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Grameen Foundation: Career Architecture Client Report 1 Grameen Foundation Career Architecture Project Client Report for Grameen Foundation Prepared by LIOS Organization System’s Graduate Student Maryanne Battles December 3, 2012 Empowering People. Changing Lives. Innovating for the World’s Poor.

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Page 1: Grameen Career Framework Client Report.finalmb15

Grameen Foundation: Career Architecture Client Report

1

Grameen Foundation Career Architecture Project

Client Report for Grameen Foundation

Prepared by LIOS Organization System’s Graduate Student Maryanne Battles

December 3, 2012

Empowering People. Changing Lives.

Innovating for the World’s Poor.

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Introduction:

The Grameen Foundation (GF) has undergone a series of significant business strategy

changes in the last two and half years in order to better align to the changing technologies and

landscape around serving the poor in the developing world. As a result of these organizational

changes, there has been an increased focus on organizational health and performance, of which,

employee engagement has become of paramount focus. Representative of this work is the

Grameen Foundation career architecture project. The intent of the Career Architecture Project

(CAP) is to create an articulation of results expected of all employees across all job levels at the

Grameen Foundation. While this tool is helpful to GF and its leaders, it is more importantly a

tool that will help employees plan their career, build their development plan, and understand

where they fit into GF’s organization. A preliminary survey with other non-profits of similar

size reveals that this is a highly unusual investment in human capital for a non-profit

organization to undertake. Concepts that underlie this body of work can be found in Stephen

Drotter’s 2011 book “The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered-

Company”.

As a part of my graduate studies in Leadership and Organization Systems, I contracted

with the Grameen Foundation as a consultant, project leader and contributor to this project. The

Grameen CAP team includes: Astha Parmar, Grameen Foundation’s Manager of Talent

Management and Engagement; Inbal Rait, Grameen Foundation’s College Intern; Norm Tonina,

Grameen Foundation’s Vice President of Human Resources; and Steve Steckler, an external

Organization Development Consultant.

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The purpose of this report is to share a summary of various stages within the project

including: the initial problem statement, methods used for data collection, early analysis of

career data, key milestones for proof of concept, change management suggestions along with

roll-out and key timelines.

Problem Statement and Preliminary Goals:

The current Grameen Foundation career bands and hierarchy of job titles was developed

approximately five years ago. At that time, the operating environment was much less complex,

the strategic outreach to the poor was easier to achieve and Grameen as an organization was

smaller and less global in its employee base. The existing Grameen Foundation salary-based

career model provides comparable information about what individuals should be paid; however,

it does not support employee career growth and mobility. The presenting problem is an

opportunity. What is needed is a career framework that works well with Grameen’s

organizational context and requirements while positively impacting several talent needs.

Included within these talent needs are: consistent/global result expectations of employees in like

jobs at like levels across the organization, better guidelines for hiring managers at the talent

acquisition phase; clearer expectations for employees striving to improve their in-role

performance and deliverables; and clear growth paths for employees looking to advance their

career.

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Process Chart & Steps Involved:

A career architecture project which serves 178 employees across 3 global regions is

highly complex in the fact that it not only requires rigor in data collection and analysis, but also

requires a high level of judgment and fact checking to ensure the completion of a quality product

which meets the diverse Grameen employee needs. The process chart below represents the key

stages involved in the Grameen Career Architecture project.

Data Analysis

Map Coding Into Factor Result Themes Determine Core Factor Result Areas (Columns)

Conduct & Code Interviews

Completion of Interviews Early Qualitative Analysis: Code Interviews For Result Areas

Phase I: Determine Data Set & Method of Interviews

Determine Titles and Employees To Interview Develop Interview Protocol

Leadership & Employee Feedback

Grameen Foundation Leadership & Board FeedbackSubset of Employee Feedback (Developing Early

Adopters)

Build Career Framework

Determine Definition & Language Per Career Band & Level

Phase II: Data Analysis

Determine Number & Ti tle of Career Bands (Rows)Develop Scaling Tool (Quanitative Anaylsis of Result

Areas & Complexity)

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Phase I: Determining The Data Set & Method of Interviews:

At the onset of the project, we determined that we needed to interview a minimum of 20

employees in order to have a reliable data set for analysis. We selected and interviewed 27

employees representing various career titles, geographic areas and levels within the organization.

