Success(ion) Planning-Hope is not the strategy

'Hope' is a constant for any company irrespective of how its navigating through its VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity). This 'hope' could be real, just like the VUCA. But it's not the hope that either shifts gear for the company towards the next paradigm or mitigate any unforeseen risk. Hope only 'helps' to an unknown extent.

Companies are getting comfortable or 'believing' to get comfortable with VUCA where words like 'succession', 'planning' & 'succession planning' are not as familiar as it used to be. Words like 'agility', 'grit', 'learning', 'collaboration', 'empathy', 'ownership' & 'purpose' are being widely used, recognized & celebrated at the workplace; rightfully so & with credible proof points in some cases. However, the fact that 'Succession Planning' is not in vogue at Conferences & Magazine Covers doesn't really undermine its relevance. It remains relevant solely because when 'Succession Planning' is not done right, it hurts.

Infosys had the right set of founding members but has struggled for a while to find itself in the place it truly desires. L&T has been watchful & patient in its pursuit and A M Naik claims that the succession at the company would be smooth as it was transparent and well-calibrated according to him. Tata Group at the scale in which they operate never had it easy, also much bitterness was evident during the not so ceremonious exit of Cyrus Mistry.

This article from Forbes in 2011 ends with a question - "Is Cook the right successor (for Apple)?” . Its almost the end of 2017, and the answer is not a convincing Yes.

One question that might be relevant now is- Why many companies with successful legacy find 'succession planning' so complex?

• Is it the legacy itself that contributes to the complexity?
• Is it lack of a purposeful & well executed Leadership Development strategy?
• Is it because tackling other myopic problems get more attention & investment?
• Is it due to the fact that navigating through much of complexities often puts the simple, not so easy but very essential elements in the back burner?
• Is it because the ones whom you develop as your next generation leaders may leave your company?
• Is it because we call it 'Succession Planning' instead of 'Succession Development'? as mentioned by Marshal Goldsmith

This Joint Research done by Bersin & CCL has many compelling insights and the most gripping to me is that 'good succession management is clearly correlated to business success'.

So lets ask ourselves the last pertinent question in this post- 'Why' & 'how' is 'Succession Development' ( I am a Marshal Goldsmith fan!) correlated to 'business success' in your company?

We all strive for business success and its the common denominator for our existence & purpose as professionals.

If you are a Leader or a Leadership Development professional in your company, you may try answering the above question to gather greater clarity about Success(ion) Development.

PS: Maybe you should treat Succession Development as a nutrient for your company's health & not as a vaccine or pain killer. And much like the nutrients in our diet, each has it's prescribed amount of dosage and works best in balance with other nutrients. So the 'lasting' question remains- What are the other nutrients? 

Two teachers...Two beginnings...One weekend...

My social network timeline & tweets were filled with odes to teachers for last few days as we celebrated Teacher's day on 5th September in India.

As the weekend approached, I paused to think about my teachers & their profound impact on me. Indeed, many teachers to be grateful to and reflect about the lessons I learned from them.

In the process, I could remember most of my teachers if not all. However, I truly struggled to recall all the lessons I learned from them. As a learning & development professional, this is very uncomfortable.

Am I not supposed to help people become better learners? But, I am doubting my own 'way' of learning here.

Did I get conditioned to learn in 'ways' that are not helping me anymore?

Is life not throwing enough challenges that remind me of the lessons I need to anchor myself to?

Did my priorities shift from the joy of learning to other priorities?

These are only few of the many questions that bothered me. It was unsettling yet I knew the right way ahead was to be patient and take some significant actions even if  they are small.

I thought of the teacher who influenced me the most this year and that was easy. It was Sudhanshu Palsule whom I met earlier this year and was extremely fortunate to have a long & engaging conversation. More than anything, it was his authenticity, sagacity and his sage like presence that influenced me the most. His advice to me was simple to remember and difficult to implement. He had 3 suggestions to me as we enjoyed sipping our filter coffees:

1. Exhaust yourself in the process of giving-Only when you give generously, you create the capacity to receive what truly matters.

