Abstract:
Most succession planning identifies high-potential talent without answering the critical question: Potential for what? The SORTI Framework helps organizations identify the future leadership capabilities they need by classifying talent into five distinct pathways: Strategic, Operational, Relational, Technical, and International leadership. Rather than developing every high-potential employee the same way, SORTI enables targeted leadership development aligned with future business needs. By matching emerging talent to critical leadership roles, organizations can build stronger succession pipelines and ensure the right capabilities are ready when needed.
The Missing Question in Succession Planning: Potential for What?
Developed as an advanced succession planning framework, SORTI helps answer the “Potential for What?” question by recognizing that both leadership roles and individuals possess unique knowledge, skills, and attributes (KSAs). To learn more, including a practical case study, read our Beyond the 9-Box article.
The top jobs in any organization have a best-fit SORTI requirements Profile.
Every future job has a SORTI Profile, and every organization goes through changes that impact the needed SORTI Profile.
The talent pool of High Potentials has a SORTI profile made up of a combination of education, experience, opportunities, preferences, ambitions, capacities, and of course knowledge, skills and attributes.
What is the SORTI Framework?
Each SORTI Profile Requires different development
What’s in common are listening skills, delegation skills, conflict management, systems thinking, and team building. Each emerging high potential needs skill building in those areas.
Putting aside what they share in common, there are five different individual development plans (IDPs). Below is a taste of those development differences.
S – Strategic Talent Set
- Membership in the World Future Society. Read the Society’s publications. Attend the annual conference somewhere in the world.
- Become a student and expert in business strategy. Start with all the publications of Michael Porter and Ram Charan and spread out from there.
- Become an expert in MAD (mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Read all the work of Marks and Mervis on M&A and spread out from there.
- As a personal project, study and then periodically present, when the opportunities surface, why:
- Sears and Montgomery Wards did not become Amazon
- JC Penney’s did not become Target
- Blackberry and Motorola did not become Apple
- Kmart did not become Costco or Walmart
- GM and Ford didn’t become Tesla
- Why Sun Microsystems did not become Microsoft
- Why Dell did not become Apple
- PanAm, TWA and Eastern did not become Delta, United and American
- And why:
- Amazon, Target, Apple, Costco, Walmart, Tesla and Microsoft did.
- Follow what happens at the annual Davos meetings
- Work with the organization’s lobbyists to track potential legislation and regulations.
- Follow the UN agenda for business around the world.
- Engage one or more professional futurists who are experts in the organization’s products and services to stay aware of potential trends. Periodically present on future prospects with them inside the organization.
- Attend all the discussions on strategy in the organization as soon as level and performance allow as an observer.
- Engage a senior strategist in the organization as a mentor.
O – Operational Talent Set
- Support membership in probably multiple organizations representing the various subsets of operations. Read the publications. Attend conferences on topics of interest. Offer to present. Write articles. Keep an eye out for emerging operations talent to hire.
- Study the art and science of operations. Follow automation, AI, drone delivery, and robotics. Visit a fully automated factory or distribution center. Support early experimentation. Take a ride in a driverless 18-wheeler. Study work being done in distribution’s costly last mile.
- Study and become certified in one or more of TQM, ISO, Six Sigma, Process Reengineering.
- Study Amazon, UPS, Walmart, Etsy, and FedEx. If not competitors, see if a visit can be arranged.
- Keep up to date on future plans for rail, road, and air transportation developments.
- Become a student of optional organization structures like centralized/decentralized, Matrix, Self-managing work teams, and delayering.
- Study logistics and distribution practices in foreign markets the organization is in now and in other areas being discussed for future market expansion.
- Find vendors and suppliers used now and those that will be needed in the future, and build working relationships.
- Throughout the climb to the top of the operations silo, arrange lateral experiences and exposures to those other functions who depend upon operations to do their jobs. Gain a full understanding of how those functions work through operations to get things done.
R – Relational Talent Set
- Membership in the relevant associations.
- Become certified in the language of people. Choose one or two models of why people do what they do. Examples include personality, EQ, Competencies, etc. The goal would be to increase understanding of self and others so you can adjust to differences in people and audiences. Also to increase self-awareness and personality agility – being what you need to be, to get done what you need to get done.
- Begin and continue a career-long understanding of EI/EQ. Assess periodically in the skills and behaviors of EQ. Become certified in the use of one or more EQ models.
- Become an EQ coach for emerging talent.
- Make lobbying trips to state and federal government.
- Meet with as many key stakeholders as possible.
T – Technical Talent Set
- Membership (international, national, and local) in associations in which the domains the organization’s products and services fall. Attend global and international conferences. Read the Association’s publications. Be on the lookout for early emerging technical talent to hire. Make presentations. Write articles. Keep up with trends.
- Support additional graduate academic achievements for stakeholder impression and respect and for recruiting new emerging talent.
- Even before current level and performance might prescribe, attend higher-level discussions on technical issues as an observer.
- Find the leading technical expertise in each specialty and read their material, attend their presentations, and possibly arrange for smaller meetings and get-togethers.
- Throughout the climb to the top of the technical silo, arrange lateral experiences and exposures to those other functions who will be using, selling, and educating customers. Gain a full understanding of how the products and services work through the organization and out in the marketplace.
- Make sure to provide first-in-class resources for technical R&D. Support possible partnerships with academic and other organizations doing related research.
I – International Talent Set
- Find opportunities for early-career international trips. Ride-alongs. Study task forces on new international markets. Senior management market tours.
- Support family paid tag-alongs on early foreign trips. Build interest in the family in living out of the home country.
- Support most useful 2nd language training based upon key markets for the organization.
- Attend as quiet observers all visits to the organization by foreign stakeholders and international partners.
- Be responsible for entertaining visiting foreign employees.
- Attend, before their level might prescribe, any organization meetings on foreign soil.
- Study and become an expert in how business is done in different cultural, ethnic, or government structures, especially in markets for the organization now and possible markets for the future.
- Be generous in supporting emergency trips back to cover family and other critical life events.
- Engage an experienced internationalist as a mentor.
How many talent sets are present?
While emerging talent will have one dominant Talent Set, a few may have two. All will have a secondary. Finish the dominant before you boost the secondary.
- A dominant S should have a T and/or an I secondary.
- A dominant O should have an R secondary.
- A dominant T should have an S secondary.
- A dominant R should have an O secondary.
- A dominant I should have an O secondary.
The end product is a top team (Maybe C-Suite) with one or more top 10% S, O, R, T, and I/s led by someone with top team-building and management skills. A top team with heavy collaboration, aligned deployment against issues and challenges, expert-led discussions, and egos left at the door. Demonstrating confidence in what each knows how to do well, and showing humility in areas not in your skills package.
Ultimately, the supply of SORTI talent must align with the organization’s future demands. Succession planning is not simply about identifying strong people; it is about knowing which capabilities the organization will need, where those capabilities currently reside, and which critical talent sets are missing.
What Talent Sets will your organization need to keep the machine running—and to build what comes next? Are those Talent Sets already in your talent warehouse, or will you discover the gaps only when it is too late?
Audit now, adjust now, be ready then.
Our High Potential verification survey (R.A.N.D.) now includes the SORTI report, accessible through our Rapid Screening for Potential Training. With one 30-minute survey, you can gain insights into your talent pool and how to answer the question, “Potential for What?”
