Succession and Succession Planning Best Practice 1 – Turnover Checklists

Every position in any company will necessarily be different than even the same position within any other organization. These differences stem from the unique organizational personnel, policies, culture, and marketplace positioning and environment. To be best prepared to assume his or her new role, a successor must have a thorough understanding of all of the position’s critical success factors, drivers, and influencers. Turnover checklists leverage the collective experiences of past position holders to help ensure successors receive all of this vital area knowledge.[wcm_restrict plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]

Turnover checklists represent a powerful transition tool because of knowledge conveyance they support. Founded on the experiences of past position holders, turnover checklists necessarily support transfer that hard won knowledge to the newcomer; knowledge beyond those core data points generally needed by all leaders. While not an all inclusive list, turnover checklists should in general contain information on the following topics:

Core Business Information

• Organization vision, mission, and values
• Business plans and budgets
• Outstanding commitments and ongoing negotiations
• Ongoing projects
• Organization policies and performance standards
• Directly applicable procedures
• Staffing allowances and succession plans
• Direct report performance reviews
• Marketplace data
• Customer and supplier/vendor information
• Key internal and external contact information
• Transfer of documents, keys and combinations, and general property control

Experiential Information

• Observable expression of the organization’s values
• Organization cultural norms
• Company heroes, villains, and their stories/legacies
• Internal political position insights including allies and opponents and what each brings to the debate
• Individual relationship and handling insights
• Cliques and grapevine communications channels
• Key organization gatekeepers and gaining access to those they protect
• Organization success and failure event outcomes and lessons learned
• Any other experiential information the outgoing position holder deems relevant

Completion of the turnover checklist should be reviewed by the leader to whom the successor will report. This review is often a meeting between the senior executive/manager and the incoming and outgoing position holders. The purpose of the meeting is to check the completeness of knowledge transfer prior to the transition of power.

Final Thought…

Portions of the turnover checklist may appear to be of dubious intent; they are not. It is recognized that, whether constructive or not, politics exist to some degree within all organizations. This author acknowledges the fact that organizational politics do exist and recommends the conveyance of knowledge that will help the successor navigate these sometimes perilous waters. However, politically related information should be shared in private and kept in confidence.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”25541, 25541, 25653″]

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