Please Don’t Stop the Music: Succession Planning Challenges and Paths to Success in Performing Arts Organizations

Project Background and Concerns from the Field

The Cultural Stewardship Succession Planning Initiative began in Fall 2022, to answer a need that Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) and the staff of the Lyrasis network, parent organization of Performing Arts Readiness (PAR), had been consistently hearing from the field: Can we look specifically at the issues that make succession planning such a difficult activity for performing arts and cultural heritage (libraries, archives, and museums) organizations? And can we develop some tools and resources to help our communities? 

Originally, the two field services organizations, with the support of a grant from the Institute of Museum & Library Services, planned to hold six listening sessions for a total of 50 attendees. But interest at arts conferences like Chorus America and a number of cultural heritage association meetings led to 16 open discussions for almost 270 attendees. In addition, the project staff fielded a survey which attracted 156 respondents. 

At the June 2023 Chorus America Conference in San Francisco, PAR and CCAHA held a Roundtable listening session on succession planning issues. The session explored how choral organizations are dealing with leadership transitions, identified key succession issues in the field, and asked participants about resources available to help organizations, their leaders, and their boards deal with personnel changes. The findings of this Roundtable session were consistent with what we heard across the cultural sector, but also raised topics unique to the choral field. 

Across many of the listening sessions, we found that:

• A majority of arts and cultural organizations have little experience with formal succession planning; lack of time was seen as the biggest barrier to planning.
• Reduction in workforces and volunteer corps, due to COVID, economic issues, and early retirement, have caused succession problems at organizations. Some participants noted the impact of “societal changes—the need to step away to take care of aging parents or deal with other family situations.”
• Other issues exacerbating staffing and succession included a lack of opportunities for advancement and low salary levels, according to the project survey; over half of the respondents said that their organization has not presented them with a clear advancement path.
• There is a strong need to recognize the differences, and different approaches needed, when organizations are faced with emergency succession planning situations (as a result of a sudden departure, illness, or other dire situations affecting their leadership and staff), versus standard, anticipated succession planning. 
• Listening session participants feel that succession planning is a high priority personally, but a low priority at many of their organizations. Many respondents noted that their boards are not concerned or don’t “understand what kinds of organizational resources need to be available.” 

Community and Communication

The starting place for any contemplation of succession planning is the community that makes up your chorus—and the community your chorus serves. 

From our discussion at the Chorus America 2023 Conference, we learned that choral groups may face “double trouble” in the need to replace executive directors and artistic directors, sometimes simultaneously. Considering how succession plans and transition timelines would need to be different for each of these roles is especially important.

It is also critical to understand the range of responsibilities of your organization’s board, and where board members might need to fill in should staff depart. Does the board have enough background on the operations of the organization to lead if staff are not in place? Who, for example, can run payroll? To support their ability to take on staff duties, key board members should understand the operating budget in detail.

From listening session participants, we heard concerns about retention and succession of part-time staff members and volunteers; strong communication with these important members of your organization is essential. If your organization is volunteer-run or has a small staff, make sure you have detailed descriptions of volunteer roles and responsibilities. 

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are increasingly a focus in conversations regarding personnel, leadership, and succession issues. Compensation and pay equity have been a central aspect of these discussions. “Times of transition are optimal for exploring and addressing issues of compensation for staff, very importantly including the lowest-paid staff,” said one session participant.

To ensure that relations with your different stakeholders – members and audiences – remain intact, thoughtful communication is critical. Questions that organizations must consider during a time of transition include: What is the sequence of events when an organizational leader is going to depart? When should it be announced? Will an interim executive director or artistic director be appointed? How long does the succession process take? And how do we best retain donors and members and keep them informed when there is a staff or administrative change? 

As one listening session participant counseled, a staff transition represents an important opportunity for connecting the community while preserving the organization’s legacy: the desire of outgoing leaders to leave a legacy should be respected and supported. “Succession planning should include support for the outgoing as well as the incoming leadership, and a compassionate and generous approach should be the goal,” the participant said.

Other respondents noted that changes among long-term staff and leaders, particularly at organizations with smaller staff sizes, can be traumatic for those who remain. It is important to find ways to provide emotional support for both the singers and staff at choral organizations where leadership transition and succession have taken place. Fortunately for choral groups, making music together can promote this kind of support!

