not and where gaps exist. When the process is continuous, those gaps cannot be ignored.

In practice, this means maintaining a real-time succession dashboard, refreshing data monthly and updating plans immediately as circumstances change. When someone resigns, the plan updates. When readiness shifts, the plan reflects it.

To support this approach, Barcelos' team includes dedicated talent consultants focused on senior leadership, alongside an HR advisory team managing broader organizational needs. The goal is operational readiness—not paperwork.

Four Levels of Readiness—and the Role of Transparency

Barcelos structures succession planning around four levels: emergency, ready now, developing (one to two years) and emerging (three to five years).

The framework is straightforward. What is less common is his stance on transparency.

For emergency and ready-now candidates, Barcelos believes individuals need to know where they stand—not because it guarantees advancement, but because clarity enables development.

"How else can they develop if they don't understand the journey?" he said.

This perspective was shaped by experience. In one instance, a designated successor declined a role because they were unaware they had been identified as a successor.

That moment reshaped his approach.

Organizations cannot assume individuals want a role, understand their position or interpret silence accurately. Poor communication creates ambiguity—and that ambiguity can cost organizations critical talent.

Barcelos applies the same clarity to candidates who are not selected. "We don't see you as a viable candidate—let's talk about what that means," he said. Some employees stay; others leave. He views both outcomes as normal. The alternative—uncertainty—is more damaging.

How to Test Readiness

When asked how to determine whether someone is truly "ready now," Barcelos challenges conventional thinking. Readiness is not about whether someone has already performed the role. It is about whether they can handle the stretch.

"You have to stress-test candidates," he said.

This involves assigning real business challenges and high-stakes initiatives to observe how individuals lead under pressure. A candidate who performs well in reviews but lacks real-world testing presents risk.

In Barcelos' experience, two qualities consistently distinguish strong CEO and C-suite candidates: intellectual curiosity and facilitation skills. Not broad or unfocused curiosity, but depth that drives decision-making. And the ability to facilitate across diverse stakeholders—investors, regulators, executive teams and boards.

"These two things together are extremely powerful," he said.

He also emphasized the importance of digital fluency. Leaders do not need to be technical experts, but they must understand how technology shapes business models, operations and customer experience. Increasingly, AI will influence how organizations assess leadership capability.

A Shared Process

At U.S. Bank, succession decisions are not made by a single individual. Barcelos describes them as co-created, involving the board's governance committee, the CEO, the CHRO and select senior executives, such as the CFO and head of risk.

The specific structure may vary, but the principle remains: shared ownership.

In banking, it is common for the CEO to also serve as board chair. This dual role can create tension in succession discussions. Barcelos' role often includes helping the CEO navigate those responsibilities—balancing perspectives as both operator and board leader.

"It's constant feedback and coaching," he said.

On the question of internal versus external candidates, Barcelos takes a pragmatic approach: each role should be filled by the best candidate. At U.S. Bank, external candidates are benchmarked under nondisclosure agreements and evaluated alongside internal talent. Even when internal candidates are strong, external comparisons provide critical context.

The Bottom Line

Succession planning is not theoretical, annual or optional. It is operational. It is continuous. And when done effectively, it ensures organizations are prepared—whether leadership transitions are planned years in advance or occur unexpectedly.

"Our job is to ensure the right person is in the right seat at the right time, with the right skills," Barcelos said.

That applies to every role—including the one at the top.

Coaching as a Superpower (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Angela Beatty spent a decade at Accenture leading talent transformations, most recently focused on AI. After stepping away from the CHRO role this past January, she used the transition to build a new capability—enrolling in Brown University's ACT leadership and performance coaching program, which combines neuroscience with 100 hours of coaching practice.

What she found is that coaching is widely misunderstood—and significantly underutilized by HR leaders.

