Have you ever been in a situation at work where you feel like you were utterly unprepared, and had no idea what to do? The phrase, “Getting caught with your pants down” is a common one that describes that feeling. In this post, I will talk briefly about succession planning, which is really just putting yourself in a position where you either won’t feel this way as often, or minimize your risk when it happens.
Succession planning is all about looking to the future. Let me start by saying it is not easy to plan for the future. There are a ton of unknown pieces of information you just aren’t ever going to have, and that’s okay. Even if you do have all the information, the best laid plans will sometimes fall apart anyhow. That’s just life.
But, what if you could reduce those failed efforts? Let’s use an example. Look at the demographics of your work. Think about how many people are long term employees, maybe close to retirement age, and are the only people who know how to do a particular job. Have you ever thought, “I wouldn’t know what we’d do if _________ were to quit or retire”?
This is where succession planning works well. Eventually everyone will retire, or transition to a new job, or for whatever other reason will no longer be in employment. There are also others at work who are wanting to diversify their experience and learn new skills. Pair them up with those who you can’t live without and give the veteran employees a chance to pass some knowledge and experience on to others. This is just one example but the same ideas can be used for backup on project management, covering vacations, sick leave, etc.
The point of all of this is to be thinking about the future and think on how to prepare yourself for it. You are not going to plan for everything, and that is okay. Even going through the practice of some succession planning will enable you to better react to something you hadn’t planned for when it does happen. Your mind will be used to dealing with the unexpected, and because it will be more familiar, you won’t feel as if you are “caught with your pants down”.