The succession question nobody schedules

Organisations rehearse the departure of a leader as a governance exercise: who signs, who reports, who decides. The transfer of judgement is left to a handover document and a farewell dinner.

The consequence is expensive and largely invisible. The successor relearns, at cost, what the predecessor already knew. Institutional memory becomes anecdote within two cycles.

Intellectual succession can be designed. It requires documenting decision logic rather than decisions, preserving the reasoning behind reversals, and building an accessible record that a successor can interrogate.

The best time to begin is roughly five years before anyone thinks it is necessary.