Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- If succession planning works, how do the wrong people so often get to the top? -- Alternative approaches to succession planning and talent management -- 01 What's wrong with succession planning? -- What is succession planning? -- Models of succession planning -- Key themes in succession planning -- How organizations go about succession planning -- Effective succession planning -- Evaluating the effectiveness of succession planning -- A special problem of succession planning in smaller companies -- So how do the wrong people get to the top? -- Why succession planning doesn't work: a summary -- Summary -- 02 A systemic perspective on succession and talent -- Generation F: ambassadors of the complex adapative system -- Challenges for HR -- 03 What do we mean by leadership? -- Post-recessionary leadership -- Some critical leadership roles -- Leaders versus leadership -- Flawed leadership -- Summary -- 04 The critical challenges: what is talent? -- What do we mean by talent? -- How do definitions of talent affect people's ambitions? -- How do we identify talent? -- A simpler way of identifying talent -- The linear systems approach: competencies and grids -- How far can we trust competency frameworks? -- The nine-box grid: a reliable assessment or an illusion of rigour? -- Is performance really measurable? -- Is potential really measurable? -- The 'other' talent -- Summary -- 05 Aligning careers and business needs -- What do organizations and talented employees need to understand about each other? -- Developing realistic yet flexible and opportunistic career paths -- Creating alignment -- Recognizing and using 'transition points' -- Retaining talent -- Creating the environment for alignment -- 06 The critical challenges: the maturity question -- Managing the maturity issue.

Managing potentially fatal flaws -- Making the maturity dialogue happen -- 07 Pools, pipelines or waves? -- Dropping a rock in the talent pool -- The perils of pipelines -- Harnessing the power of the Talent Wave -- Summary -- 08 Critical conversations -- The importance of good questions -- Critical conversations for succession planning -- Critical conversation one: internal -- Critical conversation two: employee and their stakeholders -- Critical conversation three: wider organization and employees -- Critical conversation four: between social networks -- A strategy for career and succession planning conversations -- 09 Conversation 1: the inner dialogue -- Managing the inner dialogue -- Identity and values -- Taking responsibility for your own career planning -- Capturing the inner conversation -- How the organization can help -- Helping the employee plan their learning journey -- Summary -- 10 Conversation 2: stakeholder dialogue -- Dialogue between the line manager and the employee -- Looking for talent -- Finding development opportunities for the talent in your team -- Harnessing stakeholder goodwill in your career and personal development -- Dialogue with colleagues -- 11 Conversation 3: between the organization and employees -- What do organizations need to know about employees' career aspirations? -- How to gather and communicate information about likely roles in the future -- Using the broader organizational conversation to support the Talent Wave -- Making the broad conversation happen -- 12 Conversation 4: between social networks -- Networking theory -- Social networking and succession planning -- Integrating organizational and employee social networks -- Benefits of integrating organizational and individual social networks -- Supporting employee-focused social networking -- Summary -- 13 Succession planning for a dynamic world.

Working within a complex, adaptive system -- Harnessing the energy of the Talent Wave -- Ensuring that talent development and succession planning systems enable rather than control -- Making sure the four conversations happen -- So can we prevent the wrong people getting to the top? -- Conclusion -- References -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4 -- Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6 -- Chapter 7 -- Chapter 8 -- Chapter 9 -- Chapter 10 -- Chapter 11 -- Chapter 12 -- Chapter 13 -- Index.