Since we were trying to understand optimal work results per title and level, the 27 employees

were selected based upon a combination of a high potential and high performance ratings. High

performance was determined through prior performance review scores and feedback,

conversations with their manager as well as feedback from Grameen’s Human Resource team.

High potential assessments were based on feedback and data from the annual Talent Review

process that Grameen Foundation conducts. Subjects were prepared for the interview with

information about the project and the interview through an introduction and project statement

sent in advance. At the beginning of the interview, we started the conversation by quickly re-

introducing the project and from this point conducted our interviews using the same set of

questions for all 27 employees who were interviewed. Our interviews lasted 60-90 minutes and

were completed either in person (Seattle) or over the phone and Skype for employees based in

Washington DC, Uganda, Ghana, Indonesia and Brazil. Each interview consisted of two

interviewers and one interviewee. One member of the interviewer team was the primary

questioner and the other member of the team focused on capturing responses. Each interview

was recorded (with permission) to ensure accuracy.

The interview protocol included an initial set of 16 questions informed by the Hay

approach to Job Evaluation. We chose a version that was used by Microsoft for their career

architecture project and modified the questionnaire to include Grameen context, language and

particular result areas of interest. The protocol went through a second iteration based on

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feedback we received from both the research teams and the employees in the first few interviews.

The interview protocol included categories of result outcomes related to:

1. Know-how

a. cognitive, managerial and interpersonal

2. Problem solving

a. thinking challenge and thinking environment

3. Accountability

a. freedom to act/decision making

4. Magnitude-scope of role and impact

a. the degree to which the role impacts the organization

5. Level and type of internal and external collaboration

Conducting the Interviews and Coding:

Early qualitative analysis took place following the interviews through a coding method

which assigned the interview data to four different result areas: Mission,

Integration/Collaboration, Leadership and Funding/Partner Results (later became Stakeholder

Results). We also decided to parse out the coded interview data into preliminary career language

to help us determine early on if our interview data was yielding ample result information. The

coding portion of the career framework was the most time intensive portion of the project;

consisting of 4-6 hours of coding analysis and verification per interview.

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Data Analysis:

After coding data from the initial subset of 27 interviews, we mapped work results and

themes. This allowed for plotting a progression of results, skills and capabilities needed to be

achieved related to specific areas. This early analysis of data from interviews provided the

opportunity to determine the result categories (table 1), which identifies results as a core part of

the framework. Other key areas of consideration that emerged included recognition of

Grameen’s competitive edge in innovation, the importance of donor relations (or “rainmaking”

abilities), thought leadership, the high level of ownership and leadership demonstrated across

levels in the organization, as well as the ability to grow to senior positions in the organization

without requiring direct reports (individual contributor career path).

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Table 1~Initial Result Areas for the Career Framework:

Mission Results Integration

Results

Leadership Results Stakeholder

Results

Development Strategy Business Management Talent Management Business, Development

Client Focused Governance Managing Work-

Streams

Industry

Program Management Org Alignment &

Strategy Support

People Management Donor

Functional Platform Alignment One GF? Partner

Thought Leader

Phase II: Key Milestones for Proof of Concept:

Phase II included the results of early data analysis or “factors” that were mapped out

further through: 1) the development of a scaling tool and 2) a macro view of career data:

Development of a Scaling Tool: The next step in looking at our coded data was to

determine how the result areas scaled in complexity across Grameen jobs and the new career

levels. In order to assess this, a scaling tool was built which assigned numerical value to

varying degrees of complexity to be achieved for each result area across all job titles. Once the

Leadership & Employee Feedback

Grameen Foundation Leadership & Board Feedback Subset of Employee Feedback (Developing Early Adopters)

Build Career Framework

Determine Number of Career Bands & Ti tles. Result Definition And Language

Phase II: Key Milestones for Ratification of Thinking

Macro View of Career Data Develop Scaling Tool (Quanitative Anaylsis of Result Areas & Complexity)

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scaling tool was complete, each employee’s interview data along with information about their

job was ranked according to the scale to ensure we assigned complexity correctly.