The Work HR Leaders Already Do

Consider the conversations that define a typical week in HR leadership: aligning a fragmented executive team, advising high performers on advancement, helping CEOs address decision bottlenecks, guiding managers through difficult feedback, and supporting employees navigating burnout or personal challenges.

Increasingly, those conversations also include uncertainty around AI: What does this mean for my role? What should I do next?

Beatty's point: this is what HR leaders do all day, and it is exactly the territory where coaching is the right tool. You're already in the room. You already have the trust. The only question is whether you're using the most effective skill for the moment.

Coaching is Not Mentoring

Here's where Beatty got honest about herself. For years, she thought she had been coaching people. Looking back, she realized she was mostly mentoring, advising, and consulting. All valuable. None of them are coaching.

The differences matter:

Mentoring is topic-focused; coaching is client-focused.
Mentoring solves problems; coaching generates new possibilities.
Mentoring relies on expertise; coaching develops underlying mindsets.
Mentoring is directive; coaching is collaborative.
Mentoring offers advice; coaching relies on inquiry.

The leadership shift Beatty is asking for is moving from being the advice-giver to being the thinking partner.

In practice, this shift is reflected in language. Mentors often say, "If I were you …" or "What you need to do is …" Coaches ask, "What is most important to you?" or "What outcome are you aiming for?" or "How will you move forward?"

When was the last time you caught yourself saying "If I were you" when the more useful move would have been a question?

Why Coaching Works

Beatty spent a minute on why coaching is effective at the brain level, because this is where it stops being a soft skill and becomes something closer to a biological advantage.

Picture a senior executive walking into a high-stakes C-suite meeting. They're capable. They have the idea. They sit through the whole conversation and don't say it. Afterward, they tell you, "I had it. I just didn't speak up."

The standard feedback is "be more confident" or "you need to speak up more." Neuroscience says something else is going on. The brain is reading that room as a social threat. Status, reputation, and evaluation are all on the line. As David Rock describes Coaching with the Brain in Mind, even mild uncontrollable stress degrades the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for strategic thinking, decision-making, emotional regulation, and executive presence.

fMRI research shows that social threat lights up the same brain regions as physical pain, particularly the anterior cingulate cortex. So those high-stakes leadership moments are not just business situations. They are neurological threat events. When the brain detects threat, it pulls resources away from the prefrontal cortex and reroutes them to more reactive, survival-based systems.

What we label a confidence problem is often a brain-under-threat problem. Coaching helps people get back above the line where their best thinking actually lives.

Above the Line, Below the Line

Beatty showed a simple sketch of a stick figure standing above a horizontal line and a second one crouched below it. Above the line, you're open, curious, and committed to learning. Below the line, you're closed, defensive, and committed to being right.  

All of us live on both sides of that line. The question is what put us below it.

She invited the room to do something quietly: think of a recent moment, at work or at home, where you weren't showing up as your best self. Not because you didn't know what to do, but because something got triggered. What was actually happening underneath?

That question is the entry point to coaching yourself, and it's the same question you can offer to someone else.

The Coaching Mindset

Beatty outlined four core shifts required to coach effectively:

Center on the client's agenda. The role is not to solve your version of the problem, but to help the individual clarify what matters most to them.
Be present and curious. Effective coaching requires active listening, adaptability and inquiry—especially when something does not immediately make sense.
Assume capability. Individuals are not "fixed"; they are resourceful and able to generate solutions.
Focus on the person, not just the issue. The underlying thinking patterns and assumptions are often more important than the immediate topic.

Listening at a Deeper Level

If there is one skill to take home, Beatty said it's how you listen. There are three levels.

Level 1 is listening to yourself. Someone is talking and you are mostly tracking your own thoughts: what do I think, what should I say next, how does this relate to me? Completely natural, completely self-focused.

Level 2 is listening to their topic. You're tracking their words, their tone, their meaning. This is where most of us operate when we're being intentional, and it's already a step up from Level 1.