Similarly, during times of staff upheaval, maintaining smooth external relations should be a priority. A participant noted that “it is important to continue and strengthen these relationships with all of your partner organizations, especially after new staff join a project. Connections with the community must continue for a project to be successful in the long term.”

Understanding the Risk

One of the most compelling reasons to make time for succession planning and knowledge transfer is to be able to reduce the risk of disruption to your operations. It is useful to think through the “what ifs” to create a sense of urgency and raise awareness for the organization’s leadership of the need to prioritize succession planning.

Two-thirds of respondents across the cultural sector said that their department or organization has experienced problems arising from a lack of succession planning, including:

• A lack of plans or instructions for remaining department/division/organizational staff.
• Disruption of momentum on projects including grants, social media campaigns, etc.
• Simple logistical issues, such as the inability to access computer files or other equipment, happen regularly with staff or leadership changes. One participant said “there is a need to know about everything from what grants are in process to where the cashbox is.”
• Difficulties in maintaining external relationships with partners, vendors, and volunteers.

In one of the listening sessions, a participant said that when the president retired at their arts institution, “the organization blew up!”  Another noted that “succession plans are needed to ensure life for an organization after the founder leaves,” and a third added that this type of planning can lead to “sustainability of the organization, those who work with it, or participants in it.”

An important exercise to help key leaders understand the urgency of better succession planning is to identify the monetary impact of disruptions, cancellations, delays, and other possible adverse outcomes of not having key staff or plans in place. For many organizations, thinking through these implications makes it clear that they cannot afford to not do proper planning for staff transitions and knowledge transfer. 

Building Enduring Knowledge Transfer Practices

One of the strongest recommendations from our research was to encourage making succession planning and knowledge transfer not a one-time “event” but rather a way of operating,continually capturing methods and key information, as well as identifying and training possible successors. Developing and using a “knowledge transfer process” for experienced employees to share their work insights and experience with new staff, those continuing at the organization, and the organization as a whole is important, and there are opportunities presented by new technology to assist with documentation. 

While many organizations may not be in the habit of succession planning, strategic planning is more often part of the rhythm of how arts organizations navigate their future. Addressing succession issues and knowledge transfer in the context of strategic planning can be helpful. For example, a strategic priority to introduce repertoire to engage new audiences may suggest that the organization should look to recruit artistic leadership with broader experience or prioritize giving current leadership an opportunity to explore and learn new material. Understanding knowledge transfer needs, such as a better digital repository for organizational records, may inform strategic objectives related to technology infrastructure. 

During the strategic planning process, leaders should ask questions such as: 

• Do we have personnel with the knowledge and expertise to accomplish this goal (and sustain its outcome)? If not, is the path forward development or recruitment? 
• How can we create resources as part of this planning process that will help document our intentions and support knowledge transfer?
• What lessons have we learned from prior personnel transitions that we may want to address by prioritizing development of internal systems, processes, and procedures as part of this plan?

If an organization is faced with a sudden departure of a key staff member, the strategic plan should be referenced in developing a new job description and job posting. If the strategic plan was significantly informed by the former staff member, however, the organization may wish to reprioritize elements of the plan in order to attract a wider candidate pool—and then formally revisit the plan once a new staff member is in place.

But there is no substitute for hands-on experience! For example, many Chorus America members have suggested that when an artistic director is leaving, organizations can collaborate, and bring in others to “audition” in the role. Can you have an interim artistic director or rotate directors concert by concert during a season? Can you do a “test drive” by having several potential ADs lead a concert from rehearsals through performance? 

Listening session participants also urged those looking at transitioning out of leadership to “be replaceable,” documenting their activities and setting realistic expectations. Some of these leaders are founding executive directors or artistic directors, and organizations are undergoing first-time leadership transitions since the organization started, so collecting information can help to set up a retrospective of the history of the organization and its founder, as well as providing information for incoming leaders. One important tool that CCAHA and Lyrasis have developed is “Conducting Oral Histories for Succession Planning” (see sidebar for details).

Another important practice is regularly developing and updating documents such as human resources manuals, volunteer manuals, and guidelines for part-time staff. As one listening session participant noted, “I’m doing 19 different things that aren’t in my job description, and it has recently changed again!”

