Building Resilient Teams with Transition and Succession Planning

Imagine arriving at work on a Monday morning, only to find that your key software engineer, who designed more than 60% of your project’s system, didn’t show up. After some digging, you learn he was arrested over the weekend for eight-year tax evasion. As the week progresses, you hold onto hope that he’ll make bail and return, allowing your project to continue.

He does make bail, but after a week back at work, he vanishes again. This time, you discover he fled the country to avoid prosecution, leaving behind his family and responsibilities. The reality sinks in—your key engineer isn’t returning, and the rest of your team has little knowledge of the intricate system he developed. Project failure seems imminent, and you’re faced with the possibility that your company might not survive this blow.

This isn't just a hypothetical situation. It’s a stark reminder of how the absence of transition and succession planning can lead to disastrous outcomes for projects and even entire companies. Resource risks, particularly those related to human behavior and skills availability, are often given low priority in project risk assessments. This oversight can be fatal.

So, how can organizations steer clear of such catastrophic scenarios? The solution lies in robust transition and succession planning. While these human resource processes may not always fall directly under the project manager's purview, it's crucial for vigilant project managers committed to delivering quality projects on time and within scope to understand the value of monitoring these processes, especially for long, complex projects.

These concepts might be business continuity planning or professional development outside project management. Regardless of the terminology, the core idea remains: having the right people on your project, ensuring no one is irreplaceable, and ensuring that any new team members can quickly become productive.

The Importance of Clear Roles and Responsibilities

The first step in building a resilient project team is establishing clear roles and responsibilities. These should be more detailed than a simple job description for large, complex projects. They must be documented in writing and regularly updated as the project evolves. This information is crucial for effective transition and succession planning, as it provides a foundation for understanding who does what and how their absence might impact the project.

Transition Planning: Preparing for the Expected and the Unexpected

Transition planning can be considered the onboarding and offboarding process for project team members. It is essential to ensure continuity when a team member leaves, regardless of the reason. Here’s a closer look at the steps involved in effective transition planning:

1. Understanding Skills and Responsibilities: When a team member exits, the priority is to understand what skills need to be replaced and what responsibilities they hold. This includes understanding the current status of their work and any due deliverables.
2. Documenting Changes Over Time: Roles can evolve. When a team member leaves, it’s essential to discuss how their role may have changed since joining the project. This helps in accurately updating the roles and responsibilities documentation.
3. Retrieving Company Property and Access: A critical part of the exit process is ensuring that all company property is returned and access to systems and information is securely transferred or deactivated. A checklist for these items helps avoid oversights that could compromise security or project continuity.
4. Facilitating a Positive Departure: Depending on company culture, organizing a farewell gathering or celebration can help maintain morale and acknowledge the departing team member's contributions and talent. This is especially important for fostering a positive work environment.
5. Onboarding New Team Members: When a new team member joins, it’s crucial to ensure they quickly become an integral part of the team. This includes clearly understanding their roles and responsibilities, organizing necessary training or professional development, and ensuring they have all the tools they need to perform their work. Setting expectations for initial deliverables and timelines also helps new team members hit the ground running.

Smooth transitions are vital for maintaining the momentum of your project. They help ensure work continues without significant delays, even when essential personnel changes occur.

Succession Planning: Preparing for the Future

While succession planning at a corporate level can be complex, it can be simplified in the context of project management into two main components: talent evaluation and talent development. Talent evaluation looks beyond the standard performance review, and talent development involves more than just providing training.

Talent Evaluation: Beyond the Standard HR Performance Review

For project managers, talent evaluation should go beyond the standard HR performance review, often based on subjective measures. Instead, focus on deliverables. For each role on the project, develop a checklist of expected tasks and track their completion. This approach provides a clear, objective measure of performance based on actual contributions to the project.

During this process, it’s also essential to observe what other tasks the individual may be capable of completing. Once a quarter, consider sitting down with each team member to discuss:

• Your vision for the future of the project.
• Other roles they might be interested in exploring.
• What they hope to gain from their work on the project.
• Additional tasks they could take on to grow their capabilities.

This ongoing dialogue helps identify potential areas for growth and development, ensuring that you’re not just managing the current project but also preparing for future needs.

Talent Development: Investing in Your Team’s Growth

Talent development is, arguably, one of the most rewarding aspects of project management. High-performing teams address the “what’s in it for me” question by offering personal and professional development opportunities.

As the project progresses, look for opportunities to shift assignments that might build talents and satisfy individual needs. When new skills are required for successful project completion, carefully consider who should receive that training. This approach helps create a more versatile and capable team and keeps team members motivated and engaged.

Networking with other project and program managers within your company can also be valuable. It can reveal additional opportunities for your team members, allowing them to gain new experiences and grow professionally.

As part of talent development, it’s also crucial to identify and remove any roadblocks that might hinder team members' productivity. This could involve streamlining processes, providing additional resources, or addressing interpersonal issues within the team.

Building a High-Performing Team: A Case Study in Turnaround

At one point in my career, I was tasked with managing a group perceived to be underperforming and unmotivated—a significant obstacle in the engineering process. Within a year, I was able to transform this group into a highly effective team with a positive culture by focusing on the following strategies, which included transition and succession planning:

1. Defining Roles and Responsibilities: We clearly defined what was expected of each team member, which helped eliminate confusion and set clear expectations.
2. Establishing Behavioral Ground Rules: We identified critical behavioral ground rules for internal and external interactions. This helped create a more respectful and productive work environment.
3. Developing a Team Vision: We worked together to create a shared vision for the team. This gave everyone a common goal to work towards and fostered a sense of ownership and accountability.
4. Balancing Structure and Innovation: We reigned in chaos without stifling innovation, finding a balance that allowed creative problem-solving within a structured framework.
5. Focusing on Career Development: We clarified that promotion and career growth were goals for everyone on the team. This motivated team members to perform at their best.
6. Removing Roadblocks: We identified and removed inefficiencies hindering productivity, allowing the team to work more effectively.
7. Providing Professional Development Opportunities: We offered essential training and development opportunities, helping team members build new skills and advance in their careers.
8. Cross-Training: We implemented cross-training to ensure every critical skill had a backup. This not only reduced dependency on any one person but also provided team members with valuable learning opportunities.

The results were remarkable. Team efficiency increased significantly, and other departments noticed the changes. Multiple cost-saving measures were identified and enacted, one team member was promoted to another group, and everyone on the team reported enjoying their work more. In addition, the cross-training provided a plan for transition and succession planning.

The Path to Resilience

The story of the missing software engineer illustrates the dangers of neglecting transition and succession planning and highlights the importance of recognizing human behavior as a critical factor in project risk management.

Project managers can build more resilient teams that are better prepared to handle unexpected challenges by proactively implementing robust transition and succession planning. This, in turn, ensures the successful delivery of projects and contributes to the organization's long-term success.

Incorporating these strategies may require a shift in mindset and a commitment to ongoing development and evaluation. However, the payoff is substantial: a motivated, capable team ready to tackle any challenge, ensuring that your projects survive and thrive.