Level 3 is listening to the person and their relationship to the topic. You're picking up energy, emotion, what is not being said, the bigger picture underneath the words.

Try this with the next conversation you have today. When the other person is talking, where is your attention? Are you mostly rehearsing what you'll say, tracking their words, or noticing what's underneath? Most of us discover we live in Level 1 more than we'd like to admit.

Coaching in the Age of AI

Angela closed by looking forward. We're moving toward a workforce where machines process information, generate content, and scale insight, and humans interpret, decide, collaborate, and lead. Those four human verbs are exactly what coaching strengthens.

In the conversations she's having with CEOs and boards, she hears the same realization landing: AI is not just a technology transformation. It's a human transformation. If that's true, coaching gets more important, not less.

She saw this firsthand at Accenture. The team built and scaled an AI-enabled performance feedback coach to help people give effective feedback to each other. What was interesting to her wasn't the technology. It was why it worked. The AI wasn't replacing coaching. It was reinforcing the core principles of coaching at scale.

How Will You Use Your Superpower?

Beatty's closing was a direct one: every HR leader in the room has the chance, every day, to lift up people, leaders, and organizations through coaching. The question is whether you'll pick the tool up.

Action items

Run a Level 3 listening check on yourself this week. Remember the three levels: Level 1 is listening to your own thoughts, Level 2 is tracking the other person's words, and Level 3 is picking up the energy, emotion, and meaning underneath. After your next three one-on-ones, ask yourself honestly which level you were operating at. The point isn't to feel bad about Level 1. It's to notice the pattern, because you can't shift what you don't see.

Catch yourself in the act of mentoring when coaching is the better move. Pay attention to phrases like "If I were you" or "What you need to do is" or "That reminds me of when I…" When you hear yourself starting one of those sentences, stop and ask a question instead. The shift from advice-giver to thinking partner happens one conversation at a time, and 1:1s are where most managers slide back into advice mode without noticing. A Leader's Guide to Optimize 1:1s is a research-informed, two-page editable template that structures the conversation around six elements (trust, purpose, development, accountability, strategy, alignment) and explicitly calls for the direct report to lead half the meeting. That structural cue alone forces the shift Angela is describing.

Build a small bank of coaching questions you can pull from. Angela offered several worth keeping close: What is important to you about this? What impact is this having on you? What do you want this to look like a year from now? What are you learning? How will you put this into action? These work in nearly any conversation where someone brings you a problem.

When you're about to label something a confidence problem, ask whether it's actually a threat-response problem. This reframe matters because the interventions are completely different. Telling someone to "be more confident" doesn't change what their brain is doing in a threat state. Helping them lower the perceived threat does.

Treat tough feedback conversations as a coaching moment, and prepare for them like one. "How do I give this feedback without demoralizing the person?" was one of the questions Angela named as showing up on HR leaders' desks every week, and it's exactly the kind of high-stakes moment where managers default to either avoidance or bluntness. Research from i4cp and the USC Center for Effective Organizations links strong feedback cultures to higher profit margins, better retention, and improved return on equity.

Two i4cp resources help managers prepare with more structure.

The Performance Feedback Coach, an AI assistant built on six widely used feedback models, lets managers and peers work through real scenarios and practice delivering feedback before the actual conversation.

Performance Conversations Made Easy is a card deck (inspired by a tool one of our member organizations built) that gives managers prompts to make feedback conversations easier and more productive. Use the above-the-line, below-the-line frame in your own self-awareness practice before you use it on anyone else. When you notice yourself getting closed, defensive, or committed to being right, name it. The moment you can see it, you have the option to come back up. [Check for additional i4cp tool references — leadership development or self-awareness resources]

Where in your own week could a coaching question replace a piece of advice you were about to give?

i4cp 2026 Conference Introductory Session (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Hear from thought leader Kevin Oakes, author of the bestselling book Culture Renovation®, as he offers his predictions for the year ahead and outlines the challenges (and opportunities) HR leaders face. You'll also gain insight into what to expect from i4cp in 2026 from our new CEO, Terry Waters.

