William J. Rothwell - Effective Succession Planning (2005)(3-e)(en)

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Exhibit 4-1. An Interview Guide to Collect Corporate-Culture-Specific Competency Development Strategies

Directions: Use this interview guide to collect information about how to build competencies in the context of your organization’s unique corporate culture. Select several exemplary performers who have been identified as especially good (exemplary) at demonstrating a given competency. Indicate that competency next to the label ‘‘competency’’ below. Then spend about 15 minutes to interview each exemplary performer using the questions appearing below. When you are finished, analyze the results by identifying common themes or patterns across all the interview results.

Competency:
Name				Title
Years of Experience in Job				Date
Interviewed by:

1.Think of a time when you were asked to demonstrate this competency. What was the situation?

When did this situation occur? What did you do?

How do you believe the experience helped you demonstrate this competency?

If your mentee participated in an experience like this, would it help to build the competency?

2.Who are some people in the organization who are exceptionally good at demonstrating this competency to whom you could refer your mentee?

3.What are some work experiences in the organization that you believe your mentee should be given to build or demonstrate the competency?

4.How might the pressure to produce by specific deadlines help to build or demonstrate the competency?

5.Where would you send people—that is, what geographical locations—to build and /or demonstrate this competency? (Where are the centers of excellence for this competency in the organization, and why do you think so?)

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6.List special and specific work assignments that would be particularly useful in building or demonstrating this competency.

7.If someone asked you for advice on how to build this competency in this organization, what advice would you give them?

8.Could you think of some upcoming or pending company projects that might be especially useful to build this competency? What would they be, and why do you think they could help to build the competency?

scribe ethical expectations for those who live and work in one corporate culture.

Values have commanded increasing interest in organizational settings. Consider the following: At a recent annual meeting of Eli Lilly and Company, Chairman and CEO Randall Tobias extended the meeting by over two hours to discuss the core values of the company and their importance to the future of the organization.13 Similarly, in a recent interview in Organizational Dynamics, Herb Kelleher, Chairman and CEO of Southwest Airlines, discussed the central role that values play in that organization.14 Fortune magazine reported that over 50 percent of U.S. corporations have a values statement—more than double that of a decade ago.15

How Are Values Used in Succession Planning and

Management?

Values statements and values clarification, like competency models, are essential building blocks on which to base a succession planning and management effort. Without them, it is difficult to add an ethical dimension to the development of people in various departments, job categories, or occupations. Much like competency models, they help to do the following:

▲Link and align the organization’s core values to group and individual values.

▲Define high potentials or other broad categories of employees.

▲Clarify exactly what present and future values are essential to success in the organization and in its various departments, jobs, or occupations.

▲Provide a basis for performance management by creating a work environment that encourages value-based performance.

▲Establish the values underlying work expectations for the present and future.

▲Create full-circle, multirater assessments that are tailor-made to the unique requirements of one corporate culture.

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▲Provide another basis to formulate individual development plans (IDPs) to help individuals develop themselves to meet present and future challenges.

Conducting Values Clarification Studies

Many tools and techniques are available to help organizations clarify their values. Some organizations undertake values clarification through small group activities.16 Others use unique approaches, such as teaching championship automobile racing.17 At least two other approaches may be used. One is simple; the other is more complicated—but may be more meaningful.

A Simple Approach: Top Management Values Clarification

A simple way to clarify the values of the organization is to ask top managers what values are most important. To use this approach, provide a brief introduction to what values are, why they are important, and how they are used. Then ask senior executives—either in a meeting or online—to describe what they believe to be the most important values for the organization at present and in the future. When that list has been gathered from individuals, feed it back to them, allow them to discuss the list, and ask them to vote on the most important. When they finish this activity, ask them to define each value and state its importance to the organization and to individuals.

A More Complicated Approach: Values Clarification from Top Performers

A more complicated approach to carrying out values clarification is to ask top performers or high potentials in the organization to describe their values. That can be done through behavioral event interviewing—a rigorous method used in competency modeling in which individuals are asked to describe the most difficult ethical situation they have ever faced in their jobs and describe what they were thinking, feeling, and doing at each step as they faced that situation. The values statements should appear as part of their discussion. (If they do not, then the interviewer should be sure to ask probing questions to elicit comments about the values in which the high potentials believe.) The values identified by individual high potentials can then be summarized. What is important is not what one person says but rather what similar thematic patterns surface from many respondents.

Once the values have been identified, they can be fed back to high potentials in focus groups for further discussion and refinement. When that process is completed, the value statements can be given to top managers for approval

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or modification. In this way, the values clarified for the organization match the work-related beliefs of the best performers and are validated by top managers.

Using Values Clarification

Values clarification provides an additional, and increasingly important, dimension to SP&M. Without it, individuals may be equipped with sound competencies but may lack the ethical dimension that is so important to leadership in the future. Values can also be integrated with competency models so that it is possible to create a success profile or description of leadership requirements essential at all organizational levels, departments, job categories, or occupations in the future. Alternatively, it is possible to prepare values lists and assessment instruments against which to compare individuals.18 In other words, it is possible to use values as a driving force for building high potentials and competence in organizations. Like competencies, then, values can be the glue that holds together all key aspects of a SP&M program.

Bringing It All Together: Competencies and Values

Organizations today need both competencies and values. It is just not enough to make people good performers. They must be ethical as well and possess a moral dimension that is consistent with the image the organization wishes to purvey. Lacking values, high potentials cannot be successful in the long term and cannot bring credit to the organization.

Summary

As this chapter emphasized, competencies and values are increasingly important foundations for an effective succession planning and management program. The chapter defined competencies and explained how they are used in succession planning and management, then defined values and explained how values can be used in succession planning and management. A major point of the chapter was that, without competencies and values, creating a state-of-the- art succession planning and management program will be difficult because they provide the blueprints for the talent to be created.

