Years ago, I was in Calgary doing store visits. I stopped at the location of one of my retail accounts, and the salespeople exclaimed, “Lee! Thank goodness you’re here! Our manager was fired last month, and none of us know how to place orders on your portal!”

First, I showed the keyholder how to access our portal on one of their workstations. Then, trying to be kind and gentle about it, I drew their attention to one of my business cards, pinned to the corkboard in the back room. I did my best to restrain my sarcastic nature, I just said “Something like that is pretty important. You don’t have to wait for me to show up; you can call or message me at any time!”

Apparently, nobody told them that, either

You frequently see references to “institutional memory,” often in terms of a team’s collective total years of experience: “Our group boasts more than a century of industry experience between them!” and similar statements.

Why does institutional memory matter? It’s simple: Your company is comprised of people, each with their own experience and expertise. Everyone plays their role, and the results you achieve as a group are the collective end result of everyone applying their experience and expertise to their role. Just like sports, everyone needs to play their position.

Abrupt departures can leave critical holes in your team, and they can be challenging to fill.

Years ago, one of my biggest accounts had two general managers: one ran the front end, and the other the back office.

One weekend the back-office GM passed away. Later that week, their stores started to run dry, and that’s when the surviving management team realized that he was the only person who knew how to run inventory reports and place orders with their vendors, such as me.

So I had to drive down there, and spend time training them on how to use our dealer portal.

That also inspired them to do more succession planning: training subordinates to do their managers’ jobs so they wouldn’t end up stuck like that again.

Succession planning is important, not just for senior management but for all roles, including (and especially) technical ones. It’s great that you’ve got that one technician who’s the Zen Master of hanging flat panels, or the one who’s the “Network Whisperer” but what do you do if something happens to them?

It’s essential to take a deep look at your team, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and cross train other team members to do the work of your star players. They may not be a Zen Master overnight, but if you suddenly lose your Zen Master, they’ll at least be able to keep up with the workflow.

Attrition doesn’t always give two weeks notice, such as when that one manager passed away over the weekend. Rather than finding yourself scrambling to replace someone, it’s better to be prepared than postpared by making sure that you have understudies waiting who can fill in when you need them.