Macro View of Career Data: The initial view of our coded data occurred through a macro

view of the “Result Factor” areas, per job title and across all titles. Our goal at this point with

our data was to determine if there were result and capability areas existing in current titles that

either needed to be expanded or compressed. From this information, we were able to determine

that the new career framework would have 6 career bands with 18 different job titles (in

comparison to the current 9 career bands and 17 different job titles). Our core result areas from

our data allowed for fewer though more robust career bands. An increase in an added job title

was included to reflect an expansion in one particular job area as the result of increased

workloads for individual’s in these jobs. The development of the career bands along with the

scaling tool along with its later validation of our interview data represents a key milestone within

the project. Following the determination of result, career band and title areas, the career

framework was now ready to include definition and language for result areas for each career

band.

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Building the Career Framework:

At the onset of the project, we knew that we would build a career framework that

included: two dimensions or axes to show the coordination of result information for each career

band. One axis (x axis) would be career bands that represented groupings of positions which

required similar work output or results as well as behaviors for “how” to get results at Grameen

within job. The other axis (y axis) would then include the determined results from our data or

‘what’ needs to be delivered at each level: Mission, Integration, Leadership and Strategic

Results. Once we had the result areas determined along with numerical complexity assigned we

were now able to confirm the six bands as well as begin building out descriptions (or language)

for how to achieve expected results in each career band. Table 2 shows an example of the x axis

(Career Bands/Level) and y axis (Result Title and Description/Language) along with descriptions

of varying complexity per career band.

Table 2~Career Result Factor Description Language (Detail)

Career Band

Level (X)

Integration Results: Description & Language (Y)

Leading Impact

& Delivery

Business Information Monitoring, Analysis and Insight:

Accountable for tracking/collecting relevant business data (e.g.,

internal process data, results, spending, other BSC metrics) and feeding into existing business reporting tools.

Sphere of Working Relationship/Collaboration:

Works effectively within a team- to resolve issues, provide answers

to role related questions.

Leading Insight

& Execution

Business Information Monitoring, Analysis and Insight:

Drives proactive monitoring of relevant business data. Maps and

owns business/operational/financial processes and data flows relevant to their work area.

Sphere of Working Relationship/Collaboration:

Works outside of immediate team to get input and feedback for role

Note how sphere of working relationships

/collaboration

differ per level.

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Table 3 is an example snap shot of how the entire career framework will appear. Each

result area scales across career bands. The intention is to have Grameen Foundation employees

and managers use this framework to understand the current skill sets and capabilities expected in

the context of their jobs. From this both the manager and the employee are also able to identify

needed skill sets for other positions or advancement at Grameen.

Table 3~Example Prototype of the Grameen Career Framework (Grameen Confidential) Job

Band/Titles

Mission

Results

Integration

Results

Leadership

Results

Strategic

Results

Leading

Services/Support

(Under

Development)

Leading Impact

& Delivery

(Entry)

Further GF

Mission and

Client by

Owning and

executing specific

objectives, team

commitments and

requirements

Business

Information,

Monitoring &

Analysis Insight: accountable for

tracking/collecting

relevant business

Level/Scope of

People

Management: work results do not

involve managing

others.

Type and

Purpose of

External

Contact: works with targeted

external audiences,

typically field

agents/networks

Leading Insight

& Execution

(Professional

2&3)

Further GF

Mission and

Client by

Identifying how to address

and solve specific

objectives, team

commitments and

requirements

Business

Information,

Monitoring &

Analysis Insight: drives proactive

monitoring of relevant

business data

Level/Scope of

People

Management: manages team in

which activities are

similar as to content

and objectives

Type and

Purpose of

External

Contact: works with external

organizations

(including pro-poor

org; distribution

partners)

Leading Design

&

Implementation

(Program

Directors)

Further GF

Mission and

Client by

Translating

functional/group

priorities and

direction and

specific

deliverables as

well as project

roadmap.

Business

Information,

Monitoring &

Analysis Insight: creates and leads

reporting/review

processes

Level/Scope of

People

Management: direction -- a

functional/regional

unit with varied

activities

Type and Purpose

of External

Contact:

manages and on-

boards external

organizations

(including pro-poor

org

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Leading

Programs

(Regional

Program

Directors)

An 18 month

Product

Group and/or

Program

Country

Roadmap. Translate S&R

strategy, guiding

principles, area

landscape and

client needs into a

roadmap for

solution

development and

delivery.

