The Myth and Facts of a 9-Box
February 17th, 2009 by Lois MelbourneEven though talent management is one of the hottest buzz terms in the HR industry right now, the practice of succession planning is really new to many HR professionals. With succession planning so often kept only in the executive suite and the top management of an organization, the average HR person doesn’t get to practice the art of succession planning.
Now the trend is moving toward succession planning or replacement planning for the entire organization. This means we need to become familiar with the terms and tools available. One of the more common questions I get asked is “What is a 9-Box that I keep hearing about?” A 9-Box is a grid with which you plot employees based on their performance ranking and their potential for advancement (see graphic). It is a little like the magic quadrant that analysts use to illustrate different rankings for comparison.
MYTH TO BE BUSTED: Not every quality employee is a High Potential, High Performer employee. Yes, quality employees should be performing high. But they may not have the potential for promotion up through management. Lacking the potential to move up to management or to be an executive is not a requirement for a stellar employee with huge value to the organization. Specialists and experts in their field may not desire to manage people, but yield great results in their position. Moving ‘up’ may require re-location and that might not be in the family or life plan of an employee. Do not judge less than high potential people as anything other than not interested or ready for a move up the corporate org chart.
The traditional 9-Box should be used to focus the process of assigning successors because the individuals in the upper right quadrant have been identified as people with the potential of moving up. If your organization has gone through a formal process of identifying high potentials you may wish to begin the initiative or address the 9-Box process with management as they assess each team for successors. We are seeing some very creative uses for the 9-Box that are different than the traditional and not using the same data on the axis. If you want to learn more, let me know.
Cheers,
Lois
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How deep into an organization do you typically do you typically run the 9 box? All the way down through management or into the lowest of the ranks?
PS I’m also in the YPO in the chicagoland chapter as the
Chicago Furniture Store Guy
The trend is to move the 9 Box evaluation and succession planning (now often called replacement planning beyond the executive suite) much deeper into the organization. It is wise to evaluate the strength of the ‘bench’ for each key position. Because key positions can be a long way down in the org chart and still very critical to the success of the organization, each company must decide where they must have a succession plan in place.
cheers
Lois
Hi Lois
Firstly i must thankyou for this crisp piece of information about 9 box. Just exhaustive and crystal clear. Also, if you could please help me know of more tools in talentmanagement/ organizational development/ career management etc. like 9 box, i shall be very thankful to you for the same.
Warm Regards
Vikram