Succession Planning

 "It is not enough to do your best. You have to KNOW what to do and THEN do your best." - Deming.


"Succession planning" is crucial to maintaining the momentum of a business's processes and initiatives. It’s not unnatural to see experienced and trained employees leaving their positions for different reasons, and untrained people take their place. Often, this is not well managed in companies. The expertise is not effectively passed on, and the processes/initiatives tend to go awry. This is not so because the successor is not competent or not putting enough efforts. It’s the usual battle between ‘capacity’ and ‘capability’. Capacity of a person is intrinsic, while capabilities are often based on external expectations. A competent person can adapt quickly and will be able to meet expectations if given the right direction.

If we have a team of people, we should be able to bring the newcomers up to speed through the expertise/experience of others in a structured manner without expecting the newcomer to learn (possibly assume) by himself.

In order to sustain a process/initiative, it is important to avoid reliance on a single 'resource' and to adopt a critical mass approach.

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