A 9 box template is easy to draw and hard to use: nine squares with performance across the bottom and potential up the side take a minute, and then two managers place the same kind of employee in different cells because nobody wrote down what the cells mean. The template that works has three parts: the grid, a definition for each level of each axis that ties performance to the rating scale and potential to observable readiness, and a notes column where the reason for each placement is written in a sentence. This page sets out each part of a 9 box grid template, how the definitions are written so that placements are comparable, and how the notes turn the calibration meeting from an argument into a review of evidence.
The grid and its axis definitions
Performance has three levels and each one is tied to the appraisal rating scale, so that a rating of meets expectations on a five-point scale maps to the middle level by rule, not by feel. Potential has three levels defined by readiness: ready for a larger role now, ready within one or two cycles, best suited to the current role. Each definition is one or two sentences printed on the template itself, beside the axis, because a definition in a separate policy document is a definition nobody reads in the meeting. With those six definitions in place, two managers placing the same evidence arrive at the same cell most of the time, and the exceptions are the interesting conversations.
The notes column, which is the point
Every placement gets a sentence: the objectives met and the rating for the performance axis, the evidence of readiness for the potential axis. The notes are what the calibration meeting reviews, because a cell without a reason cannot be challenged and a cell with one can. They are also what next year's grid is compared against, so a person who was placed as ready-soon two cycles ago and is still there has a question attached. The template is really a table of names, cells and reasons that happens to be drawn as a grid.
Using the template in the cycle
Managers place their own people after writing the reviews and before the calibration meeting. The meeting looks at the whole grid, reads the notes where placements look out of line with the ratings or with each other, and moves cells where the reason does not hold. The calibrated performance level then feeds the merit increase and the potential level feeds the development plan and the succession list. The free final comments worksheet on this site works the outcome from the calibrated rating; Reviewvo Pro keeps each employee's placement and note dated against their cycle record.
Questions people ask about 9 box template
What should a 9 box template include?
The three-by-three grid, a written definition for each level of performance and potential printed beside the axes, and a notes column with a one-sentence reason for every placement.
How is performance mapped onto the 9 box?
By rule from the appraisal rating scale: the calibrated rating collapses to below, meets or exceeds. Performance on the grid should never be rated a second time from feel.
How is potential defined on a 9 box grid?
By readiness for a larger role: now, within one or two cycles, or best suited to the current role, with the evidence written in the notes column. It is a judgement about the next job, not a second performance rating.