A Global Perspective: The Future of Work and AI in APAC and EMEA | i4cp 2026 Conference (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

In this panel, hear from experts and former practitioners representing different regions of the world as they dissect local trends they're seeing and the implications for global leaders and organziations. The panel will focus on the future of work, the rise of agentic AI, and how such themes are manifesting in APAC, EMEA, and other markets.

Panelists:

Brenda Sugrue, Chair, i4cp's European Chief Learning & Talent Officer Board
Todd M. Warner, Chair, i4cp's AUstralian Chief People Officer Board
Keith Resseau, Director, Executive Boards, i4cp (moderator)

Wisdom at Work: An Undervalued Strategic Asset (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

At the 2026 i4cp Next Practices Now Conference, Chip Conley and John Boudreau argued that wisdom—not knowledge—is the human advantage AI cannot replicate. The question for HR leaders is whether organizations are managing it intentionally.

For decades, work rewarded those who knew the most and moved the fastest. But in a world where knowledge is searchable, scalable and increasingly generated by AI, that advantage is eroding.

What retains—and may increase—its value is wisdom.

Not expertise. Not tenure.

Wisdom, as Conley defined it, is "metabolized experience, mindfully shared for the common good." It emerges when individuals reflect on experience, distill insights and share them in ways others can apply.

That distinction matters. Knowledge can be stored and retrieved on demand. Wisdom must be developed. AI can synthesize information and identify patterns, but it cannot draw on lived experience to form judgment. Organizations that recognize and leverage that difference will have an advantage.

Experience is the raw material. Wisdom is what individuals make of it.

Conley illustrated this through his own experience at Airbnb. He joined at age 52, when the company's average employee age was 26, and described his role as a "mentern"—both mentor and intern. He contributed business perspective, emotional intelligence and pattern recognition, while learning speed, digital fluency and new ways of thinking from younger colleagues.

The exchange worked because it was reciprocal.

The insight is not about age; it is about the intersection of different forms of value—experience, curiosity, technical skill, judgment and fresh perspective. Organizations benefit when they create conditions for that exchange to happen consistently.

Conley's "kitchen" metaphor reinforced the point. A 70-year-old may have 70 ingredients but lack the ability to combine them effectively. A 30-year-old may have fewer inputs and still produce a strong outcome. Experience alone does not ensure wisdom.

Experience provides inputs. Reflection and application create value.

A Tension Leaders Recognize

That perspective resonated with many leaders. In a post-session reflection, one executive described the pressure to build AI fluency while managing an already complex role. What shifted was not her commitment to learning, but her understanding of where she adds value.

Her role is not to master every new tool. It is to apply judgment, provide context and guide better decision-making.

This framing avoids two common traps: overestimating the need to become a technical expert, or disengaging from AI entirely. The goal is to understand what AI enables—and where human leadership remains essential.

Managing Knowledge vs. Managing Wisdom

Most organizations are effective at managing knowledge. They document processes, scale expertise and capture information.

Few are equally intentional about managing wisdom—helping employees reflect, share judgment and learn across roles, levels and generations.

That gap presents an opportunity.

Closing it does not require a large-scale initiative. It requires targeted practices and greater visibility into where wisdom already exists.

What Intentional Wisdom Management Looks Like

Map it. Identify who employees seek out for perspective beyond formal reporting lines. Informal networks often reveal where judgment resides.
Make it mutual. Pair employees across generations and functions with an expectation of two-way learning. Different strengths—technical fluency, pattern recognition, systems thinking—should be exchanged, not transferred in one direction.
Design for it. Build teams with varied experience levels. Diverse perspectives can improve decision quality by balancing speed, context and judgment.
Reflect on it. Incorporate structured reflection into leadership routines. A simple prompt—What was your most important lesson this quarter, and how will you apply it?—can convert experience into shared insight.
Reframe it. Move away from measuring leadership by speed of answers. In an AI-enabled environment, value increasingly comes from framing better questions, connecting insights and enabling sound judgment across teams.