Business

Information,

Monitoring &

Analysis Insight: establishes and owns

effective org wide

control and review

mechanisms

Level/Scope of

People

Management: direction of a major

unit with noticeable

functional diversity

OR guidance of a

function

Type and

Purpose of

External

Contact: forges

complex and

sustainable

partnerships with a

broad array of

donors

Leading Orgs

(Executive) A 3 year

Strategic

Framework

that provides

unambiguous

guidance on org

direction and

enables staff

members to make

necessary trade-

off decisions.

Business

Information,

Monitoring &

Analysis Insight: ability to assess,

understand and

motivate the

organization; adapt

Level/Scope of

People

Management: management/guidance

of all units and

functions within the

organization

Type and

Purpose of

External

Contact: manages and

overseas the brand

of the organization,

ensuring alignment

between mission,

values

Change Management Suggestions:

Grameen’s career architecture work is one of several large human capital investment

projects being implemented by GF’s Human Resource team. Other initiatives taking place

include performance management training and as well as a project underway which provides a

systemic view of Grameen’s talent strategy. One of the many dangers with a project of this scale

is getting lost in the mechanics of development and losing foresight into the magnitude of change

which an organization will experience as a part of implementation.

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Key elements for effective organization change include:

1) Sponsor identification for leading the change outside of HR

2) Inclusion of leadership from initial stages

3) Participation of employees or “participants” within the project to represent on the

ground feedback while also educating and evangelizing the story of change to others

4) Development of a systematic communication plan that includes the “pitch” and serves

the purpose of both informing and updating the organization regarding project details,

key dates and early wins

Both sponsorship and inclusion of leadership have already begun to take place as a part

of this project. Examples include Norm Tonina’s earlier explanation to leaders and a more

recent presentation to the Grameen Foundation board as well as an organizational wide meeting

in June in which this project was described in greater detail.

As the career framework continues to evolve, there is near term opportunity to include a

subset of employees within a feedback process on the initial framework drafts. While there may

be hesitancy to involve additional staff, involving employees beyond those who were

interviewed provides one of the greatest leverage points for adoption to change (Dickens &

Watkins, 2006). Given that you will have some employees move into career bands of which they

will perceive as a “down” level of their current skill set, it would be an advantage to the

organization and foster effective change management, if an employee voice is included (and

championed) from outside those involved in the project within the process of early feedback.

Employees involved in such a process provide not only feedback, or a view into how the change

will be perceived, but also can act as “early adopters” who are able to educate and evangelize the

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change once implemented. Should a subset of employees not participate in such a process, there

is a perception risk that only a few special or “chosen” employees (those who were interviewed)

were the only employees solicited for feedback. In addition, the opportunity of having early

adopters who will help build positive organization momentum for the acceptance and benefit of

this work could be lost or limited.

During our interviews with selected employees, a “what does this mean to me” theme

was apparent. While we shared descriptors for the project, the song beneath the words, with rare

exception, included the questioning by employees as to whether the career framework would be

equitable throughout Grameen regions and within same areas of job responsibilities. The

audience of interviewees shared a mixed sense of either uncertainty around their career path in

comparison to others who were quite content due to currently being stretched, or a feeling that

that their career expectations were already being met. Within our interviews, employees

exemplified a high level of trust along with the expectation that with good work, rewards are

received; this is a sentiment which can be capitalized on and reinforced during the roll-out of the

CAP.

