SUCCESSION PLANNING
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
- Evaluate your goals for your tenure as program director
- Identify key aspects of your program to being creating transition documents
- Identify potential candidates, timelines for transition planning
- Identify basic transition principles for change
- Apply succession principles to different transition situations (cases)THE NEED FOR SMOOTH LEADERSHIP TRANSITION
As a program director, the program looks to you for leadership on many different issues, including daily processes, guiding the structure of commitees, communicating with categorical and graduate medical education leadership, recruitment, and faculty development. Most program directors are fortunate enough to have been chosen out of a pool of associate program directors with rich mentoring experiences, but transitioning into the program director role is often incongruous in at least one area. Successful leadership transition of a program is just as important as patient transition from adolescence to adulthood, and should be planned far in advance to ensure a smooth transition.
Setting goals as a Program Director
As part of your career development program (whether formal or informal), serious thought should be focused on continual career goals. Questions for consideration include:
1. What are the professional areas that energize me the most?
2. What is the appropriate amount of time as program director to see progress in the program?
3. What are my long-term career goals (e.g. vice chair for education, educational dean, etc.)?
4. What am I missing in the program director role for my career development?
5. What are the negative aspects of being program director, and how can they be addressed?
Knowing your personal goals will guide you towards planning specifics in leadership development, program changes, and transition timetables.
Needs for the Program
Evaluating your program needs is just as important as knowing your personal needs as a program director. While difficult to accept, there may come a time when the needs of your program would be better met by a change of leadership. Acknowledging these program needs as a priority enables a perspective of program leadership that is ultimately focused on the residents and faculty.
Multiple Pathways
Considering the myriad of differences in programs (e.g. size, faculty composition, governing structure, categorical integration, etc.) there is no perfect template for program leadership transition. The goal is to come up with a program transition process that takes into account the unique aspects of your program while minimizing a loss of program momentum in the process. The most important aspect is to have a process in place well before a transition time.
BASIC LEADERSHIP TRANSITION PRINCIPLES
After some self-reflection on both the program and your own career trajectory, you should spend some time putting the process on paper. While there may be some situations where you will be the only one doing this, it is best to engage others in this process, both to gain a broader perspective of what is needed and for others in key leadership positions to have a vested interest in your combined program. Keep in mind many of the processes which make up the day-to-day workings of your program may be overlooked by yourself simply because they have become second-nature. Talking through these processes with others can be an invaluable safety net for catching missing processes.
Culture
Regardless of what a program’s goals are, you must have a roadmap to get there. A popular business management concept is the culture beats strategy(1). While a strategy for how future goals and processes will be attained is essential, there are underlying forces that are even more important in defining how your program will reach those goals. Shared culture, or the answer to “why” questions will better define what your program currently does and how it is accomplishing those things. Culture can be overtly present and identified by individuals both internal and external to your program, but often are hidden and will take some interrogative excavation to arrive at the core identity of your program. You will be more successful in defining shared culture by involving everyone intimately involved in your program, including residents, faculty, patients, nurses, and support staff. You should also include outside individuals who regularly interact and observe your program. Categorical colleagues, GME leadership, and even student feedback on the perceived culture of your program will be an indispensable tool to allow you to view your programs strengths and weaknesses.
Once you have defined your shared culture your program leadership will need to decide if it represents what you would like for your program to represent. Once you have agreed on the shared culture, you should begin to systematically communicate it internally to your residency program and externally as well. A clear understanding of your program’s shared culture will enable future leadership to be chosen and continue to support your core values.
Program processes
After defining and communicating your shared program culture, you will need to describe your daily program processes. You should critically think about what occupies your time as a function of cycles: day, month, year, and NAS cycle. Review your calendar for the last several months and look for commonalities, paying particular attention to program-specific items. Alternatively, keeping track of these processes as they happen moving forward will allow you to lay out a roadmap for the next program director. Make a note describing both the type (content) and the time involved with each activity. Pay particular attention to meetings with individuals or groups of people (students, residents, program leadership). Ask your program administrator and associate program director(s) to review the list for omissions or duplicated processes. Whether retrospectively or prospectively, you should have a good idea of the processes and time commitment for an entire academic year.
When considering process cycles, you should also describe where you are in the NAS cycle, and what
Cycles – day, week, month, year, NAS cycle
Location/access
Understanding the “why”
Essential messages?
Choosing a successor(s)
Size determines depth which determines leadership gaps
Program needs – SWOT/PEC
Leadership potential (substrate)
Faculty development – surveying internal talent, faculty support
Choosing the PD who is not there – help leadership choose the RIGHT PD – use PEC/SWOT
Communication
The fluidity with which your program functions is directly related to the quality of your communication. Just as patient transition times are crucial to ensuring optimal care, effective smoth transition is dependent on your systemic program communication.
Top-down
As the leader of the program, you set the tone for communicating to your associate program directors, faculty, residents, prospective students, and leadership in your respective categorical programs. Timing, explicit content or personnel changes, role-shifting are all key components to ensure all stakeholders understand the transition period and beyond. Helping those in your program understand why, how and what is going on can save you an incredible amount of time and carry a program forward to the next leader.
Bottom-up
Just as top-down communication sets the stage for the transition process, avenues for communication from individuals affected by transition are critical to ensure consistently clear messages and access to understanding any areas that are otherwise unclear. Both formal and informal structures should be intentionally set up where information is not merely shared (e.g. FAQ’s on your website) but also appropriate access to individuals in leadership positions.
Top Communication Messages
One of the most basic errors in communication is the assumption that something has been clearly communicated when it in fact has not. You can look to basic communication priciples on change to minimize any ambiguities. These 10 questions may help you decide on the most appropriate process for communicating change in your residency program.
1. Why change? This question answers the motivations (both personal and coporate) underlying the anticipated program changes. Although there may be times that everyone will know the reasons behind the transition, clearly stating them is highly encouraged.
2. What will happen if we don’t change? This program-level question should communicate in a future-oriented fashion what keeping things the “status quo” would result in.
3. What will it be like to change? This is more than a picture of what the transition process will entail, and also speaks to the emotional aspects of the change.
4. What will change? The more specific the you can describe this, the better the
5. What will not change?
6. Who will lead the change?
7. How will we mange the change?
8. When will the change occur?
9. For faculty: How does the change affect me and my ability to do my job and maintain my relationships (culture solidarity)?
10. For faculty: What is expected of me? What will happen if I don’t participate? What will happen if I do?
Examples of Leadership Transition
Replacing the Legend
Text, text, text
Picking up the pieces
Text, text
Dealing with stagnation
Starting a new program
AUTHORS
Jimmy Stewart, MD
University of Mississippi Medical CenterReferences
Any references to add???
1) Use MLA format – all described in detail in the MPPDA style guide