Innovation in Succession Planning

Oftentimes, this well-known succession planning tool is NOT deployed effectively.   

The use of the 9-box grid is widespread in organizations.  

There’s nothing inherently wrong with it.  I use it myself with clients.   

But it’s just a tool.  A framework.

It can be all too easy for leaders to start to see it as being just about LABELING employees annually.

Yet the greatest sin is when organizations don’t do enough with that data in between - which leads to the exact OPPOSITE of what we want:

Limited development.  
Limited conversations. 
Limited opportunity and internal mobility.

Here’s how I see it.  The two main goals of succession planning are:

🍏 to identify and cultivate a clear and ready pipeline of successors for key roles AND

🍏 to ensure that everyone receives appropriate attention and development support to help them be productive, effective and engaged.

In our August Talent Talk, I was joined by some amazing Talent Leaders to discuss “Innovation in Succession Planning.”   

Here are some key takeaways from our discussion:

🍏 Whatever your model/grid/system, it’s all about the development conversations that follow:  “What’s next?”

🍏 Embrace the iteration!   Every process or program has a shelf life - adjust how you’re collecting the data and doing the assessments each year to keep it fresh and relevant

🍏 Your program doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective

Lastly, here’s a reframing question I offered to the group that really resonated.  

Instead of asking:
“How valuable is this talent?” 

Change your question to:
“HOW is this talent valuable?” 🍏🍏🍏