Grameen Foundation Career Architecture Overview

Grameen Foundation: Career Architecture Client Report
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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.
Innovatingfor the World’sPoor.

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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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ProcessChart & 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 IntoFactor ResultThemes DetermineCoreFactor ResultAreas (Columns)
Conduct & Code Interviews
CompletionofInterviews Early QualitativeAnalysis: CodeInterviews For Result Areas
Phase I: Determine Data Set & Methodof Interviews
DetermineTitles and Employees To Interview Develop InterviewProtocol
Leadership& Employee Feedback
GrameenFoundationLeadership& Board Feedback
Subset of Employee Feedback(Developing Early
Adopters)
BuildCareer Framework
Determine Definition& Language Per Career Band& Level
Phase II: Data Analysis
Determine Number&Title of CareerBands (Rows)
DevelopScaling 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 Proofof 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
GrameenFoundationLeadership& Board Feedback Subset of Employee Feedback(Developing Early
Adopters)
BuildCareer Framework
Determine Number of Career Bands & Titles. Result Definition AndLanguage
Phase II: KeyMilestonesforRatification ofThinking
Macro Viewof Career Data DevelopScaling 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 CareerFramework:
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
Missionand
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
Missionand
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
Missionand
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 ProjectTime 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 Design 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.

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