Dan Schneider

Integrated Communications: Cutting through the Fog of Succession Planning
June 4, 2008

Years ago, I spent college summers with my parents in a small town in southwest Arkansas. It got hot and sticky down there; and when it rained, mosquitoes thrived. So much so that the city government bought a fogging machine to spray the lakes, ponds, and other pools of water. As the truck drove through town, a mechanical voice boomed “Warning! Do not follow the fogging machine!”

My experience indicates that many succession plans are guilty of fogging. They are, quite simply, difficult to understand. As a consequence, the already difficult process of planning and organizing for succession success becomes even more challenging.

I think of this often when I’m with clients struggling with communications. For whatever reason(s), we often have a difficult time saying what is really on our mind. Possibly more often than not, we just don’t want to hurt someone; and, as a result, we just don’t tell them what they really need to know. Some people call that “selective communication.” As a result, we choose a less effective way of letting others know our unfiltered intentions.

There are ways to communicate a succession plan so clearly that it helps improve Family Dynamics, Business Performance, and the several others components of succession success. Here are some simple techniques for you and your planner to use in crafting an understandable succession plan:

1. Use pictures to help the readers see the future. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having an illustrated version of the succession plan. In fact, you might even want a video of the current generation explaining for posterity what the actual intent of the plan really is. As you get deeper into generations, that could be a source document of “founder’s” intent.
2. Remember that people are far more rationalizing than rational. Include enough emotion in your written and oral communications about the plan to provide a level of inspiration that comes with knowing people are involved in something that’s bigger than money and bigger than themselves.
3. Let the next generation of leaders choose, whenever possible, how certain portions of the plan will be implemented. Avoid the temptation to “rule from the grave.”
4. Communicate with compassionate honesty and empathy. The truth does not have to be brutal, but it does have to be the truth. That’s about the only way to insure integrity and accountability. Brutal honesty is just cruel; and sympathetic honesty opens the door to entitlement. Neither is much of a legacy.
5. For a high level of commitment, market the plan. Use all of the communications tools identified as part of the Integrated Communications Bundle: written, oral, auditory, sensory, emotional, and factual. As our friends running for political office are fond of saying, “Stay on message.”

Posted by Dan Schneider on June 4, 2008 | Comments (0)