This is the third in a series of blogs from DDI associates presenting at the 26th annual SIOP Conference.
By Matt Paese, Ph.D.
Ever feel like you’re being asked to do the impossible? Join the club. Take 2 minutes and look around to count the number of programs, initiatives, institutions, and other entities, public or private, that are being required to achieve ever-expanding goals while simultaneously facing dramatic reductions in resources. In 2 minutes you’ll likely come up with plenty of examples down the street in your neighborhood, and down the hall in your office. Also likely is the depression that will set in between minutes 3 and 4.
If one of those “down the hall in your office” examples is your Succession Management system, your misery is in good company. Next month we’ll be releasing DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast, a global survey of over 14,000 leaders who have shared their knowledge and experience about leadership issues across the waterfront. In the study, Succession Management stands out as a major crisis area. Bench strength is dismally low, and Succession Management system effectiveness is inadequate. This just scratches the surface, but it’s abundantly clear that many organizations are desperate to find better ways to improve their bench strength and prepare more leaders to take on greater responsibility.
But crises often reveal that necessity is, in fact, the mother of invention, and this week I’ll be part of a session that will illustrate just that. Tomorrow at the Society for I/O Psychology’s annual conference in Chicago, I’ll be joining four talented and highly experienced professionals on a panel looking into contemporary challenges and solutions in Succession Management. More specifically, we’ll be talking about our collective experiences and telling stories of how we’ve seen organizations increase the health of their Succession Management systems, within the constraints of fewer resources and heightened demands.
My co-panelists will be:
- Laura Heft and Lisa Roberts from Organization Development at Edward Jones
- Scott Mannis, SVP HR from Kellwood Company
- Vicki Tardino, from Organization Effectiveness and Talent Management at Maritz
This group brings a wealth of experience and a tremendous sense of practicality to a field that needs it badly. We’ll be discussing Succession Management from 4 angles, and telling stories of how organizations have been successful at:
- Aligning to the business situation your organization is currently facing
- Establishing consistency in the execution of the system (even when the world around you won’t stay consistent)
- Building transparency and effective communication into the system
- Creating accountabilities that result in actual, measurable progress in building bench strength
I’m privileged to be joining these talented professionals, and I know our session will yield many useful insights. If you’re in Chicago for SIOP, join us on Friday afternoon. If you won’t be there, watch here for a summary of key insights after our session.
Skip the expensive therapy sessions. Cure your Succession Depression with some powerful stories of success by a panel of people who have made it happen.
Matt Paese, Ph.D., is the Vice President of Executive Solutions for Development Dimensions International (DDI).
You can hear Matt at the SIOP Conference at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, April 15, 2011 on "Improve Succession Management "Health": Diagnosis and Practical Remedies."


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