F4
6 weeks
Fractional Design Leadership
F4 - Leadership Handover and Transition hands the mandate to a named internal successor, with the practice documented and every open call logged. Your good interim result is coming to its end date: the function runs, the gates hold, the measure reaches the board, and all of it sits in the head of somebody who is leaving, which is how your practice quietly unwinds in the year afterwards. With the Leadership Handover and Transition module, we move the practice out of one head and into your own, so nothing depends on me when I go.
Over six weeks, I write the profile, hand over the function, and stay reachable for six months afterwards. You keep a role definition and scorecard for the permanent hire, a decision log covering every open call and its reasoning, operating documentation a competent successor can run from, and a ninety-day plan agreed with their manager.
Documentation records the decisions somebody already made, in the words they used.
It cannot record the judgement about which decisions were worth arguing at the time. So the first hard call nobody owns is the point where a documented practice starts drifting back towards whatever it replaced.
Most consultants have a commercial interest in that phase going badly, and I would rather leave and be recommended.
I will also say plainly when your chosen successor is wrong for the seat. That conversation is uncomfortable, and it is cheaper now than it would be in month nine.
The sequence forces that conversation early, which is why I write the profile in week one against the model as it runs. By then, the model’s original design is beside the point, because the successor inherits the version that survived.
| Phase | Activities |
|---|---|
| Profile | The successor profile written against the model as it runs, with a role definition and scorecard for the permanent hire |
| Shadowing | The successor chairing gates while I observe |
| Reverse shadowing | The successor running the function, with me attending only when asked |
| Handover | Operating documentation, the decision log of every open call and its reasoning, the ninety day plan agreed with the successor’s manager, and the exit |
I write the profile first, in week one, because it decides who fills the seat. The successor then chairs gates in weeks two and three, while I sit in the room and observe.
By weeks four and five, the successor runs the function. I attend only when asked, and hand over the documentation in week six, logging decisions before I exit.
The order is deliberate: shadowing precedes reverse shadowing so a mismatch surfaces while still worth fixing. If your chosen successor is wrong for the seat, the mismatch shows up while you still have five weeks and an incumbent in the seat.
| The problem | What the handover settles |
|---|---|
| An interim mandate is working and the permanent hire is imminent | A role definition and scorecard written against the model as it runs, ready before the advert goes out |
| You have someone internal who could hold this with support | Six weeks of shadowing and reverse shadowing, with the successor chairing gates while the incumbent is still in the building |
| Board or investors have asked what happens when the contractor leaves | A documented practice, a decision log covering every open call, and a named person answering for both |
| A previous interim left and the practice unwound within a year | A ninety day plan for the successor, agreed with their manager, and six months of questions answered at no charge |
This works only where you have a named successor, so I ask you to name the person before you book the six weeks. If there is nobody internal and no hire approved, you are buying documentation.
That is worth having on its own terms, and it will not survive contact with the first hard decision nobody owns. I would sooner sell you that, honestly labelled as documentation, than sell you a handover with nobody on the other end.
This is one of four mandates under Fractional Design Leadership, which carries the offer and the fee. It works only where you name a successor first.
If your problem is an interim mandate ending in one person’s head, this module is for you. Nothing follows it in the sequence, and that is the whole point of buying it.
If you don’t have a function to hand over yet, then Design Function Build is for you, and it belongs a long way ahead of this one.
If the function runs and the accountable person has no structure behind the title, then Design Governance and Assurance is for you.