Secured organizational future through structured leadership continuity
Professional association faced an imminent wave of key leadership retirements with no contingency plans in place.
"Our institutional knowledge was walking out the door, and we had no formal plan to preserve it.”
-Board chair
The board and leadership team of a well-established professional association recognized a significant vulnerability: several key members of their leadership team would soon retire, creating potential risks for the association’s future stability and mission continuity. Without a formal succession plan, they risked losing decades of institutional knowledge.
Date
March 10, 2025Solutions
The client
Confidential client
The challenge
A wave of leadership change on the horizon with no contingencies threatened organizational stability.
The association faced potentially serious disruptions due to anticipated retirements across key leadership positions. Without a structured approach to succession, they were unprepared for the transfer of critical knowledge, responsibilities, and relationships that had been built over years. This gap threatened not only operational continuity but also stakeholder confidence and strategic direction.
The solution
Customized succession plan to ensure leadership continuity and organizational resilience.
Realize Solutions identified two critical components to the organization’s succession challenge: 1) ensuring leadership continuity by retaining institutional knowledge and developing internal talent; and 2) building long-term resilience by aligning succession strategies with the organization’s culture and future needs.
Our approach and methodology
To identify key opportunities for realignment and improvement, Realize conducted a strategic culture assessment of the association’s existing culture and practices related to succession. Through collaborative future mapping, a strategic succession roadmap was developed in alignment with the association’s long-term vision and cultural nuances. In addition, Realize assessed HR capabilities and capacity along with preparing internal staff to take active roles in succession management.
Realize integrated systems thinking, addressing both immediate and long-term implications of succession decisions, while providing customized training to equip the team with skills for ongoing succession planning. This comprehensive approach ensured the association developed both a clear transition roadmap and the internal capacity to navigate future leadership changes confidently.
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About us
Realize Solutions is an award-winning B Corp-certified team that designs practical solutions for organizations with complex problems in the areas of board governance, organizational development, and people.
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