When a longtime CEO steps down, it's not just a change in leadership—it's a shift in the organization's heartbeat. After 40 years of service, Williams faced exactly that moment: a legacy to honor, a culture to protect, and a future to build. But how do you preserve stability while ushering in transformation? In this episode, Debbie Pickle, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer at Williams, talks about orchestrating a seamless CEO succession after long tenures and the CHRO's pivotal role in managing the culture, priorities, and structure during these executive transitions. She walks through creating a CEO Resource Guide, using tools like Hogan Assessments, 360 feedback, and development plans to prepare candidates, and crafting a thoughtful 30–60–90-day plan for the incoming CEO. Debbie also shares how Williams redefined its core values and replaced its mission and vision with a purpose statement, all while aligning the board of directors through strong governance principles like "noses in, fingers out." CHROs will learn all tips into managing leadership transitions through feedback loop, the importance of continuous learning during change, and how to become a true strategic partner and CEO whisperer in the organization. You'll learn how to guide your company through its next defining leadership chapter and balance what's changing vs. what's staying the same.

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Start your day with the world's top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just enter your email: ⁠⁠https://greatleadership.substack.com/

Future-ready organizations are built, not hoped for. My latest book, -The 8 Laws of Employee Experience shows how. Preorder here: 8EXlaws.com

The world of work didn't just change, it fundamentally broke the old rules. Forget just 'adapting'—this episode is your essential guide to understanding the radical shifts currently squeezing CHROs and how to build a team that can truly withstand them. In this special episode, we revisit three of our most important conversations from the past year. Entrepreneur and author Mark Matson reframes the American Dream for the modern workplace, revealing how distorted mindsets—entitlement, resentment, and "juicy victimhood"—are limiting performance more than circumstances ever could, and what leaders can do to revive accountability and ownership. Endurance expert and best-selling author Alex Hutchinson shows how the science of athletic training applies directly to leadership today, from managing chronic stress to sustaining creativity and peak performance. And Stephen Schmidt, Chief Security Officer at Amazon, breaks down why the biggest AI threats aren't technical at all, but human—rooted in behavior, trust, and a lack of guardrails. Together, these segments surface a simple truth: the future belongs to leaders who can build personal responsibility, manage stress like an athlete, and create a culture strong enough to withstand the risks of an AI-powered world.

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Start your day with the world's top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just enter your email: ⁠⁠https://greatleadership.substack.com/

Quick heads-up: my new book, The 8 Laws of Employee Experience, is a practical playbook for building an environment where people do their best work—preorder a copy here: 8EXlaws.com

December 24, 2025:

The systems we've relied on to organize work are starting to crack.

In this episode of Future Ready Today, we unpack four stories that reveal how deeply work is being reshaped — often in ways leaders aren't prepared for. AI was supposed to make hiring fairer and faster, but instead it's flooding employers with indistinguishable candidates and eroding trust in the hiring process. Workers are debating whether flexibility is worth a massive pay cut, exposing a deeper shift in how people value time, money, and quality of life. LinkedIn's CEO argues that five-year career plans are now outdated as skills evolve faster than organizations can plan for. And inside offices, introverts are pushing back on collaboration models designed for visibility rather than outcomes — raising hard questions about accommodation, performance, and accountability.

Together, these stories point to a larger truth: work is moving away from rigid structures and toward adaptability, learning velocity, and human judgment. The future of work won't be defined by perks, policies, or platforms — it will be shaped by how well organizations redesign hiring, careers, and culture for a world of constant change.

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Future-ready organizations are built, not hoped for. My latest book, -The 8 Laws of Employee Experience shows how. Preorder here: 8EXlaws.com

December 23, 2025:

AI is moving from experiment to expectation at record speed, but employees say leadership hasn't built the systems needed to support it. Remote work is quietly becoming a privilege instead of a right. And a growing number of professionals are reclaiming Sundays as deep-work days because weekdays have become fragmented and unproductive.

In this episode, we examine four stories that reveal a powerful shift underway: the future of work is no longer about where or when people work — it's about who has leverage, who controls their time, and which organizations can redesign work fast enough to keep up. If you want to understand what's really changing beneath the headlines, this episode connects the dots.

