I have been fortunate to have about 100 undergraduate and graduate students work in my research lab, many of whom wrote a thesis as part of completing their degrees. I always asked them to write a section on what they would do if they had more time. I tell them, they are the experts in this area and that this is a resource I can share with a future student who may continue the project. It is a succession plan for the research.
As I prepare for my retirement from my current institution, I am trying to do something similar to support the dean and the staff in understanding the work I did and the processes I used. I am creating a type of succession plan, and I advocate that those departing do the same. The alternative (i.e., a bad departure) is too common in higher education. While I know that two weeks is the minimum for someone to “give notice,” when it occurs at the beginning (or almost any time in an academic term), it can be super disruptive. This happened with a technician that was supporting the science labs. Luckily, I and a colleague were able to step in and support the relatively smooth transition to an interim replacement. This was not a kind departure. Providing time for a ramp down and a sharing of acquired expertise and documents is. These actions support the institution and department you are leaving and thus act as a “kind departure.”
The challenges in doing this include the time to prepare documents describing the steps an administrator takes in doing parts of their job. I have been involved in hiring many part-time faculty at our institution, in putting in class schedules and in developing the distribution of classes based on the provided information from all the programs that feed into our classes, among many other things. In the School of Sciences and Humanities, we teach all the English, humanities, social science classes as well as all the biology, chemistry and physics classes for the roughly 3800 students at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Like most mid-size institutions, there are a lot of stakeholders our school supports. So too, one document – like one part-time hire – has a reverberating impact. When I was interim dean of libraries at Binghamton University, I created a detailed guide about the organization in support of the search team and the search chair and including all of the facilities (we had four), all of the staff, the collections and donations we’d received. It gave the search committee some great information, provided wonderful insights for the candidates and helped make the first month of the new hire a lot more productive.
When I started at my current institution, there had been a lot of turnover and few detailed written records of procedures. I was fortunate that the fairly new Operations Manager had a good grasp of many of the course-building and student support systems knowledge that I’d need, at least initially. There were also several other Associate Deans that I could work with across the university. For my departure, I gave my dean and the staff with whom I worked closely about five months notice of my plan. As the time approached and at the suggestion of my dean, I created a list of topics that needed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and shared them with the dean; it was about seven at that time–some more involved than others. These included topics like things I considered when building a schedule of classes and how I interviewed, recruited, and supported part-time faculty. I started working on the first document three months before my departure and provided a draft to the dean about four weeks later. (I wasn’t able to work on it full-time which of course delayed things.) The dean provided great feedback right away (this may not always be the case for a busy administrator) and I was able to turn this one around in about another week. I also received help and excellent feedback from someone in our HR and IT department who had created several SOPs for other processes on campus.
I’ve now finished the second SOP that also had a round of feedback–less was needed as I’d learned what the dean had in mind. I was cognizant of making the steps clear using a lot of images as well as describing the nuances of some of the information used to put things in place. With one month left before my departure, I don’t think I’ll be able to complete the other five I had proposed at that same level. I’m going to focus on the ones that are most unique to me and my job as those are likely to be useful for the smoothest transition.
So, time is the most important factor in preparing a kind departure. Therefore, (1) start on this early. And if possible, (2) take some things off your plate (eventually they will all be given to someone else when you leave).
(3) Start with the hardest one first or the one most valuable to the team. I started with the hiring of part-time faculty as my dean was in the process of hiring others for the summer. I then moved on to one about putting in the class schedule as that was also being done relatively soon (actually at the same time). Of course, the precise list and order will depend on your position, the institution, and the timing and need of your supervisor and the planned successor’s activities. If their job expectations are different from yours, then that will impact what information they will need. Another reason to engage your supervisor to learn the topics or areas they feel most important to cover.
(4) Get feedback on your SOPs. Ideally, get drafts to those who will use them ahead of time so that you can make sure the material has the information at the level and detail that are needed. That also takes time. Feedback may come from your supervisor or it could be the staff who will remain in support of your successor. I had other associate deans and staff that worked on some of these activities and so I shared with them. After the first SOP that I shared, I didn’t receive a lot of detailed feedback which may be in part because all were too busy to take the time to review my documents.
I decided to create written documents with section headings and a table of contents at the beginning with internal document links to the different sections and a return hyperlink back to the table of contents. I used images and callouts to make tips or notes visible and separate from the actual steps to perform. The dean asked for a Quick Start guide as well to act as a brief overview; I decided to do a short video walking a user through my documents to briefly give them a sense (hopefully) of the whole process. Using another means of sharing the information provides an alternative to make the information best in support of your successor. I will share that soon with the dean to get their feedback. I might simply do short videos of the processes I don’t get to write up rather than create a whole document. Plus, I must clean up and organize the many, many, many files in my OneDrive to save those needed after my departure. Plus create some type of guide for these files.
This last month will be very busy so I hope I can get through this.
So, my basic advice includes:
- Start early
- Ask to take things off your plate, if possible
- Start with the highest priority or hardest task, if you can
- Get feedback on the things you share
When you have staff who are leaving, have them do something similar and give them time to work on this. As a supervisor, you may know all of the things a staff member does; you could consider having them create a list for their annual performance evaluation so there could be some place to start creating such documents well before their actual departure. I started three months before my actual last day and it was just about enough. I believe it will serve you in the long run.
Finally, some relational advice: let people know of your departure, in person, if you can. It is a generous task that creates good will between you and those you leave behind. It might be that you will need to reengage with them in the future.
As for me in my own post-retirement, I will work on supporting people in hospice–another type of departure. I see the work I’m doing ahead of my retirement from academia as setting up for a “kind” end as well.
