Of course, change requires change. Until there is a felt need for change, it is only an event not a pattern.

People are more likely to support a change when they have information on it and when they participate in it. So, getting the CHRO information about the transformation and involving the CHRO in the transformation effort are critical to success.

Leaders being born vs. made is a bit of a separate issue. The research on this issue is fairly conclusive: 50/50. We have innate predispositions that affect who we are and what we do (nature) but we can learn and develop and grow (nurture).

It is easier to talk about doing things than doing them. Many of us want to exercise more, eat more healthy, be kinder to our loved ones, etc., but unless we have specific milestones about how to do this, our intentions do not match our actions. The HR milestones we lay out offer specific steps along the longer journey to HR transformation.

I see top business schools working to bridge this gap [between academic research and business application] by respecting executive education, by having more mature students who proactively draw from faculty what they know they need, and by having faculty who are willing to leave their ivory towers for the murky world of business reality. Unfortunately, at other times, business professors have little or not interest or savvy about business issues.

Future leaders will be less concerned with saying what they will deliver and more concerned with delivering what they have said they would.

People will change when they see that the change will help them reach their goals. If the CHRO sees that the HR transformation that others desire will help the CHRO reach his or her goals, then there will be more support. Absent this reasoning, the CHRO may go through the motions, but the transformation will not be sincere or lasting.