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Quick heads-up: my new book, The 8 Laws of Employee Experience, is a practical playbook for building an environment where people do their best work—preorder a copy here: 8EXlaws.com

For many leaders, "transformation at scale" feels like an impossible task—especially when employees are overwhelmed, technology is accelerating, and expectations about the future of work keep shifting. But Norfolk Southern has done this successfully in one of the toughest environments imaginable: a 200-year-old freight railroad with a safety-sensitive, unionized workforce. And in this episode, you'll hear how. Annie Adams, CHRO and former Chief Transformation Officer, shows what operational excellence powered by AI really looks like in practice. You'll learn how she led a headquarters relocation to Atlanta, built a future-ready corporate headquarters around employee experience, and used guiding principles like clear communication, leader toolkits, and discretionary effort to manage transformation fatigue. Annie dives into how Norfolk Southern "puts the AI in railroad" through innovations like digital train inspection portals, machine vision, on-edge computing, and 75+ algorithms that turn "finders into fixers." She also breaks down how their data science team uses predictive maintenance to model track wear, how giving frontline employees mobile tools has improved the way work gets done, and how Copilot is helping leaders make sense of 26,000+ employee survey comments. She shares cultural anchors like their SPIRIT values and the iconic Lake Pontchartrain recovery story that reveals the company's deep commitment to innovation and purpose.

________________

Start your day with the world's top leaders by joining thousands of others at Great Leadership on Substack. Just enter your email: ⁠⁠https://greatleadership.substack.com/

Future-ready organizations are built, not hoped for. My latest book, -The 8 Laws of Employee Experience shows how. Preorder here: 8EXLaws.com

December 19, 2025:

Workers are hesitating before changing jobs. Parents are questioning whether college is still worth the cost. Talent shortages persist even as hiring slows. And U.S. regulators are signaling a major shift in how companies approach DEI.

In this episode, we explore six key future-of-work stories shaping how people think about careers, education, productivity, and fairness at work. From new data on job mobility and workforce policy to early recession signals and changing attitudes toward vocational paths, these stories reveal a workforce moving from confidence to caution—and from slogans to systems.

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Stop patching problems and start designing an intentional workplace. The 8 Laws of Employee Experience gives you the how. Preorder your copy: 8EXlaws.com

https://bit.ly/8exlawsDecember 18, 2025:

Is artificial intelligence already replacing jobs—or is that narrative getting ahead of the data?

This episode examines new research from Vanguard's 2026 Economic and Market Outlook, which analyzes U.S. employment and wage data to understand how AI exposure is actually affecting work today. Contrary to widespread fears, the findings show that jobs most exposed to AI—including analysts, accountants, HR professionals, and other knowledge workers—are not disappearing. They are growing. And real wages in those roles are rising faster than in jobs with lower AI exposure.

The episode explores why AI is currently acting as a productivity amplifier rather than a job killer, how this phase mirrors earlier waves of technological change, and where the real risks are beginning to emerge. It also looks ahead to the implications for workforce design, skill development, and career pathways—especially as AI reshapes entry-level work and raises performance expectations across organizations.

For leaders, executives, and professionals trying to separate AI hype from reality, this episode offers a grounded, data-driven view of what's happening now—and what signals to watch next in the future of work.

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If you lead people, you design experiences—do it on purpose with The 8 Laws of Employee Experience. Preorder now: 8EXlaws.com

December 17, 2025: Gartner's 2026 HR trends reveal how AI adoption is outpacing people systems and managerial readiness; Ford scales back parts of its electric vehicle strategy as regulatory pressure, legacy infrastructure, and workforce realities collide; white-collar job markets tighten while demand grows for skilled, non-automatable work; rising job anxiety spreads across professional roles as career certainty erodes; companies accelerate skills-based hiring as college degrees lose signaling power; and the UK passes a major Employment Rights Bill aimed at reducing job precarity by expanding worker protections and limiting unstable work arrangements.

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Looking for what actually moves the needle on performance and retention? It's in The 8 Laws of Employee Experience. Preorder here: 8EXlaws.com