THE LADDER IS OUT, THE LATTICE IS IN

Posted by: Amy Dunkin on October 24

As vice-chairman and chief talent officer for Deloitte & Touche USA, Cathy Benko is the accounting and consulting firm’s main workforce architect. In that role, she has both observed and helped engineer a transformation in the employee culture.

Instead of just following a rigid career path, many workers now build customized careers to reflect their constantly changing personal lives. Benko says this represents a switch from the corporate ladder to a lattice model.

Benko, a Harvard MBA who lives in northern California with her husband, son, and daughter, addressed the trend in a 2007 book she co-authored for Harvard Business School Press, Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace with Today’s Nontraditional Workforce. She also writes Deloitte’s Women’s Initiative Blog.

Benko recently wrote this post for the Working Parents blog.

“As you may have heard, Deloitte is dismantling the corporate ladder, evolving toward a corporate lattice model of career progression. While I guess there are those out there who are spooked by this idea, others see a lot of upside to simply calling things for what they are: The workforce has changed and the workplace has not.

While you have many things to fear these days, the notion of customizing careers just as you customize play lists on iTunes needn’t be one of them.

Why venture here? In short, the one-size-fits-all corporate ladder model no longer fits all. In fact, it’s fitting fewer and fewer.

- More knowledge workers are poised to move out of the workforce than are moving in—a lot more.

- Only 17% of today’s family structures mirror the Ozzie & Harriet world of yesteryear when about two-thirds of households had a dad in the workforce and a mom who was not.

- Women are now the majority of those entering the workforce—but their climb up the ladder is apt to be anything but straight up.

- The younger generations won’t stick around to fit into your idea of what’s best for their career-life fit.

A lattice world recognizes that 21st century career journeys will ebb and flow over time and in tandem with life’s circumstances—resulting in a need for a new model of how careers are built.

Consider the example of a soon-to-be empty nester who wants to reduce his workload during his kid’s last year at home.

In a corporate ladder world, he might be hesitant to ask, fearing his boss might think he was lacking ambition or commitment.

A lattice organization would view this as an ordinary business event, taking the longer-term view that each individual’s needs change over time—and it’s a good bet he’ll dial-up with renewed dedication a year later when the home front is quiet.

If you’re not the type of person who believes ahead of the evidence, take a moment to look around you—up, down, and sideways. If you’ve had a traditional climb up the corporate ladder, pay particular attention: What you’ll see won’t be what you experienced on your way up a vast majority of the time (83% to be exact).

Let’s face it. Everyone who has a career also has a life. It’s time to acknowledge this, and work within a model where the workplace is once again aligned with the workforce. Welcome to the lattice world.”

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