The traditional model rewarded those with answers. The emerging model rewards those who ask better questions and help others translate experience into judgment.

As knowledge becomes more accessible, wisdom may become the differentiator—if organizations are deliberate about cultivating and applying it.

Why the Four Day Week Can Work For Your Company | i4cp 2026 Conference (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Speaker: Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College

Bestselling author, leading sociologist and economist Juliet Schor makes the case for a four-day work week, persuasively showing how this model can address major challenges defining the future of work, such as burnout, AI and the climate crisis, and how employees, companies, and governments can work together to make it a reality. This conversation has become especially urgent in light of the changes AI is bringing to the workplace. Rather than cope with employees' anxiety and even resistance to AI, the four day week creates security and openness to change.

Four Days a Week is the first large-scale study of this trend. Juliet Schor―an expert who has researched and written about work for more than four decades, beginning with her New York Times bestseller The Overworked American in 1992―shares her pioneering analysis of the benefits of a shorter work week, how companies can achieve them through effective work reorganization, why the concept has taken so long to emerge and gain acceptance, and why doing so will help a company's employees and its bottom line. Her book, upon which this session is based, is a blueprint for implementing a change that once seemed radical, but is now within reach.

Leading through Integration: Bringing Together Unique Workforces | NRG | i4cp 2026 Conference (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Speaker: Peter Johnson, SVP, Head of Talent & Culture, NRG Energy

When NRG acquired Vivint in 2023, our workforce more than doubled overnight—jumping from 6,000 to over 15,000 employees. But with this expansion came a challenge: integrating two vastly different workplace cultures. The corporate, structured environment of NRG met the dynamic, entrepreneurial spirit of Vivint, creating a unique crossroads that tested our adaptability and leadership.

Mergers and acquisitions often spark uncertainty, and this transition was no exception. Combining teams, redefining roles, and fostering a unified culture required deliberate effort—but the payoff was extraordinary. Through collaboration and commitment, our employees embraced the journey, shaping a bigger, better NRG in the process.

As Peter Drucker famously said, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." Navigating cultural integration isn't just important—it's essential for long-term success. The challenges, breakthroughs, and triumphs of merging two large companies have forged a stronger, more versatile organization ready for the future."

Employing People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities | Best Buddies | i4cp 2026 Conference (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

We're celebrating our 13th year in partnership with Best Buddies International. In this short session, you'll hear about Best Buddies' mission to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. An estimated 81% of adults (18+) with developmental disabilities do not have a paid job in the community, yet i4cp's research shows that these people represent an untapped talent pool who can contribute to the workforce in a myriad of ways.

The Formula for a Future-Ready Organization | i4cp 2026 Conference (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Speaker: Kevin Martin, Chief Research Officer, i4cp

i4cp's research has uncovered a formula for building and sustaining a future-ready organization. In this must-attend session, i4cp's chief research officer Kevin Martin dives into that equation with data, case studies, and more, while highlighting the key business and talent trends he and his team of analysts are observing.

Kevin also introduces i4cp's Future-Ready Framework, a simple yet powerful model that explains how the intersection of culture, AI, and skills can enable competitive advantage within organizations.

Remote Work Actually Works: Unlocking People Leadership | Akamai | i4cp 2026 Conference (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Speaker: Anthony Williams, EVP & CHRO, Akamai Technologies & Amber Burton, Sr. Research Analyst, i4cp

Today, "where we work" is constantly debated. Akamai's Flexbase strategy proves that location is secondary to leadership. Productivity isn't defined by a desk in an office; it's defined by effective people leadership and a commitment to culture, community, and connection.

