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Planning for the Unplanned
Bob Ryan, About Purpose, Inc. ©2003
My wife left me.
Well, sure, it’s only for an extended trip to Africa, but I quickly found out how many things she took care of around here that I am totally dependent on her for! There’s the bill paying and the shopping and the social planning and the plant watering and the charitable giving and, well, a few other things that I won’t mention in this newsletter.
It got me thinking about how our businesses may be left in the lurch by the unplanned (or even planned) absence of the CEO or a key employee. Most of us think about succession planning as a long-term part of an exit strategy, but what if that exit were to happen tomorrow? Here’s the shocking question: “What would happen to your business if you or some key employee were suddenly incapacitated?”
Well, don’t stay up nights worrying about it. I offer you the following contingency plan for an unplanned exit. It’s written from the CEO’s point of view, but it is easily adaptable to a key employee. Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, and the shape in which you find the three following areas, you should be able to put this plan into writing in one or two days. To get started, focus your attention on three critical areas: Strategic Plans, Operations, and Relationships.
Strategic Plans
I know I’ve hammered on this for years, but here’s one of the reasons. If you don’t have a current, active strategic plan when you exit unexpectedly, your company is rudderless. Dust off your strategic plan and review it. Does it accurately capture the direction you have in mind for your future? Share it in your next staff meeting. Discuss its implications. Make sure people share your vision and passion and understand the roadmap as you’ve laid it out.
Document clearly who helped in the development of the plan so that if it needs to be revisited in your absence, there is some continuity.
Do you have strategic partnerships that are critical to your company? Define them in writing. Be sure both you and the partners have crystal-clear agreement about who does what for whom and what costs and rewards are expected in the bargain.
Operations
Just how much of what you do is in your head? Could someone really step in, or have you held the knowledge so closely that it would cause a major disruption? There may be good documentation regarding actual processes, but what’s typically missing are the little things that make the processes work. For example, only you know that you’ve got to talk to Larry at the Will Call Desk at Acme if you want to get the parts on time.
Think through the details of your day. Who has the keys to the ______? You fill in the blanks for both the literal and figurative keys to making all the processes work smoothly. Even something as minor as signature authorization can cause a major glitch in operations.
Are you the only one who understands how you’ve “customized” the software so that it would take an expensive outside consultant to reconstruct the steps to using it effectively?
Relationships
After all is said and done, it’s people that run a company. Make sure that your key, trusted staff are well known both inside and outside the organization. Introduce your key staff often, and take them with you for important meetings. If they seem like strangers to your strategic partners and to your other employees, they will have major credibility problems.
Give them opportunities to practice while you are away for short periods. Delegate real authority to them and them review their actions upon your return. Coach them into being the CEO you would like them to become if you were incapacitated. If your plan is to use an outside resource as a transitional CEO, bring that person in a few times for key meetings so that they do not come in as strangers in the event of an emergency.
Look for relationship problems that may crop up during these practice times and follow up on them directly and immediately upon your return.
Summary
Finally, after you have worked through all these areas, write a clear procedure to be initiated immediately upon your unplanned absence. Make sure all key staff knows exactly where it is and who is responsible for implementing it.
(There are financial contingencies to be made, too, but that’s not my purpose here. A good business insurance broker should be able to craft something that fits your situation. If you don’t know someone, give me a call and I can steer you to a couple really knowledgeable people.)
So you think nothing is ever going to happen to you and that all this is a waste of valuable time? I sincerely hope you’re right and that nothing catastrophic happens to you or any of your key employees. On the other hand, the process of going through good contingency planning will make you a stronger, more focused and better prepared company. So you come out a winner just by going through this. Start with yourself first, and then begin working your way through your key people. I guarantee that the process will be worth the time and effort you put into it.