I harp on succession planning (a business strategy that involves identifying, developing, and replacing leadership roles) a lot - but it's really one part of an ecosystem your company should be implementing.

This topic came to mind because I was recently speaking to a group of executives of small companies, and after my presentation, one of the people in the audience came up to me and said, “Succession planning is a lot like a Rubik's cube, isn't it?” I thought to myself, “That is a really apt description!”

Think of each color on the Rubik's Cube as being a part a different part of the succession planning process - they can be aligned or they can be jumbled up (no real order).

It is not a straightforward process which is probably why so many companies put it on the “To Do Later” list.

So, in this article, I'm going to show you what that ecosystem contains and all the internal practices that will make up the totality of your succession planning. Before I share the model, however, I want to share an insight I recently learned from a Society for Human Resource Management publication. The publication is called People and Strategy and the April 2024 edition had a whole section focused on succession planning. One of the articles in that section talked about the fact that HR processes are built into supporting succession planning. And that perspective is built into our model / ecosystem of succession planning.

The Ecosystem of the Succession Planning Process

Starting at the 12 o’clock position and moving clockwise, all of these things are things that the HR department manages. They can create career paths for roles in the company. They can conduct assessments or hire companies to conduct assessments to determine people's aptitude, their leadership qualities, etc. The succession planning process and the performance appraisal process should be aligned so that every year or six months, however often you're holding your performance appraisal conversations, you're also asking people about their future aspirations in the organization and looking to how you can support those. Will they need experiences? Will they need instruction? Should they get a certification, etc.?

Next, HR is very much involved with professional development; especially if you don't have a dedicated training and development department, then HR will be the resource for finding professional development opportunities for your employees. HR can also create and manage coaching and mentoring opportunities within the organization as well.

BUT HR is NOT the owner of the succession planning process. Ownership needs to come from the C-suite because it is a strategic initiative, and in many cases it's a risk management initiative as well. So you want the leaders of the company to own that mission and then HR - through all of their responsibilities just discussed - can help to carry the process out.

So, it occurred to me as I heard this comment about the Rubik's cube… I just read this article from SHRM… and we've just debuted our Primer (see Note, below)… that really all of us are saying the same thing! Succession Planning can be a complex process, but you don't have to tackle it all at the same time. Knowing what elements support the succession planning process is very beneficial.

Note: We have a one-hour video-based self-study course called the HR Succession Planning Primer that might be helpful to HR professionals to learn what their role is and what the order of succession planning is, if you're about to roll it out in your organization. This model is part of one of those lessons.

The Ecosystem of Succession Planning