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Rethinking Your Succession Management System
A commonly encountered and ineffective approach to succession decisions will often follow these steps:
1. HR sends a memo telling managers that it is that time of year to update succession charts and send them in. An unrealistic deadline is given that many people ignore. After all, they have found out from past experiences that this is simply an exercise that will not impact the way things roll out. The thought is, “If only HR would let us get our real jobs done!”
This is similar in many places to the preparation of a new budget. After hours of work by a manager, the budget is submitted, and later someone cuts it across the board by 10%. During the next budget preparation period the manager “ups” the budget by 20% so the extra 10% truly needed will appear later. The process takes 20 minutes.
2. Most units are late so HR sends out another notice extending the succession chart deadline. Reports finally dribble in and each manager files away a copy for use next year. Nothing more is done with the data at this time at the line manager level.1
3. A clerk in HR compiles the results, binds them (a nice touch), color codes each business unit binder (wow!) and sends them upstairs where they are stored in a locked closet. At some point, the board members each receive copies, usually delivered by hand by a trusted outside service, so they can prepare to discuss leadership transitions at their next meeting.
4. The HR director thanks everyone for the fine job and moves on to the next project.
5. When an opening occurs, the decision to fill it is done by the line manager without consulting the succession report. (Hiring good people is like quality improvement – “I know it when I see it”) As a result, some people get upset at the appointment and corporate life moves on.
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How to Evaluate Your Succession Management System
Think about your experiences, and the span of control you currently have. Here are valuable points to help you begin to assess and evaluate the current system in your organization: Agree or Disagree?
1. There is an up-to-date written personal development plan for each of my key incumbent executives and consistently retain our talent.
2. I have instant access to the development plans for my key executives.
3. Development plans are aligned with the organization’s key success factors, vision, values, talent management tactics, corporate and business strategies.
4. I know who has input into the identification of the key success factors and creation of the individual development plans to meet them.
5. The individual development tactics in these plans are based upon the key success factor mastery needs for each incumbent executive.
6. Using these plans, I can prepare a timeline talent transition report to the board next week for each of the business units under my purview.
7. There is a list of high-potential people available from each of my business units.
8. There is a written development plan for each high-potential person whom I supervise.
9. I will be able to present timeline recommendations to the board next week for increasing responsibilities for each of my high potentials based upon their individual development plans.
10. The existing system provides strategically based job descriptions for future talent needs and the skills to be developed and pursued to fill them.
How does your existing system stack up? Are there any “soft spots” that need enhancement? Are there any factors missing? Anything about measuring the degree of success of the current system? What other questions come to mind? Any surprises? How many times did you choose “disagree,” an indication of an ineffective system?
The previous assessment is an example of the methods we will introduce to assist in the decision-making process for creating or improving a system. The wording may need to be customized when considering the size and structure of the organization.
How to Reduce Resistance to Change
After the initial general evaluation of the system is concluded, you might decide that the answers to the questions raised require changes to the current system. If so, you should expect to encounter resistance to changes. So, what early steps need to be taken to open the door to embracing a different way to carry it on?
First, you will need to build support to introduce a new way to do things that will improve the succession system. The reality of the life in the business world dictates caution when challenging anything that may upset the status quo. The forces behind the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” vanguard can be strong and often subtle. We have all overheard the hallway discussion on the “flavour of the month” program and how it will disappear if we just wait it out. There is much talk about open doors, open books, open communication and “pushing back” but when we try to act on these things, we might put ourselves at risk for negative evaluations. People doing so might be labeled as difficult to work with. Some might move from hero to goat almost overnight. So, what should we do when we feel that our new, but risky, ideas are ripe for implementation? A key initial tactic to move forward to implement risky but ripe ideas is to identify a business unit or department where a quality performance appraisal system is in operation. The reason for this approach is to show the leadership of the area chosen that the good job they are do for performance appraisal can be leveraged for the benefit of the entire organization. Explain why there is an important need to do so. Emphasize that doing a great job of managing talent, through performance appraisal, is one of the most critical arenas that managers operate in on a continual basis.
This tactic is the beginning of facing resistance to change. Even a department with a strong performance management system will have people who will want to keep things just as they are and resist leveraging their efforts for the benefit of other components of the company. Competition for scarce resources within an organization is a motivator for resistance to change. This cadre will represent the “forces for maintaining the status quo.”
Others will fully embrace the concept of working for the benefit of the whole company. This cadre will represent “the forces for change.” Still others will be on the fence when regarding changes. Creating a simple chart showing where you believe your people stand, based upon past behaviors, will be a good tool for identifying starting points for change and choosing a change team. Here is an example: “CHANGE CADRE SELECTION”.
Fig. 1. Change Cadre Selection Table.
Ideally, your organization will have a good balance between the “forces for maintaining the status quo” with those who represent the “forces for change.” It also needs to be flexible enough to alternate between the two as new business challenges emerge.
Realistically, when a process works well and the organization also implements changes to meet the demands of evolving markets and their business environments, it should be given its head to run.
Fig. 2. Forces for Change.
But, if the “forces for maintaining the status quo” begin to overpower the need to change the process, they need to be reined in to prevent a major failure. Allowing the status quo to drive the strategy of the organization endlessly may lead to its death or obsolescence.
Building a New Succession Management System
Think of what occurred in the airline industry over the years. How many traditional airlines can you list that no longer exist? How did Southwest emerge as a powerhouse?
On the positive side, when polio was exterminated, the charity named “The March of Dimes” seemed to be left with no evident purpose. However, it “reinvented” itself to address disabilities of all types and continued to serve.
This is where special skills are needed to overcome resistance such as knowing how to reduce the power of the forces of maintaining the status quo if they grow too strong. This is a critical point for implementing a change.
Too many times we have seen the error of using our resources to push the forces for change too rigorously instead of reducing the forces for maintaining the status quo. Here are some recognized methods to achieve a reduction of the status quo forces:
1. Compose a “Change Team” led by champions and supporters but also includes some influential resisters and bystanders. Then open the ideation door to all team members.
2. Communicate the need for change in a multitude of ways by the incorporation of the proposed changes within everyday conversations and not limit them to e-mail and memos.
3. Set clear goals related to business success and measurable objectives to pursue.
4. Reward and recognize those who accept and support the change.
5. Show resisters how they will fit into the change. If new and unfamiliar skills are needed, train those who are unsure of their futures to make them feel more comfortable that they will fit into new jobs.
6. Design training to anticipate future skills needed for emerging strategies and remove fear from all staff on the question of “What will I lose by changing?” Look for specifics on how to implement these methods in the chapters that follow.
The major dangers of pushing harder for change can be illustrated by comparing this tactic to moving water through a pipeline. When there is demand to increase the speed and volume of water through a pipeline, the tendency is to increase the pressure on the pipeline. If the pressure is too great, the pipeline might burst so the better move is to widen the pipeline. To making the pipeline wider is akin to reducing the forces for change. The chances for success are better with this change. Unless changes motivated by the business and market forces move the organization forward it will experience a slow, spiraling entropic decay that often leads to its demise. This is just the opposite of the goal of a strategic succession system designed to create and maintain a sustainable talent pool. It also anticipates and develops new job performance skills to meet emerging market and environment trends.
What it Takes to Move Forward
A key question to consider is, “Do you have the courage to propose and implement the changes and challeng...
