---
id: "framework-five-paradigms"
type: "framework"
source_timestamps: ["¶6", "§ Reskilling Is a Strategic Imperative", "§ Reskilling Is the Responsibility of Every Leader and Manager", "§ Reskilling Is a Change-Management Initiative", "§ Employees Want to Reskill—When It Makes Sense", "§ Reskilling Takes a Village"]
tags: ["corporate-strategy", "paradigm-shift", "leadership"]
related: ["claim-upskilling-insufficient", "framework-reskilling-change-management"]
speakers: ["Jorge Tamayo", "Leila Doumi", "Sagar Goel", "Orsolya Kovács-Ondrejkovic", "Raffaella Sadun"]
sources: ["reskilling"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-reskilling"
originDay: 10
articleStem: "hbr-edu-34-reskilling-in-age-of-ai"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2023/09/reskilling-in-the-age-of-ai"
sourceTitle: "Reskilling in the Age of AI"
---
# The Five Paradigm Shifts of Reskilling

Based on **interviews with leaders at nearly 40 organizations**, the authors synthesized five necessary paradigm shifts companies must embrace to succeed at large-scale reskilling in the era of AI and automation. The through-line: move away from viewing reskilling as a localized HR function or PR exercise, and toward a holistic, strategic, ecosystem-driven approach. This is the spine of the entire source; every other note hangs off one of these five shifts.

**The five shifts:**

1. **Reskilling Is a Strategic Imperative** — Shift from using reskilling for PR or to soften layoffs, to using it to build competitive advantage and fill critical skills gaps. Exemplars: [[entity-ericsson|Ericsson]] (multiyear strategy, quarterly OKR reviews), [[entity-amazon-d10|Amazon]], [[entity-icici-bank|ICICI Bank]].
2. **Reskilling Is the Responsibility of Every Leader and Manager** — Shift ownership from a siloed HR department to the C-suite and middle managers, tied to business strategy and performance metrics (see [[claim-hr-silo-failure]] and [[contrarian-reskilling-not-hr]]).
3. **Reskilling Is a Change-Management Initiative** — Shift from merely delivering training to actively managing organizational context, supply/demand, and middle-manager mindsets. Detailed in [[framework-reskilling-change-management]].
4. **Employees Want to Reskill—When It Makes Sense** — Shift from blaming employees for low participation to designing programs that reduce personal risk, cover costs, and provide dedicated time (see [[claim-employee-willingness]], [[contrarian-employees-want-reskilling]]).
5. **Reskilling Takes a Village** — Shift from a single-organization mindset to leveraging an ecosystem of industry coalitions, NGOs, and academic institutions (see [[action-partner-with-ecosystem]], [[contrarian-competitor-collaboration]], [[entity-year-up]]).

The framework is the direct answer to [[claim-upskilling-insufficient]]: if upskilling alone cannot meet the moment, these five shifts define what a genuine reskilling revolution requires.