By developing an early communication strategy with both a “pitch” and associated

milestones for delivery, there is the opportunity not only to reach varying audiences but also the

potential to deliver fairly complex information in a clear, comprehensible manner. As an

experienced HR professional, I believe there is strong potential to focus on the mechanics of the

framework including implementation dates, pay, promotions, etc. This may limit positive

reception of the CAP. Foremost, employees want to know how the career framework impacts

them directly. With this being said, there is a tremendous opportunity to increase employee

engagement or re-engagement and re-sell employees on the many unique opportunities of

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working for Grameen. Through the implementation of Grameen’s career framework and focus

on employee development, there is opportunity to further increase sustainability in donor

networks (leadership development, increased retention) as well as increasing Grameen’s

footprint in innovation within the non-profit/NGO sector (Crutchfield & Grant, 2012). Perhaps

the Grameen Foundation’s “career story” includes the notion that the Grameen Foundation

continues its sector legacy as one of the most innovative non-profits to work for as well as an

organization that develops great talent. And because of this, many new career doors (outside of

Grameen), which otherwise would not have been available, open for individuals with Grameen

Foundation experience. This message and the reality if achieved, is very consistent with the

reality of managing a career today.

While the ultimate measure of success for the CAP will likely not take place until several

months out if not a full year following the implementation, the identification of early wins

exemplifying success is imperative to the organization’s acceptance of change. Early indicators

of impact for the career framework could include: qualitative feedback from managers and

employees regarding more robust career discussions or increased career satisfaction marks on the

next Employee Survey. In addition, from a quantitative prospective, the number of stretch

assignments or a more robust and/or accurate ability to identify future leaders and managers

could become measurements of success. Sharing early wins will make the career framework

even more tangible to employees. (Bridges, 1991; Conner, 1992)

As you promote critical new behaviors, making people aware of how they affect the

organization’s strategic performance, be sure to integrate informal interactions as well formal

measures which reinforce the career architecture work. This could include leadership role

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modeling through active succession planning; promotion of internal and cross organizational

networks as well as communities of interest related to career development.

Roll Out and Key Project Time Lines:

Closing and Acknowledgements:

The Grameen Foundation CAP is a testament to what can be

done with creativity, tenacity, expertise, problem solving and innovation in the face of limited

resources. These are also the very same characteristics that emerged through the descriptions of

employees regarding their work. This provided an impressive view into Grameen’s

organizational culture. A majority of the career framework is in draft form and waiting for

Phase I early release

Phase II implementation

Phase III measurement

December 2012 February-May

2013

May-Dec. 2013

Subset of

employee feedback

achieved

Compensation

review completed

Draft career

framework shared with employees and leaders

Communication plan developed

with timelines

Leaders place

employees into career

framework

Manager and

employee discussions re: placement

within career

framework

Success stories

& small wins shared with

leadership & organization

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further review by the Grameen Foundation leadership team with an expected roll out date in the

early part of 2013.

As I close out my work on this project, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to help

lead the Grameen career architecture project. Due to complexity and scale of impact to

employees as well as the non-profit sector, this has been an extremely interesting and exciting

career project to lead! I would like to acknowledge the numerous hours that Astha Parmar spent

partnering with me on this work while providing guidance, ample patience and education.

Having Astha build the initial sample of the career framework along with providing directions

for the coding portion of the work which I completed was extremely helpful. As well, Inbal Rait

who often times joined me at very early hours in the morning to complete an interview added to

our success. In particular, Inbal’s interview probes prompted several interesting additional

answers by employees which otherwise might not have been provided. Thank you for an

incredibly fun opportunity!

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Appendix 1 (Example of Result Factor Scaling Tool)

Result Rating

(Complexity)

Mission

Results

Integration

Results

Leadership

Results

Strategic

Results

1 Execution Proactive w/in team Individual Contributor Personal and

Immediate

2 Analysis Proactive beyond

team

Front Line Manager Area Specific

3 Des ign Complex Senior Manager Programmatic

4 Architecture Integrative General Manager Significant and Broad

5 Direction Broad Exec Significant and Long

Term

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References

Bridges, W.A. (1991). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Cambridge, MA:

Perseus Books.

Conner, D. R. (1992). Managing at the Speed of Change, How Resilient Managers Succeed and

Prosper Where Others Fail. New York, NY: Villard Books.

Crutchfield, L.R & Grant, H.M. (2012). Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact

Nonprofits. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Dickens, L. & Watkins, K. (2006). Action research: Rethinking Lewin. In Gallos, J.V. (Ed.),

Organization development: A Jossey-Bass reader. (pp. 185-201). San Francisco,

CA: Jossey-Bass.

Drotter, S. (2011). The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered-Company.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.