Most organizations have a well-established succession process for the top of the house. One or two layers down, the picture is often much murkier. These roles can be critical for very different reasons, and what makes a role critical today may look very different two years from now, particularly with AI on the scene.

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Yet these harder-to-fill roles often have an outsized impact on growth, execution, and customer outcomes. Identifying a successor is one thing; having someone truly ready to step into the role is another. This session is about closing the distance between the two.

What you’ll leave with

• A sharper view of where your talent pipeline is most exposed
• A role-specific approach to defining readiness as business and AI needs evolve
• New ways to use assessment to accelerate readiness, not just measure it
• Real-world lessons from peers tackling the same challenge

Who should attend

• ‍‍Heads of Talent
• Heads of Succession
• Heads of Leadership Development
• HR Business Partners responsible for critical role pipelines

Agenda

10:30am · Arrive
Come early, settle in.

10:50am · Welcome
Meet your hosts and our featured speaker and get set up for the simulation.

11:00am · Working session
Two hours, in three parts:

Framework
The building blocks of a critical role strategy, plus an honest read on where your own organization sits today.

Featured speaker
Rhonda Rhodes, Director, Medical Affairs and Health Impact, Leadership and Capabilities Development, AbbVie
Rhonda will share how leaders in the Medical Affairs and Health Impact team at AbbVie approach critical role strategy, where they've hit challenges, and what she'd do differently today.

Simulation
Take part in a live simulation where you'll make critical role decisions yourself, working through the kinds of tradeoffs leaders face when building a ready-now bench.

1:00 - 2:00pm · Lunch reception
Stay for lunch and conversation.