A week ago today, my organization lost a “key player”.  In fact, we lost our president and my best friend – cancer finally ate him.  I have wondered for years as this condition developed how I would react.  I have wondered how his family would cope.  I have really worried about how his cats will get along without him.  What I forgot to wonder about is “what will happen to productivity?”  In other words, how will a small company deal with the loss of a key player?  Now that might sound a little crass.  You might read this and think “how could Shane be so cold?”  I’m not.  Really.  I am devastated.  But I thought this would be a unique (I hope) opportunity to share a little about the experience.  With luck, you can learn from our mistakes and maybe help us out with suggestions on how we move forward.

First, a little background.  The boss had been ill for ages.  He had ups and downs, and we all knew that at some point it would be more down than up.  He had helped us plan for a “soft landing”, as he called it.  We had delegated much of his responsibilities, did periodic brain dumps from him to the staff, and had a sort-of transition plan in place.  There was still planning to do, of course.  There always is.  But you have time, right?

Well, you don’t.  I’m not talking about the HR stuff – the life insurance, the health insurance, disability, keys, etc.  That will all just happen.  HR people are experts at the process of an employee leaving the company.  No, I’m talking about the tasks, the knowledge, the work in progress.

If you (God forbid) have a terminal illness and you are still working, you owe it to everyone to either 1) stop working, or 2) make sure that everything is well documented and plans are in place – as early as possible.  In our case we should have employed more technology.  His computers should have had their corporate data mirrored so we could get at it without bothering his family.  His company e-mail should have been copied automatically to his delegates.  His voicemail should have had some sort of a backup message that we could turn on when he became too ill to take calls.  We should have had a press-release ready (or not).  It’s all little stuff, but it adds up to a LOT of angst, confusion, and of course lost productivity.

So, how are we doing one week in?  Well, it could be worse.  We had done quite a bit of planning.  Unfortunately, he didn’t really let us know how ill he was toward the end.  We assumed he was still performing tasks when in fact he was not.  He was trying, but he couldn’t.  Tragic really, but there you are.  So our careful plans that were designed for a smooth transition had to be executed more abruptly.  The only saving grace was that he passed away on a Friday – so we had a couple of days to be sad before we had to start dealing with work stuff again.  Even so, it was not a great week.  We mostly spent it trying to determine what wasn’t completed recently that should have been, and deciding who should do what going forward.  The whole company basically lost a week of work.

How will we do next week?  Better.  We have to.  A small company can maybe afford to lose a week.  No way we can afford to lose two!  “It’s a process.”  That’s what everyone will tell you.  And they will tell you about grieving, and about the sense of loss, and all the other things that come with the death of a loved one or a colleague.  What no one ever seems to talk about is the professional impact.  At least, no one ever talked about it to me.

Has your organization ever lost a key player?  Or do you have plans for how to deal with it when you do?  Let’s talk about it in the forums.