Planning for What’s Next: Smart Succession Strategies for Boards
How do you hope participants will feel as they leave this session, particularly in relation to succession planning?
Participants will leave feeling excited and empowered to make positive change on the boards that they engage with, because succession planning will feel accessible. I want them to leave feeling that succession planning is within their control—something they can influence through everyday actions, relationships, and intentional choices.
Why is it often so challenging for boards to prioritize and fully engage in succession planning?
I think this is because many boards default to thinking of succession as a moment (who’s the next chair), rather than a system (how leadership is continuously developed).
What are the key takeaways you want participants to walk away with from this session?
There are three core takeaways:
1. Succession planning is continuous, not episodic.
It happens across the full leadership lifecycle—not just at moments of transition.
2. It is both relational and structural.
Strong systems matter, but leadership actually grows through relationships, invitation, and intentional cultivation.
3. Every board already has a pipeline—whether intentional or accidental.
The question is whether they are actively shaping it or simply reacting to it.
How can board members continue to build on their learning after completing the Back to the Boardroom series?
The goal is for this learning to shift from a one-time experience to an ongoing leadership mindset—where building the next generation of leaders becomes part of how the board operates. Ideally, the conversations they start in our session will be taken back to their boards and intentionally implemented – even if it is in small ways.
Sign up today for Back to the Back to the Boardroom: Succession Planning for Strong Boards.
Mandy Diamond, Principal Consultant at Blue Zone Thinking where she has made it her mission to provide organizations (and their leaders) with the tools (and the confidence) to move beyond their comfort zones.
