I am a nerd; ergo, I am a fan of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series.  What’s that have to do with IT or HR?  Well, I learned my most import IT lesson from the first book of that series.  The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (an actual interstellar travel book ala Fodor’s or Lonely Planet within the context of Douglas Adams’ imagined universe) has one important message at all times: “Don’t panic!”

It’s as good of a mantra for an IT professional as any I’ve ever heard.  Things happen.  Bad things happen.  In the midst of a techno-calamity remaining calm can be the difference between a good decision and a bad one or between hours of down time or minutes of down time.

Monday’s Blackberry outage is a shining example of why panicking isn’t productive.  For those of you who don’t carry the ubiquitous device and are maybe unaware of the outage, Blackberry subscribers lost email functionality for a portion of the day Monday.

So you’ve read my title and you’ve read my intro and you’re wondering… what does any of this have to do with succession management?  Succession management, in the simplest of terms, in having a plan in place for when something (really someone) you need goes away.

In the case of the Blackberry outage you can find a number of testimonials on the web about how someone was so detrimentally impacted they want to sue Blackberry, or get a refund, or switch to a Treo.  Apparently, those people did not have a plan for what to do if their mobile device lost email.  Apparently they also couldn’t devise a plan on the fly.

So what if something more important than a Blackberry went away?  What if, say, I got fed up and quit or was lured away by a better organization?  What if I was promoted to Chief IT Czar of the Universe and someone else had to fill my role?

Fortunately, I have plan.  A succession plan.  I won’t list the many things that would make a good succession plan or succession management tool.  They are really pretty simple:

1.       Know who is on your bench. 

2.       Measure strengths and weaknesses

3.       Know who you need to keep

4.       Have a plan for making sure anyone you need to keep stays

5.       Be sure to continuously groom those employees for roles further up the career ladder

For me my first step in succession management for my position is to hire my replacement.  Once I’ve done that I start actively preparing that person (or maybe even persons) to take on my role.  I identify the gaps in their skill set and I start little by little giving them some of my responsibilities, exposing them to the details of my role/job.  I do my best to help them grow and learn.  Not only does it provide the company with a new me should the current me move on in some way, but it allows me to take vacations, effectively delegate work and provides a staff in whom I can trust and on whom I can rely.

Succession management doesn’t have to be overly architected or cumbersome.  It doesn’t even have to be overly formal.  Good succession management starts with the awareness of what leadership roles are needed, who currently fills those roles and who can fill those roles in the future (given the appropriate mentoring, training and career development).  Have a plan; work the plan; don’t panic.