In this fireside chat, Anthony will dive into the heart of why Akamai's workplace flexibility succeeds. The hybrid, flexible model (termed "Flexbase"), allows for work on/off site for over 95% of its employees. Launched in May 2022, this program allows employees the autonomy to decide where they work best - from their homes, a traditional office space, or a blend of both. Join us to learn how they are doing things differently, and leading differently, to ensure their teams remain high-performing, connected, and supported, regardless of geography.

Cloud HQ: Designing a Distributed Culture that Outlasts Disruption | Zillow | i4cp 2026 Conference (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Speaker: Dan Spaulding, Chief People Officer, Zillow

In 2020, Zillow made a bold strategic decision: go distributed-first and unlock access to the best talent anywhere. Six years in, that model drives tangible business results and has redefined how a growing business can operate. In this session, Zillow shares the lessons learned and the challenges still to solve.

Putting Culture Renovation® Into Action | Northwestern Mutual | i4cp 2026 Conference (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

A future-ready organization needs a future-ready culture, but many companies aren't set up to embrace disruptive change. Further, only 15% of culture change efforts succeed. In this session, you'll get the latest research and insight on the key actions that help build and maintain cultures that will outperform competitors, and hear Northwestern Mutual has put these actions... into action.

Northwestern Mutual and i4cp have been close partners throughout their culture journey, and conference attendees will get a behind-the-scenes look at how they are putting Culture Renovation into practice.

The company's chief people officer and head of talent, in a conversation with i4cp's Marshall Bergmann, will share:

Why Northwestern Mutual determined its culture needed renovation
How they are applying the Culture Renovation® blueprint in a modern enterprise
The progress they've seen so far
What comes next as they continue evolving their organization

You won't want to miss this rare deep dive into a large-scale change powered by research, leadership alignment, and practical next practices.

Panelists:

Kelly Culler, EVP & Chief People Officer, Northwestern Mutual
Anthony Perrone, Head of Talent, Northwestern Mutual
Marshall Bergmann, Vice President, Consulting Services, i4cp

The Journey to One FedEx | FedEx | i4cp 2026 Conference (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Speaker: Gabrielle Dycus, VP of Human Resources, FedEx

In this session, Gabrielle shares learnings from the multi-year One FedEx journey. This organizational transformation brought FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Services and other FedEx operating companies' corporate functions into a single company, Federal Express Corporation, in June 2024. In addition to supporting the business needs, the HR function itself was consolidated from 7 previously separate US companies and 6 global regions into one, newly structured HR organization while at the same time producing harmonized HR policies, tools and resources for the newly merged company.

Skills-Based Talent Practices: An AI-Powered Framework | i4cp 2026 Conference (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Speakers: Tom Stone, Sr. Research Analyst, i4cp & Judy Albers, Product Experience Director, Tools and Resources, i4cp

i4cp research shows that organizations advancing their skills-based talent practices outperform peers in readiness, engagement, productivity, and profitability, so why do so many companies struggle with managing skills in reality? Don't miss this innovative session which explores the latest study on the talent practices that turn organizations into skills-oriented, future-ready powerhouses.

Specifically, senior i4cp research analyst Tom Stone and Judy Albers, director of research enablement at i4cp, will highlight the study's Three-Level Skills Maturity Model, a comprehensive framework designed to help leaders assess where their organizations stand—and prioritize the next steps that lead to measurable impact. Tom and Judy will showcase i4cp's new GPT that gives you immediate recommendations and guidance based on your inputs, saving you countless hours and consulting dollars.

John Deere's AI Transformation (i4cp login required)

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

When Felecia Pryor took the stage to open i4cp's 2026 Next Practices Now Conference, she started with a video.

Not AI dashboards or quarterly results. Green tractors. Striping mowers. Farms.

"This is the John Deere you know," she said. "Let's talk about the John Deere you may not know."

