Succession Planning Sprint
From overwhelmed to board-ready in 30 days. A hand-off, not an emergency plan.
Succession should not live in a binder, a slide deck, or someone’s head. Instead, it should produce choices, decision rights, and a credible hand-off path. Designed for busy leadership teams, the Succession Planning Sprint provides Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), boards, and Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) a board-ready, defensible succession plan with a 12-month implementation roadmap in 30 days.
All it takes is one focused four-hour strategy session to set direction. SIGMA builds the plan, documentation, and tools.
Minimal lift from leadership. Maximum clarity for the board.
Trusted by 8,500+ organizations across North America
Empowering Fortune 500 companies, public institutions, and growing teams to build bench strength, enhance workforce continuity, and reduce risk.
Succession risk rarely looks like
”no plan.”
It looks like uncertainty when it matters most.
- A critical role is one deep.
- “Ready now” is based on confidence, not scientifically validated evidence.
- Decision rights blur during leadership transitions.
- High-potential leaders disengage because the path forward is unclear.
- The board receives updates, but not decision-ready options.
When a key leader exits, the cost is more than replacement — disruption, lost momentum, and increased government exposure. Replacement costs are often cited as 50% to 200% of salary depending on role and context.
What will be delivered in 30 days
A plan that can be used, explained, and executed. The succession plan will include:
- A clear view of critical roles and where continuity risk is concentrated
- Bench slates for each critical role
- Readiness language that makes decisions easier: Ready now | Ready soon | Build
- Role-specific development plans that close readiness gaps
- A 12-month implementation plan with milestones, owners, and review cadence
- A board-ready executive summary that turns succession into decisions, not discussion
The Sprint, in Three Steps
What comes with the Sprint
Board-ready outputs
Executive summary designed for board discussions
Critical role map and continuity risk overview
Bench slates by role with readiness signals
Decision rights and governance guidance for succession decisions
Succession communication guidance to support stakeholder confidence
Practical implementation tools
A SIGMA Success Profile™ for each critical role
Talent development plans for successors tied to role requirements
Career pathing guidance to build future leadership pipelines and strengthen bench depth
12-month implementation plan with milestones and accountability measures
Optional progress review sessions
Who it’s for
- A clear view of who is next if an exit occurs
- Visibility into thin-bench areas and concentrated risk
- A credible definition of what must be true before a hand-off
- Decision-ready options without consuming executive calendar time
- A structured approach to succession planning that can be operationalized quickly
- Consistent language for talent conversations and readiness decisions
- Clear pathways that support retention of high potential candidates
- A full-service build from SIGMA so implementation can move immediately
- Retirement waves
- Growth inflection points
- Merger & acquisition (M&A) integration
- Founder step-backs
- Leadership gaps
- A recent executive exit that exposed bench risk
Succession used to take months. Now it takes four hours.
The Sprint is designed to protect executive focus while producing a board-ready plan — without turning succession into a new internal program.
The six-step process behind the Succession Planning Sprint
In this initial step of the succession planning process, we identify key positions crucial to the organization’s continued success, ensuring a strategic focus on roles that significantly impact performance and future growth.
We then develop comprehensive success profiles outlining the leadership skills, competencies, and attributes necessary for success in identified critical roles, providing a clear benchmark for evaluating potential successors.
Through a collaborative process involving your company’s leadership and key stakeholders, we nominate individuals with the potential to fill critical roles, considering both current performance and long-term leadership capabilities.
A thorough assessment of nominated successors’ skills and competencies is conducted to identify specific areas for development, tailoring training and support initiatives to address individual needs and enhance readiness for future roles.
After assessing candidate development needs, we recommend targeted development programs and initiatives to nurture the growth and capabilities of identified successors, ensuring they acquire the leadership skills and experiences needed to excel in their potential future roles within the organization.
Ongoing evaluation and measurement mechanisms are established to track the progress of successors in their leadership development journey, allowing your organization to adapt strategies as needed and ensuring a continuous alignment between talent development and organizational objectives.
A simple operating system for leadership continuity.
“This was phenomenal. I am in the process of standardizing our succession processes across our Americas region and this is exactly what I wanted. SIGMA gave me the resources I needed to help my team be able to easily understand how to identify critical roles easier and then begin to build out each of their benches in a methodical way. I can’t wait to start using all the tools! This went above my expectations. I am already working on how to implement my succession plan.”
Jen Kilman
Senior Director, Talent Development
Omron Management Centre of America
How Much Time Does Succession Planning Really Take?
| Approach | Your Time | Timeline | Cost | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIY | 40–60 hrs | 3–6 mos | Unclear | Unclear |
| Executive Search | 20–30 hours | 2–4 mos | Costly (Avg. $40,000 – $60,000 per role)2 | Single successor (40% failure rate)3 |
| SIGMA Sprint | 4 hrs | 30 days | Best value ($9,500) | Customized succession plan for each member of your leadership team |
What We Do in 30 Days
Facilitate the strategy session and confirm critical roles, requirements, and decision needs.
Build SIGMA Success Profiles™, bench slates, readiness view, and talent development plans. Draft the executive summary.
Deliver the full package and implementation plan with clear sequencing and ownership.
Week 1
Facilitate the strategy session and confirm critical roles, requirements, and decision needs.
Weeks 2–3
Build SIGMA Success Profiles™, bench slates, readiness view, and talent development plans. Draft the executive summary.
Week 4
Deliver the full package and implementation plan with clear sequencing and ownership.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The Sprint works for mid-sized and enterprise organizations. The key is identifying the roles that truly drive strategy and risk.
The Sprint can integrate existing performance and talent data. If a stronger signal is needed, SIGMA assessments can be incorporated into the process as an optional add-on.
Very little. Organization charts, role descriptions, and talent review notes are helpful but not required..
The Sprint reduces the burden. SIGMA builds the plan, documentation, and tools so implementation can move with clear steps and ownership.
Yes. Scope is defined. Delivery is 30 days.
Ready for a hand-off, not an emergency plan?
If succession keeps getting pushed to next quarter, this is the week to move it to done.
One four-hour strategy session. In 30 days, a board-ready succession plan plus a 12-month implementation plan — with clear readiness signals, decisions rights, and next steps.
Let’s Talk
No Pressure, No Obligation
Submit the form below to learn more or get started with the Succession Planning Sprint. Our expert consultants will help you get succession planning off your list and into action.
1 Dyerly, R. (2025). The myth of replaceability: Preparing for the loss of key employees. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/executive-network/insights/myth-replaceability-preparing-loss-key-employees.
2 On average, executive search firms charge 20-30% of the candidate’s first year salary, plus administrative fees and, in some cases, retainer fees. The indicated cost assumes the successful candidate will be paid a salary ~$200,000. We excluded additional administrative and retainer fee costs in favor of using a conservative estimate.
3 Sorensen, T. (August 1, 2023). 40% of executive searches fail; clients to blame for most of them. LinkedIn. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/40-executive-searches-fail-clients-blame-most-them-tom-1c/.
