People own the work: Exits
Every time someone leaves, you find out whether the work belonged to your organization or to that one person. Most teams find out on the last day, when it is too late to ask.
The Pattern.
One person has carried a whole area of the work for years. Now they are moving on or moving up to bigger work, so the handoff keeps getting pushed to next week. Everything they know sits in their inbox and in their head. The plan, if there is one, is to have them write it all down in their last two weeks.
What we Take Out FirSt.
We take the handoff out of those last two weeks and give it a real timeline with dates on it. We plan the exit the way you would plan any other project instead of just bracing for it. We also make sure the person keeps their role and their pay through the handoff, because people hand things over well when they feel taken care of.
What we build.
- A written handoff plan with a timeline, circulated before the first working session
- The procedures that person ran, written down while they can still check them
- A named owner for each piece of their work
- A short schedule of check-ins until the handoff closes
The best time to plan a handoff is long before anyone gives notice.
Erin Peshoff is the Founder of Vivid Operational Advisors. She has spent thirty years inside nonprofit operations, helped raise over $100 million for institutional missions, and built Vivid around the operating discipline most strategic engagements skip.
