ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Everyone in your building finally agrees the old HR model has to come down, so why does handing that same building's CHRO the sledgehammer almost guarantee the wrong wall gets hit?
The debate is over: the old HR function has to come apart, and even the people who built the old way are saying so. In this Thursday episode, Jackson Lynch and former CHRO Scott Morris agree on the demolition and then fight, in front of you, over the one decision that actually matters: who holds the pen on the rebuild. Scott's argument, from his "Dismantle HR" piece, is that the CHRO whose worth is measured by the size of their function can't be the one to shrink it. Jackson's counter is that the CEO who will cut it has the right incentive and the wrong map, and takes out the strategic half by mistake over a weekend. With CHRO turnover at 9% and average tenure down to 4.7 years, and Gartner projecting 40% of enterprise apps shipping with built-in AI agents by the end of 2026, the chair is being squeezed from both sides.
You'll discover:
- Why the two failure modes (the CHRO who won't cut and the CEO who cuts blind) are really one design flaw: an incentive and an expertise welded into a single chair that almost never holds both.
- How to separate the decision owner from the architect, so the person whose incentive is the business result owns the call and the person who knows what breaks when a piece moves does the rebuild.
- The one sentence to write before you touch the org chart, the denominator HR never had, and the four moves that pull the two jobs apart before anyone picks up a sledgehammer.
Press play to learn who should hold the pen on your function's rebuild, and how to make that call on purpose before someone makes it for you.
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Each episode builds the HR leadership the top chair demands, and the business-first HR that takes human resources beyond the support function, without losing its functional excellence, and makes it a driver of the business.
It's what CEOs want from HR and how the CHRO and CEO actually work together — the unwritten CHRO mandate, the human capital strategy and people strategy that show up in revenue and margin, the talent strategy and executive talent that outlast a leadership change, and the succession planning that survives a new chief executive.
It's job architecture as AI and work design reshape the org, the emerging chief of work agenda, and the moves a private equity HR clock demands.
And no — this was never about an HR seat at the table. The chair is already yours; the altitude is the question.
Music by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net/
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