The John Deere most people don't know is a 189-year-old company. The United States will celebrate its 250th anniversary this year. John Deere has been a fixture in the world for 189 of those years — innovating, as Pryor put it, ever since a blacksmith's hammer sparked a fundamental transformation in the way work gets done, with a groundbreaking plow innovation nearly 200 years ago.

Pryor, John Deere's senior vice president and chief people officer, paused on that number. "Imagine the change that the company has had to go through, that we've had to endure time and time again to stay relevant. To stay on the cutting edge." The reason? "We do it for our customers. Our customers are at the core of everything we do."

That historical arc matters because of what came next. A company doesn't last 189 years by accident. It lasts because, again and again, it chooses reinvention over comfort. And that is what makes the next part of Pryor's story feel less like a radical departure and more like the latest entry in a very long pattern.

The Decision to Partner with OpenAI

When OpenAI came to John Deere with a partnership proposal, the resistance inside the company was real. Pryor was candid with the room about it.

"You have a 189-year-old company partnering with a 10-year-old startup," she said, "and you're saying, let's create something new."

The pushback came in specific worries: They start things and don't finish them. What if it does something to our brand? How will we deal with that? These are the questions every CHRO has heard whenever a major new technology partnership is proposed — and they are not unreasonable. They are also the questions that have derailed plenty of corporate AI initiatives before they got off the ground.

Pryor's response borrowed from remarks Kevin Oakes had made earlier that morning. "You cannot let perfection be the enemy in these organizations. You have to be willing to test and experiment and go along on the journey."

Then came the line that landed hardest in the room.

"A failure to do nothing is a failure. If you fail and you do nothing, it is a failure."

But personal conviction, she made clear, was not enough. "It's not just about Felecia Pryor being all-in. It's about our employees, our leadership team being all in." The leadership team convened, worked through the questions, and decided to move forward together.

Even more telling: Pryor noted that OpenAI had recently been in the news — the kind of news that would prompt a more cautious organization to quietly step back from a high-profile partnership. John Deere didn't. "We've created such a strong partnership, and we are so committed to bringing our people along on the journey, we are laser-focused."

That is what real partnership looks like under pressure. Not a press release. A commitment that holds when the news cycle gets uncomfortable.

"We Have a Choice"

The most important thing Pryor said wasn't about John Deere. It was about HR.

"For HR, we have a choice. We could be led in the business, or we could be leading the business. Now is our time."

She said it twice. Then a third time.

This is the choice every CHRO in the room recognized. It ran underneath every session that followed at the conference. AI is reshaping how work gets done, and HR has the line of sight, the relationships, and the institutional position to lead that transformation — but only if HR chooses to lead it.

"When this opportunity came to us as a function, came to me as the chief people officer, I had no time to retreat and say, no, not now," Pryor said. "Why? Because if it's not us, it'll be another business unit leading. And we have everything at our fingertips — every resource, all of the networks — to be able to lead AI transformation in our organizations."

The challenge, she made clear, is not capability. HR has the capability. The challenge is whether HR is willing to step into the role.

What Leading Actually Looks Like

The strength of Pryor's keynote was that she did not stop at the philosophy. She walked the room through what AI leadership at John Deere looks like in practice — and the operational substance is the most replicable part of her talk.

AI usage is now a formal leadership metric. Most organizations track AI training completion, certification rates, and license usage. John Deere tracks usage — as in, are people actually doing the work with AI? Teams across the company use AI tools near-daily as part of how work gets done, and that usage is now part of how leaders are measured.

There is a centralized enterprise AI platform. Behind the metric is infrastructure. John Deere built a platform securely connected to OpenAI, designed to scale innovation while meeting the company's standards for trust, safety, and compliance. AI is embedded across supply chain operations, customer experience, and communications. "This isn't just about accelerating tasks," Pryor said. "It's about restructuring work, so our people spend less time on friction and more time driving impact."

