The unexpected passing of a loved one can be a shock to your system.  Your last conversation with the dearly departed plays like a broken record.  You ponder their past and reflect on your future.  Your mind marks the calendar as “one week since”, “one month since”, “first 4th of July since”, and so on.  And throughout it all, you and the other surviving family members sort through documents, folders, notebooks and computer files seeking often disparate pieces of information that will allow you to press forward in their absence.

Similar feelings, albeit to a lesser degree, can be found in organizations dealing with the unexpected departure of a key contributor.  If we were to treat succession a bit more like estate planning, we may be able to avoid much of the stress, anxiety and confusion that remains in their wake.

To that end, I’d call your attention to Purdue University’s Six Basic Steps for Getting Ready for Estate Planning. Purdue has done a good job of itemizing each of major considerations, all of which can be repurposed for your succession strategy:

1. Initiate the Discussion: This is often the most difficult step, for like estate planning, this is something that many organizations do not care to discuss.  Begin by identifying those at-risk high performers that are likely to either seek greener pastures and/or retire.  
2. Take Stock of the Present: What is their span of control and/or influence?  What critical information do they have in their possession and how do you extract it?  What relationships do they singly control and manage?  Imagine that they left tomorrow and you had to make heads or tails of their world.
3. Develop Objectives: What exactly do you want to accomplish?  Business continuity is often the most immediate objective, but beyond that, how would you reinvent their role?  What characteristics are optimal and do you have a pool or readily available candidates to fill the void? 
4. Choose Advisors: Seek outside advice and guidance.  Whether through executive recruiters, consultants, industry connections or other third-parties, do not feel the need to solve for this complex equation through internal means alone.
5. Consider Alternatives: Should this previously occupied position cease to exist?  Could or should it be split into multiple roles?  Can you proactively communicate a desire to form mentor/protege relationships of this person’s choosing to openly and actively address the issue?
6. Review and Modify: Succession plans have an expiration date, and do not let your more important ones sour or stagnate.  Expect to revisit the plan quarterly to assess net-new factors or considerations that modify your prior assumptions and expectations.  Stay fluid yet focused. 

No matter how much time you think you have to deal with these issues, there is no better time than the present.  Like the grieving survivor, we often wish we could turn back the clock and have done things differently.  So let’s keep the conversation going (and the regrets to a minimum).

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 10:54 am and is filed under Human Capital/Human Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.