---
id: "action-simulate-enterprise-tradeoffs"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Implications for Talent Management", "¶16"]
tags: ["talent-development", "succession-planning"]
related: ["concept-compressed-leadership-pipeline"]
speakers: ["Michael D. Watkins"]
action: "Design immersive stretch scenarios that simulate enterprise-level trade-offs to replace lost middle-management stepping stones."
outcome: "Compresses years of cross-functional exposure into months for high-potential leaders."
sources: ["reskilling"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-reskilling"
originDay: 10
articleStem: "hbr-nm-100-3-forces-manager-to-leader"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/3-forces-are-redefining-the-transition-from-manager-to-leader"
sourceTitle: "3 Forces Are Redefining the Transition from Manager to Leader"
---
# Design Stretch Assignments for Pipeline Gaps

**Action:** Design immersive stretch scenarios that simulate enterprise-level trade-offs to replace lost middle-management stepping stones.

**Outcome:** Compresses years of cross-functional exposure into months for high-potential leaders.

Because organizational flattening has removed the gradual on-ramps to enterprise leadership (see [[concept-compressed-leadership-pipeline]]), HR and talent management must artificially create these experiences. This involves designing specific stretch assignments and immersive scenarios that force high-potentials to make the complex, cross-functional trade-offs they will face in senior roles. *How* to make such simulations genuinely replicate real stakes is an [[question-compressing-experience|open question]].