There is a certification program with a marketplace pathway. John Deere requires employees on a continual basis to build proficiency in AI through a certification program — and that certification is connected to a planned internal talent marketplace where AI-proficient employees can be placed into roles that need them.

Pryor was candid about where the program stands. "The marketplace hasn't launched yet, but it will be interesting to see as people are going along on the journey, who's interested in being placed in that marketplace once they've gotten their proficiency up." That admission — we don't have it all figured out, but we are iterating — is itself worth noting, because it counters the perfectionism that stalls most HR teams. John Deere is not claiming to have solved AI talent strategy. It is claiming to be building it in real time, learning as it goes, and shipping the next iteration when it is ready.

"We are iterating, and we are getting better and better with our OpenAI partners. We're doing user testing. We're taking a step back to go two steps forward when the time dictates that we have to do so."

Reframing the Fear

The hardest part of any AI transformation is not the technology. It is the story employees tell themselves about what AI means for their jobs. Pryor offered the room a piece of language every CHRO can use directly:

"It's not about AI taking your job. It's about the human being that's going to be more proficient in its usage that you should be most concerned about."

That is the reframe in two sentences. The fear of replacement gets converted into a question about proficiency. The threat moves from external — the AI is coming for me — to internal: am I keeping up with my peers? It is a more productive question, because it is actionable.

She paired it with a story about legacy employees who tell her, "This isn't the same company that my grandpa worked in."

Her response: "You're right."

"It's okay to say you're right, we know. The reason that we've been able to exist for 189 years is because on day one, we embrace the legacy of change. And we have no time right now to not embrace it."

That is a CHRO refusing to manage feelings and instead reframing the conversation. It is not the same company. That is the point. That is why we are still here.

The Framework Behind the Story

Pryor delivered her keynote on day one. The next morning, Kevin Martin, i4cp's chief research officer, presented the Future-Ready Framework — three mutually reinforcing capabilities: culture readiness, AI readiness, and skills readiness. Organizations strong in all three are twice as likely to sustain superior market performance compared to those focused on AI alone.

Pryor did not frame her keynote in those terms. She did not have to. The alignment is clear on its own. John Deere's cultural commitment to the legacy of change is culture readiness. The OpenAI partnership and the centralized enterprise AI platform are AI readiness. The certification program and the planned talent marketplace are skills readiness. Three pillars, all reinforcing each other, sustained over time rather than launched as a one-off transformation.

That is what the framework looks like when it moves out of a research report and into a 189-year-old company.

Get on the Wagon

Pryor closed her keynote the way she opened it: with John Deere products. After nearly 30 minutes on partnerships, platforms, certifications, and culture change, she landed somewhere unexpected.

"Get on the wagon. Get on the back of the tractor. Get on the back of the gator. We want you on a John Deere product. Either way, we want to come along on the journey."

It was deliberate. The entire keynote had been about not sitting on the sidelines, and Pryor ended by inviting everyone in the room to climb aboard.

Her final challenge to the audience was direct: "We don't have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines here. We need to be early adopters, and we need to be bringing people along on the journey. And we need to execute. We have a real opportunity to move the obstacles out of the way."

For HR leaders looking beyond the John Deere example, Pryor's approach offers three practical starting points.

Start with leadership commitment, not pilot programs. AI partnerships at scale require executive buy-in — and that buy-in has to hold when things get hard. The technology question is the easy part. The cultural question is what determines whether it sticks.

Track AI usage as a metric, not just a training stat. Certification completion tells you who clicked through a course. Usage tells you whose work has actually changed.

Reframe the fear. The story most employees tell themselves about AI is one of replacement. The story HR needs to tell is one of proficiency, partnership, and career relevance. Pryor's framing — that the human who gets proficient is the one to think about, not the AI — gives employees a way to engage with the transformation rather than brace against it.

John Deere has endured for 189 years because it has always been willing to reinvent. Pryor's challenge to the room was to bring that same willingness to HR itself.

Now is our time to lead.