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With just under five months left in 2025, many HR leaders are refocusing their priorities and adapting plans to meet emerging business needs for the rest of the year. A new 28-minute episode of The Conference Board podcast shares timely insights from CHROs on where their focus is heading next. One standout—echoing several of my recent posts on scenario planning—is how CHROs are leaning more heavily on scenario planning to guide both succession and strategic workforce planning. In succession planning, leaders are increasingly using “what if?” scenarios to prepare for sudden changes in key roles, asking, “If this happens, then what?” and ensuring contingency talent is ready for vacancies or shifts driven by economic, geopolitical (e.g., tariffs), or technological (e.g., automation) factors. In workforce planning, scenario planning helps organizations stress-test their readiness for multiple possible futures, ensuring greater agility and resilience. As this practice becomes more integral across HR, developing scenario-planning capabilities is essential. With this in mind, I am resharing my one-page cheat sheet with key questions to guide thinking about potential business scenarios, their talent implications, and how to prepare for them. Also, here is the transcript from the referenced podcast discussion.
