Succession Planning Without the Spreadsheet of Doom
Most succession plans live in a single quarterly spreadsheet that nobody updates. The teams that actually have ready successors operate continuously. Here's how.
The spreadsheet problem
Quarterly succession reviews look thorough on slide 47 of the board pack. They produce no actual successors. The information is stale by the time anyone needs it.
The continuous model
Every manager rates each report on a 9-box twice a year (15 minutes per report). The data feeds a live succession view per critical role. Talent reviews happen against current data, not screenshots of a dashboard from March.
Pairing succession with development
Each high-potential gets one explicit stretch project per year. The project is in the succession record, not a separate development plan. Stretch + visibility is what creates successors — not training budgets.