Succession Handover Plan

A handover without a plan becomes permanent. He stays “available for questions”. The successor gets tasks and never authority. This template prevents that. Copy it, fill it in with both of them at the table, and put dates on every phase.

The full pattern behind this plan: Succession Handover.

Before you start: three lines that decide everything

Write these down first. If any line stays empty, the handover is not real yet.

Successor: one name. Not “the team”.
Last day in the role: a calendar date. Not “when he’s ready”.
His role after that date: advisory contract with an end date, a new project, or exit. Named now, not later.

Phase 1: Map (weeks 1–4)

List every domain he owns: systems, processes, suppliers, clients, approvals.
For each domain, note who else can run it today. The blanks are your risk list.
Start the knowledge-transfer interviews on the top three blanks.
Successor starts a question log: everything they cannot answer without him.

Checkpoint: the domain list exists and both have signed off on it.

Phase 2: Shadow (weeks 5–8)

Successor watches him run each domain once.
Then the successor runs it, with him watching. In that order, once each. Skipping the second half is the classic failure.
Every “why” that comes up in shadowing goes into the documentation, same week.

Checkpoint: successor has run each top domain at least once, hands on.

Phase 3: Transfer authority (weeks 9–16)

Move decision rights domain by domain. Task transfer without decision transfer is Phase 2 in disguise.
Keep a decision log: what did the successor decide this week without him?
Announce each transfer to the team: “From Monday, [successor] decides X.” He does not correct those decisions in public.

Checkpoint: the decision log grows week over week. If it does not, name the blocker.

Phase 4: Fixed availability (weeks 17–20)

Replace “ask me anytime” with two fixed hours per week.
Questions go to the documentation first, to him second.
The question log should be near empty. What remains goes into the last interviews.

Checkpoint: one full week without an escalation to him.

Phase 5: End (the date from line two)

He leaves the role on the named date. The after-role from line three starts.
Review the plan: which domains still have a single point of failure? That is the successor’s first quarter.

Warning signs

The end date moves. Move it once at most, and only with a new written plan.
He runs meetings he was supposed to attend. See Succession Handover for the countermoves.
Nothing gets written down. See Documentation Resistance.