The next chapter describes how to lay the foundation for a succession planning and management program by taking subsequent steps in planning and implementing a program that will be successful in one organizational setting or corporate culture.

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P A R T I I

LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR A SUCCESSION

PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

Part I

Background Information About

Succession Planning and Management

Part IV		Part II
Closing the “Developmental Gap”:		Laying the Foundation for a
Operating and Evaluating a Succession		Succession Planning and
Planning and Management Program		Management Program

Part III

Assessing the Present and the Future

•Assessing current problems and practices •Demonstrating the need for SP&M •Determining organizational requirements

•Linking SP&M activities to organizational strategy and human resource strategy

•Benchmarking SP&M practices in other organizations •Obtaining and building management commitment to systematic

SP&M

•Clarifying program roles •Formulating a mission statement •Writing policy and procedures •Identifying target groups •Setting program priorities

•Addressing the legal framework in SP&M •Establishing strategies for rolling out an SP&M program •Preparing a program action plan

•Communicating the action plan •Conducting SP&M meetings •Training on SP&M

•Counseling managers about succession planning problems in their areas

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C H A P T E R 5

M A K I N G T H E C A S E F O R

M A J O R C H A N G E

For many years, introducing and consolidating change has been a centerpiece of debate among managers and writers about management. Many believe that the essence of management’s job is to be instruments for progressive change— or, at least, to create an environment suitable for change.

Establishing a systematic succession planning and management (SP&M) program in an organization that never had one is a major change effort. It requires a quantum leap from the status quo, what some call a ‘‘transformational change.’’ Success depends on demonstrating, at the outset, a need for change. The only exception is the rare case in which decision-makers have already reached a consensus to depart radically from past practice.

To make the case for change in SP&M it will usually be necessary to:

▲Assess current problems and practices.

▲Demonstrate the need.

▲Determine organizational requirements.

▲Link SP&M to the strategic plan and human resource plan.

▲Benchmark SP&M processes in other organizations.

▲Obtain and build management commitment to systematic SP&M.

These issues are the focus of this chapter. They may seem to be monumental issues—and sometimes they are—but addressing them is essential to lay a solid foundation on which to build a systematic SP&M program.

Assessing Current Problems and Practices

Information about current problems and practices is needed before it is possible to build a convincing case for change. Planning for the future requires information about the past and present.

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Assessing Current Problems

Crisis is a common impetus for change. As problems arise and are noticed, people naturally search for solutions. As the magnitude and severity of the problems increase, the search for a solution intensifies.

The same principles apply to SP&M. If the organization has experienced no crises in finding qualified successors, retaining talented people, maintaining leadership continuity, or facilitating individual advancement, then few deci- sion-makers will feel an urgent need to direct attention to these issues. On the other hand, SP&M is likely to attract increasing attention when problems like these surface:

▲Key positions are filled only after long delays.

▲Key positions can be filled only by hiring from outside.

▲Key positions have few people ‘‘ready now’’ to assume them (that is called weak bench strength).

▲Vacancies in key positions cannot be filled with confidence.

▲Key positions are subject to frequent or unexpected turnover.

▲Replacements for key positions are frequently unsuccessful in performing their new duties.

▲High performers or high-potential employees are leaving the organization in droves.

▲Individuals routinely leave the organization to advance professionally or to achieve their career goals.

▲Decision-makers complain about weak bench strength.

▲Employees complain that decisions about whom to advance are not based on who is best qualified but rather on caprice, nepotism, and personal favoritism.

▲Employees and decision-makers complain that decisions about whom to promote into key positions are adversely affected by discrimination or by expediency.

To build a case for a systematic approach to SP&M, ask decision-makers if they face the problems listed above. Additionally, focus attention on identifying the most important problems the organization is facing and review how those problems are influenced by existing SP&M practices. If possible, document actual succession problems that have been experienced in the past— including ‘‘horror stories’’ (anecdotes about major problem situations) or ‘‘war stories’’ (anecdotes about negative experiences), if possible. Although anecdotes do not necessarily provide an accurate indication of existing conditions, they can be powerfully persuasive and can help convince skeptical deci- sion-makers that a problem warrants investigation. Use them to focus attention on the organization’s present SP&M practices—and, when appropriate, the

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need to change them from informal to systematic. Also, consider using approaches to identify and overcome objections to a SP&M program. (See Exhibit 5-1.)

In my 2004 survey, I asked the respondents to indicate whether SP&M had become more important to their organizations over the last few years. Their answers are revealing, indicating that many current problems have emerged that necessitate increased attention to SP&M. (See Exhibit 5-2.)

Exhibit 5-1. Strategies for Handling Resistance to Implementing Succession Planning and Management

Possible Cause of Resistance

Possible Strategies for Handling the Cause

Managers or employees resist a SP&M program because they believe it will:

Mean that they have to give up something (such as a say in who is promoted).

Require work for no reason (they see no need for it).

Consider establishing a council to advise on matters related to the program.

Emphasize that organizational superiors of all individuals can and will be involved in making decisions.

Start by describing how and why other organizations have used succession planning.

Show reasons for the program that go beyond mere replacement planning and include individual development.

Do more harm than good.

Try to find out why managers and employees feel this way and ask for their advice about how to prevent abuses of the program.

Be managed by people who are not trustworthy or managed in a way that is not ethical.

Require too much time, effort, or resources.

Hire an external consultant to establish the framework for the program and isolate the nature of the possible concerns.

Explain what information is required to make SP&M useful and then seek the advice of those who resist the program on this basis by asking for their suggestions about the best ways to get that information.

Double-check to determine whether you are recommending that the program be installed too quickly rather than gradually implemented.