Senior Leader Transitions
It is critical to capture the knowledge and experience of senior leaders who are moving within the organization, or leaving. Because of their position in your company, the implications of lost knowledge, or a delay in transferring that knowledge to successors can be staggering.
What would you do if one or more of your key leaders suddenly decided to leave? Do you have a process to capture the important information that is 'in their head'???

Introducing Knowledge Management for Senior Leaders - It is a process that:

  • Identifies, captures and transfers critical knowledge and experience of senior leaders who are transitioning roles, or leaving the company
  • Ensures protection of Intellectual Capital and of business continuity by transferring the knowledge and key relationships to their successor, their team and others
  • Utilizes change as an opportunity for accelerated organizational learning and sustained performance

Typical Senior Leader situations where Knowledge Management assures a high ROI:

  • Where unique expert knowledge / know-how has been accumulated by a person in transition
  • When key leaders are transitioning roles, retiring or leaving
  • Where unique product or project development knowledge is held by someone in transition
  • During reorganization of a team or function
Knowledge transfer between Senior Leaders is best done as a respectful, somewhat intimate conversation among colleagues and peers.The focus is on contextual understanding and experience that is not codified, such as: history, rationale and organizational / relational background of key decisions and strategies; key lessons learned on the way; implications and potential impact on the company in the future, and short-and long-term critical issues.A dialogue between two or more leaders will result in an increased understanding of business critical operations, assets, strategies, decisions and issues.

Knowledge transfer starts with a prioritized list of issues or topics.Asking the right questions in these topic areas allows you to surface assumptions and uncover the rationale behind actions and decisions.

The topic areas for Senior Leader Transitions include:

  • Functional / Operational Leadership of the Department or Group
  • Strategic Direction and Vision
  • Managing External Stakeholders and Issues
  • Managerial Judgment, Decision-Making and Leadership Style

We also offer training and consulting in organizing Strategic Lessons Learned sessions.

After completing any project or process, individual team members have acquired certain 'tacit' knowledge that will make them more effective the next time they approach a similar project.A Lessons Learned session is a process to 'debrief' a team to surface and document important tacit knowledge that will be valuable to future teams.

The purposes of Lessons Learned sessions are to uncover and document some of that tacit knowledge for the benefit of others who will undertake similar projects.