Will you “get” overlap?

Leadership is sometimes about guiding peers, even the person who replaces us in our job.  I’d like to think the vast majority of Airmen want their successor to do well, are loyal to the organization, care about making things better, and therefore spend at least some time prepping for turnover and a disciplined overlap.  When we’re fortunate, we have a few days to spend with our replacement, in between our own out-processing, their in-processing (and possible jet lag), and the never-ending mission.  In an Air Force where we deploy or change duty stations often, we must establish good practices to set up our fellow Airmen for success.

I’ve held a lot of duty titles and personally rushed through too many chances at providing “overlap,” but I’ve also seen it done right a few times:  in command, as an Action Officer on staffs, and at the base level.  I’d like to share a few points for you to consider.  These ideas are common sense -- you could’ve written these, too -- but my intent is to remind you of our obligation to conduct a deliberate changeover to successfully sustain the mission.  Here are five ideas for your overlap:

1) Focus on relationships.  Take the time to introduce your replacement to the key people with whom you’ve worked, providing context of why the mutual relationship is important.  Start with inside your organization -- up, down, sideways -- before moving on to mission partners across the base or at different headquarters.  More importantly, try to associate names and offices with why your replacement would need to call, email, or visit that person.  Go to those locations and thank those connections for their continued partnership with your replacement, understanding that your successor will likely not remember these people.  Collect the names and contact information and consolidate for your replacement to help them when you are no longer there.

2) Go from big to little…or from little to big (either way works). The point is to explain how they’ll contribute to the larger organization; be deliberate in illustrating the linkage between what they do and how that impacts the greater mission.  Learning the job within a clearer context will help your replacements make connections to people they’ve met and mission sets they represent.  Show them where they are in an organizational chart.  Point out where they physically reside on the base map!  When I arrived to one base, my predecessor did a great job driving me all around, pointing out key places I’d need to go or important landmarks.  However, I never got my bearing from a large base map, so everything felt disconnected and isolated.  Extend this awareness of the “whole” to ideas you teach them, and zoom in or zoom out as needed until the picture becomes clearer. 

3) Review past decisions.  Beyond Air Force Instructions, technical orders, or unit leadership policies, there were decisions made and procedures implemented for a reason, and they made sense at the time.  Are those decisions still valid?  As you get deeper into your overlap, explain the rationale behind how you arrived at those routine ways of doing business or how you made those decisions, recognizing that the environment changes and your replacement may change what you started.  Be open to their initial thoughts about the decisions made in the past.  Innovation relies on understanding the past, yet recognizing opportunities for change to enhance operations.

4) Administratively ease the burden.  Find a way to get your replacement set up immediately with their work center, desk, phone, locker, equipment, and various computer and system accounts.  What IT systems will they need to use in their first week?  If they will take over your work area, clean it out!  Help them get access to buildings, badged areas, transportation, and living areas.  Connect them with all the informal in-processing actions or unit-specific tasks.  Make sure you can contact them and they know how to contact you or others in those first challenging days.  By removing some of these burdens (even before their arrival), you can focus on the content of their job, and they will be more inclined to listen.

5) Be organized—with things and with time.  Where are your files and how will they access them?  What reference materials, pubs, or general guidance is readily available?  How have you organized your files and materials for easy turnover?  A few years ago, as I went into a joint assignment, the incumbent gave me a helpful one-pager that included the paths to shared drives, applicable publications, short explanations of common terms, and battle rhythm of daily/weekly events.  The incumbent also highlighted a couple large issues that could come up, identifying where those physical files were located and who to talk to for more info.  I kept that sheet tacked to my work area and referenced it for months.  Similarly, another helpful colleague really set me up well by having a detailed plan -- in multiple, one to two-hour blocks -- for a wave-top immersion of the organization.  Know ahead of time what topics are the most critical for your successor to understand first, and be realistic of how long it will take to explain them.  Look for signs that your replacement’s brain is “full,” and mix up deep discussions with visits to work centers or less mentally-draining tasks.  Provide structure for them to follow in terms of time and topics you’re covering.

We focus attention on “overlap” for a variety of reasons.  Most importantly, it’s our job…our duty…our obligation to end our tour with Excellence in All We Do.  A solid turnover with your successor helps smooth out the organizational turbulence caused by constantly changing personnel and flattens the learning curve so new members can be productive as soon as possible.  This is critical in a deployed environment with more frequent turnover and less room for error.  On a personal level, a strong overlap plan showcases one’s continued loyalty to the current and future team; training up your replacement creates a feeling of accomplishment and reinforces your commitment.  As you depart, you’re also building your personal reputation.  People take note of those who care about Wingmen remaining in the organization, and your replacement will remember how well you set them up for success.

Strong, well-planned overlap is necessary to keep this incredible operation running.  I thank you for your service, and for what you’ll do in building the next great leaders at this base.