9-box grid
The 9-box grid is a talent review tool that plots employees on a 3×3 matrix of performance against potential to support calibration and succession decisions.
The 9-box grid plots employees on a three-by-three matrix — typically performance on one axis and potential on the other — producing nine cells that range from low performance/low potential to high performance/high potential. It gives leaders a shared visual language for talent calibration.
The framework was popularized by McKinsey & Company in work with General Electric in the 1970s and remains a staple of talent reviews. It is most useful as a conversation starter for calibration, not as a final verdict on a person.
The grid's value is in the disagreements it surfaces. When two leaders place the same person in different cells, the conversation that follows — what evidence, whose standards, which axis — is the calibration working as intended. Grids filled out alone and never debated are just opinion in a costume.
Its known failure modes are worth designing against: potential ratings that quietly measure polish or likeness to the rater, placements that never change because nobody revisits them, and the top-right cell being treated as a promotion promise rather than a development signal. Clear criteria per axis and a revisit cadence keep the tool honest.
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