Let’s play a game. You win the lottery. Real life-changing money. How long are you sticking around your workplace?

Are you gone immediately, never to be seen again? Do you give an official but quick two weeks’ notice?

Maybe you’re values-aligned to the work or have a significant role in the organization, and you take more time to ease the transition before your exit. Or you take a break and come back to contribute on a volunteer basis.

But for many people, the answer is likely: “Byyyeeee, see you never!!”

And you ride off into the sunset, revive creative endeavours that you haven’t had time for in years, sleep for days, travel the world.

(If you’re my kind of people, you also spend time building and contributing to your communities, look for ways to give back and build others up, and align your life to purpose and joy).

For organizations, that’s a big risk: all the knowledge and experience you brought to the table, gone.

Maybe people don’t win the lottery every day. But they do leave for other opportunities, or because they’re burned out, or they go on leave due to illness or family emergencies.

How do you plan for that?

Take a look at the outline below – 20 ways to address these risks as part of your annual strategic planning and ongoing team development. Reach out for facilitation support and workshops!

Succession Planning & Institutional Knowledge Retention

Consider where there might be opportunities to address risks, while also supporting your teams. One caveat: before doing any of this work, take an honest look at your own capacity, and the capacity of your teams. Prioritize accordingly!

RISK-REDUCTION

• Identify Key Roles and Skills: Determine which roles are critical for operations and what skills are essential for their success.

• Document Processes and Decisions: Maintain up-to-date, accessible records of workflows, key decisions, and organizational knowledge.

• Cross-Training Employees: Ensure multiple team members are trained in critical roles to prevent disruptions if someone leaves suddenly.

• Develop Emergency Transition Plans: Have clear, step-by-step plans for handling sudden departures, including interim leadership and role coverage.

• Create Knowledge Repositories: Use shared drives, wikis, or internal knowledge bases to store institutional knowledge in a structured way.

• Conduct Regular Knowledge Transfer Sessions: Hold debrief meetings when key staff exit to document insights and recommendations.

• Ensure Role Clarity and Documentation: Maintain up-to-date job descriptions, responsibilities, and expectations for each role to ease transitions.

• Monitor Employee Turnover Risks: Track trends in staff departures and identify potential retention issues before they become critical.

• Legal and Compliance Considerations: Ensure that succession planning aligns with employment laws, organizational bylaws, and governance structures.

• Board and Leadership Continuity: For nonprofits, ensure board member transitions are planned with staggered terms and mentorship for incoming members.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

• Identify and Develop Future Leaders: Establish mentorship and leadership development programs to prepare high-potential employees for advancement.

• Offer Growth Opportunities: Encourage internal promotions and skill-building to retain employees and prevent external recruitment gaps.

• Encourage Institutional Mentorship: Pair senior employees with newer staff to facilitate knowledge sharing and career development.

• Provide Ongoing Training: Invest in professional development, certifications, and leadership training to keep skills current.

• Create Career Pathways: Show employees clear advancement opportunities within the organization to improve retention.

• Encourage a Learning Culture: Support knowledge-sharing practices, such as internal workshops and team retrospectives.

• Recognize and Reward Contributions: Acknowledge employees who contribute to knowledge retention and mentor others to reinforce a culture of shared learning.

• Regular Feedback and Performance Reviews: Help employees understand their strengths and areas for growth, aligning them with long-term organizational needs.

• Foster Psychological Safety: Ensure employees feel safe to share knowledge, ask questions, and contribute ideas without fear of job insecurity.

• Succession Plan for Teams, Not Just Individuals: Develop a pipeline approach where teams collectively build knowledge and leadership capacity instead of relying on single individuals.

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