WBF Community Succession planning

Welcome to your private client portal! Here you’ll find resources to download and use these during and after your cohort program. Any more instructions we should add here for people who are ever confused about how to download/use any of the resources? I do think a friendly message with more info about what is going on would be really nice. Not sure what it would be, though.

YOUR RESOURCES AT THE CLICK OF A BUTTON

session 1 resources

  • A cohort roadmap that organizes succession planning into seven pillars covering learning culture, knowledge transfer, leader development, reflective planning, team care, a sustainable ED role, and emergency loss, while mapping 54 related tools and steps across the year in a quick-reference table. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A comprehensive checklist for evaluating or building an emergency succession plan, covering short-term, long-term, and permanent leadership absences, interim leader choices and compensation, board oversight, selection and transition committees, communications, cross-training, knowledge transfer, critical records and contacts, insurance coverage, approvals, and review procedures. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A customizable emergency succession management plan for Executive Director/CEO vacancies that defines short-term, long-term, and permanent transition procedures, acting leader authority and compensation, board responsibilities, communication and knowledge-transfer protocols, key organizational information, vendor and insurance contacts, and annual approval and review requirements. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A research-based overview of founder transitions, drawn from Bridgespan, BoardSource, and GuideStar data, that highlights the benefits of early planning, internal successor development, active board involvement, and clearly structured post-transition founder roles, with guidance on coaching, managing conflict, and creating a transition fund, plus seven warning signs that a founder may have stayed on too long. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • An action-oriented succession workbook with a one-page Succession Map (theme, timeline, most concerning factor, what succession means, and top annual and quarterly priorities) and three focus-area tabs, Vision Setting and Defining Parameters, Calibrating and Unifying, and Synergizing and Celebrating, that list strategic objectives with completion targets and key outcomes. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A structured succession plan template that defines the organization’s succession vision and concerns, then guides three phases of work covering role clarity, successor strategy, culture, communication, handoff, onboarding, and post-transition vision. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A concise sample narrative that frames succession as a healthy, strengths-based process for developing leaders, building future capacity, and helping the organization and people it serves flourish. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A practical three-phase succession guide that begins with foundational definitions (succession, the Day After vision, the most concerning factor, theme and timeline, and emergency plan status), then moves from board alignment and transition team formation through successor strategy, role clarification, cultural readiness, formal handoff, onboarding, and vision recasting, with “done when” criteria for each workstream and annual and quarterly priorities for each phase. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A stakeholder-facing FAQ template that explains a multi-year (at least four-year), three-phase, mission-centered succession initiative and addresses common questions about timing, the current leader’s future role, successor selection, job description changes, governance, staff impact, communication, and support. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

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session 2 resources

  • A change-process tool showing that culture is carried individually, illustrating how an outgoing founder’s fear of losing control, power, or value can escalate into insecurity, reactive behavior, tension, and isolation, while identifying four points where each person may settle: loyalty, voice, passive-aggressive resistance, or exit. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A role-redesign worksheet that evaluates tasks by alignment with the role’s vision, the leader’s gift zone, and share of time, then determines what should stay, be outsourced, or move to new or existing roles to test whether the role is doable and realistic for a new hire. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A personal ED/CEO transition workbook for capturing affirmations, a theme and timeline, a Day After vision, the most concerning fear, the number one need, and top priorities, then tracking three focus areas with champions, three-month actions, organizational support needs, and quarterly progress. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A five-step team time-study guide for defining time buckets that match accounting categories, educating staff on its purpose, integrating payroll and timekeeping systems, tracking time in 15-minute increments over two to four weeks, and analyzing results to reclassify wages, understand true program and operational costs, and help staff grow in their strengths. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

session 3 Resources

  • A visual diagnostic of how an outgoing founder’s fear of losing control, power, or value can compound into insecurity, reactive behavior, tension, and isolation during a merger or leadership transition, with each person settling into loyalty, blended sub-cultures, passive-aggressive resistance, or exit. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A communication and handoff matrix for mapping critical relationships and constituencies, their primary connection, emergency and successor transition plans, key issues, core messages, contact methods, responsible parties, and notes. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

session 4 Resources

  • A succession-risk inventory for identifying critical positions and people, essential functions, immediate vacancy needs, temporary emergency successors, longer-term successor candidates, and potential departure dates. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

session 5 Resources

  • A one-page framework listing seven foundations of a healthy succession culture: learning, knowledge transfer, leader development, reflective planning, team care, a sustainable ED role, and preparation for emergency loss. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

  • A change-readiness worksheet, based on Ambrose (1987), for rating vision, skills, incentives, resources, and an action plan as strong, moderate, or absent, showing how each missing element can lead to confusion, anxiety, gradual change, frustration, or false starts. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

succession planning videos session 1