The Midyear Check-in: Nothing Gets Fixed Until It Gets Seen

Heading into 2026, I put together a strategy guide for companies whose ambitions were outpacing their people infrastructure. The through-line was a gap most leaders know exists but can't fully acknowledge: there is a distance between what a company wants to achieve and what its people operations can deliver.

Six months later, the gap is harder to ignore, and it looks different depending on where a company started.

For some companies, the gap narrowed. Something got built. Maybe not everything, but enough to enter the back half with more clarity on what their people operations are and what they're not.

For others, the gap widened. Strategy stayed ambitious while infrastructure stayed reactive. Budget pressure made the foundational work harder to prioritize. Economic uncertainty made commitment feel risky. AI promised to close the gap and partially did, in specific places.

What both groups share is broader visibility into the gap between strategy and capacity that wasn't available at the start of the year. We can't fix anything before it gets seen.

What the First Half Revealed

The four challenges I named in the strategy guide haven't resolved. They got more specific.

Economic uncertainty didn't resolve. The "afraid to commit, afraid to fall behind" tension sorted companies into two groups. Those that cut aggressively in Q1 are now running leaner than they planned. Those who tried to hold the line are heading into harder budget conversations ahead of 2027. Neither was wrong, but both need different people moves now than they planned for at the start of the year.

The job market got stranger. The paradox of too many applicants and no one quite right got amplified by AI-generated resumes, AI-assisted interviews, and hiring teams without time to sort real signal from synthetic. Qualified people with long track records are competing for roles that would have fit their career ten years ago.

Healthcare costs landed lower than feared but higher than comfortable. According to Mercer, Aon, Business Group on Health, and PwC, increases across employer-sponsored plans came in at 7-10%, lower than the 15-20% the strategy guide flagged, but significant enough to sting. Renewal decisions hit and approaches split three ways: passing more costs to employees, narrowing networks, or making painful cuts to plan design. The cost of not having an established benefits strategy is more visible now than it was when healthcare inflation was more modest.

The AI question evolved fastest. Six months in, the tools are doing real work in people ops: informing decisions, writing job descriptions, filtering data. But the companies getting the most out of them aren't replacing judgment with AI. Where that pairing breaks down is where the tools create more noise than signal. The ones getting it right are pairing AI with experienced practitioners who are reading the road. The full picture is in my field report.

The back half doesn't get easier. It gets more consequential.

The strategy guide named these challenges before the year started. Six months in, none of them have simplified. What's changed is how clearly companies can see which ones they're equipped to handle.

What the Back Half Requires

The first half rewarded action. The second half rewards judgment.

If H1 was about building, H2 is about pressure-testing. The infrastructure developed in the first and second quarters is now up against initiatives like leadership bench gaps, acquisition readiness, total rewards, end-of-year planning, and 2027 strategy.

If H1 was about speed, H2 is about sequencing. A systematic approach matters more now than it did six months ago, and any misstep shows up in major places: year-end budget decisions where consequences surface when it's too late, retention risks that go unnoticed until notice is given, and 2027 planning that starts without the infrastructure to inform it. The back half rewards practitioners who know the success of what follows depends on what came before.

If H1 rewarded breadth, H2 rewards depth. The companies that struggle here aren't short on ideas; they're short on execution. Concepts get developed, priorities compete, and the thing that would have moved the needle never gets finished. The ones getting it right over the next six months are doubling down on the infrastructure that makes everything else land. The back half success story is simpler than it sounds: pick one thing and finish it.

The Moves That Matter Most

The second half doesn't need more projects. It needs the right focus.

Start with a pressure test. Use the AI tool that's already in the workflow to map the gaps and stress-test the areas where Q4 plans are most vulnerable. Then bring in someone, or a specific small group, with the judgment, context, and pattern recognition to make sense of what surfaces, because people and experience decide which gaps matter most. The outcomes are Q3 priorities, not the Q4 scramble.

Treat the pressure test results as an agenda for an H1 retrospective, a critical activity countless leadership teams skip. The typical stop, start, and continue gets the conversation started, but H2 requires going deeper. Are the right people in the right roles, or do we need to transfer and upskill talent? What are the potential long-term impacts of the pressure test results that go unresolved? How does what we learned affect market position? The leadership teams that run a formal retro, supported by real data, enter the back half with sharper focus and faster alignment than the ones that don't.

From that conversation, one priority should emerge. Not five. One. Pick one thing and finish it.

Where to Go from Here

We're halfway through a year that most companies planned in a hurry. Some of what was already planned might be holding up just fine, while other pieces need an adjustment. The back half rewards the orgs that do the check-in work now, while there's still time to adjust and make moves where needed. Waiting until Q4 to sort that out means trying to fix everything at once.

A midyear strategy session covers the ground that matters and solidifies the two or three moves that will matter most for the back half. No fluff, just straight talk about what's worth doing now and what can wait.

The back half doesn't get easier. It gets more consequential. If your leadership team is ready to do the check-in work now, here's how I can help.