Overview
Overview
Succession planning is not just a business imperative—it’s a cornerstone of organizational resilience and leadership continuity. In today’s fast-paced, ever-changing business environment, leadership transitions can occur suddenly, leaving organizations vulnerable without a proactive strategy in place.
Ensuring the right talent is in the right roles, both now and in the future, is a nuanced and complex endeavor. A successful succession plan is never one-size-fits-all. It requires a deliberate approach to bridging talent gaps, minimizing business disruptions, and fostering a culture of development aligned with your organization’s unique values, priorities, and goals.
For HR leaders, a key challenge lies in gaining buy-in from senior leaders and managers. Inspiring them to take ownership of succession planning and prioritize it as a disciplined business practice can create a lasting impact for future generations of leaders. Building future-ready leadership pipelines often requires overcoming resistance and shifting organizational mindsets.
This live-virtual course provides the tools, frameworks, and insights to design and implement scalable succession planning strategies tailored to their organizations. Led by Brad Bell, Cornell ILR faculty, and Carlo Frappolli, former Head of Talent at JP Morgan Chase & Co., this program blends cutting-edge research with real-world insights and actionable best practices. Whether you are starting from scratch or refining an established strategy, this course empowers you to drive lasting change and deliver measurable results.
Structured into five interactive 90-minute sessions over five weeks, the program provides a comprehensive, hands-on learning experience. The objectives of the program include:
- Defining the business case for succession planning and how to generate buy-in from business leaders
- Addressing common obstacles and resistance to succession planning efforts
- Recognizing candidate aspirations as well as organization needs in the succession planning process
- Building diverse and equitable talent pipelines while mitigating bias in process
- Developing scalable, tailored strategies to expand succession planning across the organization
- Establishing metrics and tracking mechanisms to evaluate the success and sustainability of your succession plan
- Collaborating with CAHRS partners to share best practices and developing a real action plan to implement immediately to further the succession planning efforts at your organization
Who Should Attend
This program is designed for HR professionals with 10-15+ years of experience who oversee succession planning program design and advise senior leadership on strategic talent management, succession planning, organizational design, and leadership development.
Sample titles: Head of Talent Management, Head of Leadership Development, Head of Organizational Development, Senior HR Business Partner, Senior Vice President, Vice President, Managing Director, Director
Considerations for Nominating a Participant
The ideal participant should:
- Be available to attend and actively participate in all live-virtual sessions
- Be prepared to apply program learnings back to their organizations through follow-up discussions, team presentations, or other means.
Commitment
- Five weekly live-virtual sessions of 90 minutes each, hosted on Zoom
- Additional readings and activities outside of class may be assigned
- Total program time: ~12 hours over 5 weeks / ~ 2.5 hours commitment per week
Agenda
May 7 - June 4, 2025
Session 1, May 7
Getting Started
- The importance of succession planning
- Current trends and challenges in succession planning and leadership development
- Making the case: overcoming obstacles and resistance
- Tailoring succession planning to align with culture, values, and talent philosophy
Session 2, May 14
The Candidate Experience
- Balancing candidate aspirations with business needs
- Strategies for integrating candidate aspirations transparently and effectively into the process
- Evaluating the risks and benefits of transparency in communications
Session 3, May 21
Diversifying the Talent Pool/Pipeline
- The role of diversity, equity and inclusion in succession planning
- Addressing barriers to achieving diversity in talent pipelines
- Exploring the implications of sharing talent profiles with managers
Session 4, May 28
Internal vs. External Talent
- Evaluating the benefits and tradeoffs of internal vs. external hiring
- Considering cultural and strategic implications
- Managing internal rejections and minimizing negative impacts
Session 5, June 4
Putting Your Plan into Action
- Engaging key stakeholders within a networked talent management function
- Strategies to expand succession planning efforts organization-wide
- Metrics and tracking mechanisms to evaluate success
- Development of a practical and effective action plan to advance succession planning strategies in your organization
Instructors
Certification
Recognition of Achievement
Participants will receive a Certificate of Completion from the Center for Advanced HR Studies at the Cornell ILR School
Earn Continuing Education Credits
This program qualifies for Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) credits or Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) credits
Questions?
Contact: Karen Siewert: kts47@cornell.edu