Customer Reviews

Crisp: Systematic Succession Planning: Building Leadership from Within (Crisp Fifty-Minute Books)

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Especially for the smaller business or the family firm, Wolfe's book provides a concise guide to establishing a succession management strategy. Her writing is free of jargon, and unlike many management books, isn't repetitive or especially boring. I recommend it for anyone contemplating whether a succession management strategy is needed for their business.

This book was helpful and I believe it will be useful in consulting with organizations seeking help with succession planning. It contains many helpful graphics, worksheets, and checklists. It does not get bogged down in theory but stays, for the most part, at the "how to do it" level.

The book's focus appears to be on the corporate world, vs. non-profits. I believe some of it's suggestions will be difficult to implement in smaller organizations. It focuses on longer-term, ongoing planning rather than emergency succession planning or leadership transition management.

Although the book is generally clear, concise, well-written, and logically presented, at times the level of detail obscures the process being recommended. Steps are given for each stage of the planning process. Often these steps have sub-steps (and sometimes those sub-steps have further sub-steps, typically given in another part of the chapter or in another chapter). Several times I lost track of the logical flow of the overall process as I read through all the (genreally helpful) detail. A brief (1-4 page) summary outline at the end of the book would have helped tie the whole process together for me. I think readers can, with a little work, generate such an outline and that it would result in much useable material (and will serve as a key to unlocking other helpful info in the book).

The book contains some immediately useable (or easily adaptable) practical tools. However, many of the worksheets were more helpful for the additional ideas that they generated upon further contemplation. At times the worksheets (as presented) were too brief and/or lacked much explanation of how they might be used or of the key concepts they were built upon or referenced.

I am confident that after giving the book a quick read and highlighting, I will be able to give organizations some helpful insights and tools for the important (and often mystifying) process of succession planning. The book was a good introduction, and the right price was right (compared to other brief books on this and similar topics). However, I am still looking for a better overview with more practical tips for non-profit organizations.

The book I read and am reviewing was of the same title and publication date, but was authored by Rebecca L. Wolfe.

An easy, step-by-step guide to developing a succession plan for filling key organizational positions vacated by retirement or attrition. Filled with good examples and exercises that can be used in the workplace to develop the plan. I like books that have forms that I can adapt to my situation. I recommend for anyone tasked to do a plan who doesn't have time to read a lot of theory.