Recognizing that many of its executive leaders were approaching retirement, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma—the third largest Indian nation in the U.S.—launched the Successor Development Program in 2021. Designed to ensure continuity and preparedness at the highest levels of leadership, the Successor Development Program establishes a formal succession plan for executive roles and fosters the continuous development of senior leaders as they advance toward executive-level responsibilities.
Program Details
The Successor Development Program focuses on structured development, formal training, and data-informed assessments. Key components include:
- Bi-annual plan confirmation by Organizational Development (OD) with the current executives
- Biennial skill assessments using data-driven assessments from Korn Ferry
- Annual experiential learning tied to core competencies logged and tracked by OD
- Formal executive training program I shvlihchi (Choctaw for go beyond/do more) specifically engineered for successors
- Quarterly development sessions with Organizational Development specialists
- Quarterly recommender sessions between successors and their recommenders
- Quarterly networking events to strengthen connections among future executives
To ensure all identified successors are consistently exposed to the full scope of the organization’s operations, the OD team introduced an experience checklist in spring 2025. This tool outlines a variety of cross-functional experiences, allowing successors to gain a broader understanding of the diverse work happening across the organization.
To ensure clearer handoffs and access to institutional knowledge, the OD team began developing the first Continuity Book for a Senior Executive Officer position. The goal is to complete continuity books for all executive roles in fiscal year 2026, supporting smoother transitions and preserving key practices as leaders exit the organization.
To make data easily accessible and actionable, the People Analytics team developed Power BI dashboards. These dashboards display snapshots of leadership readiness, experience completion, and goal progression, including Gantt charts that illustrate individualized development timelines. This data is regularly presented to C-suite leaders to support informed conversations about talent readiness and organizational planning.
Bi-yearly, recommenders reassess the readiness of their successors and confirm plans with Talent Management staff.
Results
From 2022 to 2024, the leaders involved in the practice improved their Performance Review scores from an average of 4.3 to 4.5. In 2022, the average percentile rank of the Gallup VOA direct report score for practice participants was 59.3; by 2024, it increased to 80.28.
Since its inception in 2021, the Successor Development Program has resulted in the promotion of 10 successors and has supported the development of 85 associates overall. Currently, 65 participants are actively engaged in the program.
