as easy as... unboxing

Succession planning, the work of identifying who will lead next, is a perennial need and priority for business leaders. Moreover, it influences important aspects of any organization: Culture, learning, change, and engagement all have a place in the conversation about short and long-term talent plans.

Earlier this year, I posted a short video sharing my opinions on the current standard practices for succession planning, commonly referred to as the 9-box. You can revisit this short video here. At the heart of it is the message that it is time for a change. But rather than rehashing the thoughts expressed in that piece, I want to start the bigger, deeper conversation about building a better alternative.

Because that’s the real question here:

If the nine box isn't the right answer, what would be better? 

This is a topic I’ve chewed on for years. Increasingly so since the pandemic cast so many workplace problems into sharp relief. In that time, a small idea has taken shape, and I believe it’s time for me to put more form and structure around it. Rather than working away in my corner to create this new approach, I want to build in public. I want to share my ideas as they crystallize and get honest feedback from leaders and people professionals.

So, starting today and through the end of the year, I’m devoting the as easy as… newsletter to reimagining how businesses plan for future talent needs. What I want to share today is the metaphor that has helped me imagine what this can entail. I’ll share some of the rationale and outline a few topics we’ll cover here in the coming months.

A little background before we begin: Many of you know that I studied art as an undergraduate. The culmination of those studies was an independent study and sculpture installation that examined productivity and repetition. I built nearly 100 small wooden boxes and then coated these vessels in beeswax. I also cast wax into multiple sizes of square tiles. It was an ongoing process of building and shaping materials. My hands smelled like honey for months. It was an intellectual and sensory experience that I treasure. During this time, I also studied the inner workings of beehives and beekeeping. I share this to help introduce my metaphor and to give you insight into why I’ve landed on the idea of using the beehive as a model for better talent planning.

I believe the beehive can teach us lessons for identifying future talent, recognizing all roles and contributions, and understanding the mutual benefits of viewing the workplace as a community. Again: Culture, learning, change, and engagement.

How does a beehive differ from a 9-box grid? This is a reasonable and important question to address at the start. If I say that boxes are not the right tool or method for this work, should I really propose replacing the box with a hive made of cells?

I do not want to casually replace one container for another. Containers aren't a problem in and of themselves. It's about their use and what we try to contain. I’m saying a box holds, a hive cell provides. See, one of the appeals of the hive metaphor is the way a colony of bees functions together. They build hive cells to serve as storage, but the bees roam freely and with purpose. The comings and goings of the workers contribute to the health of the whole. In fact, it is vital. The very life of the hive depends on productivity.

Fittingly, a cell is also the building block of any living organism. Succession planning at its most fundamental is concerned with sustaining the life and vitality of the organization. This is what I have in mind when I think of a beehive and its cells as a model or metaphor for succession planning. The 9-box grid is a static thing. A hive is alive.

Life and activity are central here, ensuring that talent planning is not a stale annual event (that often leads nowhere), but an ongoing tending and caretaking effort to ensure all parties are well and contributing to and achieving results. We create a better process by maintaining a clear through-line of living, active, and intentional building.

I intend to rely on the distinctive shape of the hive cell to anchor this new model. This may evolve over time as the model takes shape. It’s interesting to note that bees do not build hexagonal cells. The cells start as round tubes of wax that become six-sided because of the presence of their neighbors, forming one of the most stable shapes in nature. So, if cells are the building blocks here, what are the six sides or parts that give them form?  What considerations must be met, accounted for, and measured when we engage in talent planning?

I believe we must blend corporate and individual factors here, as well as embed development practices from the start. My early thoughts involve the following six program elements:

1 | Organizational Needs: Understanding current skill gaps and future performance needs.

2 | Individual Capacity: Assessing performance, interest, and other key aspects of employees’ present and future ability to grow with the company.

3 | Organizational Learning: Ensuring robust and sufficient support exists for learning and development needs, including components beyond training and education, such as psychological safety and growth mindsets.

4 | Individual Learning: Encouraging, enabling, and even incentivizing learning at the employee level, with flexibility for customization and individualization.

5 | Organizational Paths: Articulating and establishing career pathways and connecting current roles to future possibilities, to include ongoing communication about strategic and mission alignment.

6 | Individual Plans: Providing resources and support for accountable developmental planning and growth for all employees.

There are numerous considerations that will come into play within each element. These include practical elements such as assessments, leader/user training, documentation, and other tools. The model also needs to allow for what I think of as philosophical matters, like mitigating the potential for bias, ensuring consistency, providing for transparency, integrating organizational values, and other fundamental matters to address the gaps we experience in current practices.

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I’m excited to do this work with you reading along. Please share your thoughts, responses, and reactions today and in the weeks to come. Consider sharing this series with people in your network who have experience with and opinions about the current state of talent and succession planning. My hope is to build this practice with the input from a community of leaders who share my belief that we can do better than boxes. We can build thriving, living spaces for talent to grow and flourish.