They created the assessment to help GE prioritize investments they were making across all of their business units. The 9-grid box talent management was originally created in the 1970’s by the management consulting company McKinsey. During this process, a group of managers works together to place individuals on the X-Y axis to help to identify who are the highest potential individuals, who needs development, and who needs coaching on performance improvement.” ( Bersin) Nine-box grids are actively used during the talent review process.
On the vertical axis is ‘potential’ referring to an individual’s potential to grow one or more levels in a managerial or professional capacity. Typically on the horizontal axis is ‘performance’ measured by performance reviews. The 9-Box Grid & the Performance Values MatrixĪ ‘ nine-box grid’ is a matrix tool that is used to evaluate and plot a company’s talent pool based on two factors, which most commonly are performance and potential. The question is then, how do you find these team members and prepare them to take the organization into the future? Using visual tools like the 9-Box grid and the Performance Values Matrix is a great way to assist in recognizing team members who show great performance and potential.
When done well, it is a powerful tool to help assess if team members are in the right seats and help groom high potential employees for future growth within the organization. We know that well-executed succession planning helps organizations make better long term decisions. Often it can be an area of strategic planning that gets overlooked and placed on the back burner when it comes to priorities. It has an important role to play in the overall long term success of a company. Succession planning is essentially the process of identifying and coaching potential future leaders.
From time to time, organizations ask us how the 9-Box Performance Model works in tandem with Performance Culture’s performance values matrix. For companies who are using the 9-Box grid for succession planning, we think the two systems complement each other by adding additional color to employee performance and potential.