Organizations realize they need to develop documentation on succession planning, but many respondents felt that even basic operating policies are not documented well at their organizations, and are needed first. “It’s important to record your journey in some format, whether in writing, pictures, or video,” one listening session participant noted, “because you need to leave a breadcrumb trail.”

Directions Forward

Throughout the listening session and survey research portions of the project, participants reported that not all succession planning experience was bad. In particular, attendees spoke about outgoing and former staff continuing to work with current employees to ensure continuity in projects and at positions. Some even reported that there were positive impacts—including documentation and organizational re-engineering—in how they dealt with staffing and productivity issues during COVID.

When you find yourself involved in a transition or succession situation, where can you go to get support to help you through these difficult periods? Non-profit associations, state and local arts councils, and specialized consultants may be able to help. Another suggestion was to work with faculty and staff at arts administration degree programs at local colleges and universities to identify up-and-coming leaders, 

CCAHA and Performing Arts Readiness/Lyrasis have been synthesizing this information, and the large amount of enlightening survey and listening session findings, to create a suite of resources focused on succession planning for arts administrators and collections care staff at cultural institutions (see sidebar for details).

Educational programs including live classes and webinars are being developed presenting “good practice” strategies to prepare organizations for staffing and volunteer transitions. The CCAHA/Lyrasis Cultural Stewardship Succession Planning Initiative will continue to develop more tools through the fall of 2024, and resources and presentations will continue to be offered beyond the completion of the grant project.

Succession planning can feel like an overwhelming project to begin. However, by taking the first steps and moving towards making succession planning a regular part of your chorus’s operations, you can set your organization up to weather inevitable staffing transitions while sustaining your work and impact. 

Tom Clareson is project director of Performing Arts Readiness, funded by the Mellon Foundation to help performing arts organizations protect their assets, sustain operations, and prepare for emergencies. He serves as senior consultant for Digital & Preservation Services at LYRASIS, focusing on preservation, disaster preparedness, digitization, funding, and advocacy for arts and cultural organizations.  Clareson is secretary of the Board of Directors for the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation, and chair of the National Board of Advisors, Richard M. Ross Art Museum at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Michelle Eisenberg is executive director of the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts, a Philadelphia-based organization advancing cultural heritage preservation nationwide.  She has over 20 years of experience in nonprofit management, fundraising, and consulting, and has assisted dozens of organizations with staff transitions. 

Succession Planning Resources

As of April 2024, resource materials available on the project website at ccaha.org/succession include:

• The Top 10 Things You Can Do NOW to Support Succession Planning & Staff Transitions
• 5 Questions Board Members Should Ask About Staff Succession Planning
• A Succession Risk Assessment Matrix (showing the effects and implications of numerous staff transition situations on key aspects of an organization’s operation, including Mission, Financial Impact, and Time/Human Impact)
• A Cultural Succession Planning Bibliography (annotated and continually expanding)
• A Responsibility Assignment Matrix (supporting succession planning by examining the division of labor between roles in a department or organization)
• A Job Analysis Template (examining key job tasks, functions, connections, and expertise) 
• Conducting Oral Histories for Succession Planning (guidance on utilizing oral histories to preserve organizational information and allow for knowledge transfer)

The Top 10 Things You Can Do NOW to Support Succession Planning and Staff Transitions

These activities will ensure that your organization has the most critical information in the event of a succession emergency, but they will also help you build a framework for longer-term succession planning and knowledge transfer.

• Ask Yourself “What Would Happen If” (and write down the answers as a map for what you need to address)
• Record Important Passwords (in a secure manner according to your IT policies)
• Locate and Designate Physical Keys (to ensure access to facilities and collections)
• Document Critical Internal & External Contacts (including annotated details about their significance)
• Update Job Descriptions (to ensure that all accountabilities and responsibilities are documented—and highlight key gaps). Don’t forget to include volunteers and part-time staff.
• Identify “Next Person Up” for Emergency Situations (based on the responsibilities in the Job Descriptions; note gaps, cross training needed, and include Board members if necessary)
• Identify Policies to Be Created or Updated (for collections management, emergency response, other topics). Make a plan to complete those you do not have.
• Record Details about Special Projects (particularly anything tied to special funding sources)
• Create the Table of Contents for Your Knowledge Transfer Guide (and a timeline for filling it in)
• Tell Someone Where to Find All of The Information Above!