The 9-Box Grid-Assessing the Performance and Promotability of the Talent in your Organization

HR! Why don't we have anyone we can promote into this key, open position?

Have you ever heard this question before? Have you ever heard it and thought, "Gee, I tried to get them to plan for this eventuality!"

Whether you have heard this question, or simply believe you will hear it one day, here are some thoughts on getting started in planning for the future and developing a basic plan for Talent Development and Succession Planning.

First, don't try to plan, design, and implement the perfect program in one week. Or month. Or year. It takes time, careful thought, planning, and resources (for both the planning and resulting action.)

I suggest that the first thing you may want to consider is to identify two or three positions that, if left unfilled for a significant time, would have a negative affect on the performance of your organization. This is also a good conversation-starter for you to introduce this topic to your CEO, General Manager, etc. You must have their buy-in to have a successful talent initiative.

Second, and this will be the focus of this blog, is that you must assess your current pool of talent. One of the best ways is to show (graphically) the performance level and the growth potential of  your current pool. I like using the "9-Box Grid." The 9-Box grid should be populated during a consensus discussion with your organization's senior leaders, and is best facilitated by HR or a neutral facilitator.

Consider the following example (there are many ways to structure your 9-Box grid):

The Classic 9 Block Leadership Grid

Performance/Potential

·    Immediately Promotable – Identify Possibilities H/H	·   Provide coaching to maximize performance H/M	·   May be new to position ·   Manage Up H/L
·   Provide coaching to maximize performance M/H	·   Avoid “over stacking” in this block ·   Provide coaching to maximize performance M/M	·   Poor fit ·   Manage Up or Out M/L
·   Provide coaching to achieve acceptable performance L/H	·   Provide coaching to achieve acceptable performance L/M	·   Poor fit ·   Manage Out L/L

 The X, or horizontal axis of the matrix, measures performance, with the left being the highest performance. The Y, or vertical axis, measures potential for promotion, with the top of the matrix being the highest potential.

As you can see, this matrix provides a great visual representation of the current performance and growth potential of your talent pool. If your organization has a significant absence of names along the top row, you may want to consider internal and external resources to develop and prepare some of your talent to move up.

As a word of caution, if the majority of your talent appears in the middle box, it is very likely that your leaders who are assessing your talent pool have "wimped out" and failed to be brutally honest in their assessment of the talent pool.

As a note to the facilitator, especially the first few times that you go through this exercise: this can be very stressful for managers who, for possibly the first time, are asked to admit that some of their talent may be less effective than that in other departments.

Have fun with it- this is the "Good Work of HR." Nothing is more important than sourcing, boarding, assessing, and managing your talent!