2. Choose wisely and take responsibility of your choices- Usually (not always) the seemingly harder choices are the right choices.

3. Have fun- We did not discuss this in detail as we did not have much time. Guess he mentioned it because I confessed that I take myself too seriously most of the times and was struggling to change that.

Last but not least, for some reason he mentioned that I must write. I had NOT mentioned to him at any point that I used to write many years back for my old blog and was unable to continue it. After the conversation, I had promised myself to create a new blog soon then but failed in doing so. Till date, I am curious, why he told me to start writing again. However, the only bit that matters more to me is that he told me to write again and today I am writing.

Thinking about him was a great reminder to start this new blog. In reference to the title of the blog, he is the 'first teacher' I want to mention here and this blog is the 'first new beginning' this weekend.

Shifting my focus to the second teacher and the second new beginning- The other small yet significant action I took was to find a way to pursue a meaningful engagement as a beginner.

I have always found colors to be fascinating and have a very special admiration for painters particularly acrylic painters.

I heard some great reviews about the art classes conducted at Art Rickshaw in my city from friends and  social media. I recall painting in a very clumsy manner in my junior school days and the very little progress I made in learning sketching & drawing was not encouraged by even my fondest well wishers.

Recently I came across a quote somewhere- 'growth happens at the intersection of support & challenge'.

Enrolling myself for the acrylic painting classes would be a significant action towards becoming a beginner, challenging myself, learning something very joyful and seeking support in the process.

Today was my first day in my art class and it was a sheer joy to become a beginner. In the process, I certainly made little progress in the art but very significant progress in understanding some deep insights about 'learning'.

Following are the lessons from Pranab Roy, my first ever art teacher after junior school, also a seemingly very patient, generous & joyful human being:

1. I was absolutely candid to him that I did not have any natural talent as an artist but he pushed me out of the comfort zone right in the beginning. I expected that my first assignment would be simple, maybe to draw some simple straight lines or draw some fruit or vegetable.

Instead, he randomly picked up a stunning & complex artwork from the artbook and told me to replicate it.

2. While he was quick to give me a complex assignment, he was even quicker in providing  a very basic & high level framework to begin with yet leave me with enough & more to navigate by my own. I did not have anytime to feel nervous but got actively engaged with a challenge that seemed fun yet achievable.

3. While it would have been most gratifying to start my first day with colors, he insisted that I learn the basics of drawing using pencil on my first day. Great reminder on 'delaying gratification', a fundamental element for any effective learner. Though his sense of humour & jokes kept me going without any dull moments.

4. As I made tiny progress in my 2 hours class, I slowly felt great about becoming a better 'observer'. I felt that over the years with so much distractions around us, my observations were not as keen as it used to be and also realized how simple (if not easy) it is to become more observant. Sir mentioned that sense of observation was a basic requirement for any artist.

5. The portrait that I was trying to replicate was a face of a woman and in the first glance only the face was most striking particularly the eyes. Drawing the eyes seemed most challenging as it had a lot of intricate details. Sir pointed out that I must look at the other abstract details around to get a better sense of the portrait. This helped me to recognize the numerous abstract elements that surrounded the face and then drawing the eyes seemed lesser daunting.

I believe in our life & career, we invest much energy in judging the person without putting much effort in understanding the 'context' in which we are judging the person.

6. Another useful tip that ensured stickiness with me was dividing the whole portrait into quadrants and focussing on one quadrant at a time. He even categorized the pencil strokes in a very clear & compelling manner. This reminds the importance of synthesizing as we learn.

7. I overheard him telling one of the students that she must NOT assume that 'mistakes are bound to happen when we start painting' (I felt this was more relevant to me as I was the newest student in the class). Assuming that 'mistakes would NOT happen' and enjoy the process of painting was his clear advice. That's a very powerful shift in assumption and in the art of reframing what we tell ourselves in the process of learning.

Cheers to my two wonderful teachers, the two beginnings and this incredible weekend...

Learn on! Shine on!