Leadership change is inevitable. But the organizations that thrive are the ones that see it coming, plan strategically, and execute by building anti-fragile and adaptable leadership pipelines.
Welcome to the succession-centric era of leadership development.
Whether you’re here to decode the patterns of past leadership transitions, pinpoint the forces shaping talent development today, or get a framework for understanding the needs of tomorrow’s leaders, this is your guide to making sense of succession planning.
Our research connects the dots between cultural stories, scientific insights, industry case studies, and actionable frameworks to help you and your leadership team navigate one of the most critical challenges in leadership. We break down some of the biggest wins and losses in leadership transitions, reveal emerging trends reshaping succession planning, and give you data-informed strategic recommendations to make decisions.
How to Make Our Succession Planning Research Work for You
- Know your why. Before diving in, ask yourself: Why I am here? What am I solving for? Are you here to design a long-term succession strategy? Strengthen your leadership pipeline? Learn more about how your teams understand and experience succession? Avoid the traps that have taken down others? The best way to use this succession planning research is to read with a purpose. And that purpose is yours.
- Think playbook, not textbook. You don’t need to read every word we’ve written to get value from our research. Start with the executive summary for the big picture. Then, pick the sections that align with your opportunities and challenges. For some it will be lessons from high-stakes stories of transition. For others, it will be evidence-based best practices or frameworks you can put into action today.
- Engage actively, apply impactfully. Take notes, flag key insights, and concentrate on execution. Succession isn’t a passive process. It’s an evolving mindset that shapes the future of your organization. Use our research to ask better questions, start critical conversations, tell impactful stories, and design leadership transitions that fill today’s gaps while creating stronger tomorrows.
Read Our 4-Part Research Feature
Executive Summary
Get an overview of what’s at stake for organizations that operate without formal succession plans. Our goal is to help you create lasting impact by developing better leaders for a better world.
Succession Stories: 3 Powerful Narratives Converge
Succession planning isn’t just a process — it’s a narrative-oriented mindset that leverages culture, experience, and science to succeed now and in the future. We detail trends around cultural storytelling, industry transformation, and scientific insights, and connect why media, industry, and science stories matter to succession planning.
Evidence-Driven Succession: Factors Affecting the Process
Relational, political, and cultural factors help leaders find what works, where the gaps are, and how they can level up. Review the evidence-based factors that affect the succession planning process, and explore a bibliometric snapshot of the entire field of succession planning research — it will help you navigate the complexity of ideas and challenges affecting leadership transitions.
Blueprints for Success: A New Framework & Strategic Recommendations
The dynamic convergences of research and real-world application we’ve uncovered open new opportunities for reframing succession planning. See the 3 succession-centric mindsets that form our succession planning research-based framework, and get our 5 recommendations for developing a strategy that encourages long-term thinking and optimizes leadership for the future.
