Remove the Names From the Boxes
Succession planning works best when it starts with roles, not people, because naming a successor too early shifts the conversation to personalities instead of risk. Criticality depends on dependency, not hierarchy, which is why some of the highest-risk roles don't look critical on paper.
Naming a successor too early turns succession planning into a conversation about personalities. Removing the names first is what actually exposes where the risk lives.
The moment a name enters a succession conversation, the conversation changes. Leaders start defending their people, or assuming the incumbent will be there forever. Personalities crowd out the analysis before it even starts.
So when I built a succession process covering more than 160 critical roles across 13 manufacturing plants, I set one rule the executive team resisted: remove the names from the boxes.
I started with a whiteboard and a black marker. No software, no templates. The executive team and I sketched the organization and asked one question: which positions drive this business? Not which people. Which positions. I kept names off the board until the team had agreed on the roles themselves.
What surprised the room was where the critical roles turned out to be.
Some were obvious: operations leaders, senior technical roles. Others did not look critical on paper. I received real pushback when we flagged a plant-level HR manager as a critical position. One executive told me all that person did was hire, fire, and handle benefits. I understood the objection, and earlier in my career I had missed that same role on my own exposure maps.
My answer was that he was describing the person. The map is about the role. Done well, that role shapes trust, compliance, supervisor effectiveness, and culture at the site every single day. If the person in the seat only handles paperwork, either the company scoped the role down to paperwork, or it put the wrong person in the seat. Both answers are exposure.
Criticality is about dependency, not hierarchy.
A role belongs on the map when it carries any of these:
▪️ Decision authority the business cannot pause.
▪️ Operational knowledge that lives in one head.
▪️ Safety or regulatory responsibility.
▪️ A replacement timeline measured in years rather than months.
None of that is visible while the room argues about a person.
The names go back in the boxes soon enough. Start with the names and you map personalities. Start with the roles and you map risk.