09/10/2020

When Co-founder Transitions Collide

Succession planning can come to a screeching halt

In August 2007, when I began writing the public charter school application for what would become Coney Island Prep, I’d never even heard of succession planning. I was 28, and the sum total of my professional experience included teaching high school English for three years as part of Teach for America (TFA). At the time, even if someone had explained it to me and suggested I get around to it at some point, part of me would have assumed I’d lead Coney Island Prep until I retired. It was my baby, my entire life, my passion and purpose.

A year later—with an approved application and some funding in hand—I brought on Lindsay Freeman as founding principal. Lindsay and I had met through TFA, and the two of us went about the business of opening a middle school in Brooklyn, New York. While she created a daily school schedule, ordered curriculum and books, and planned staff orientation, I put together a board of trustees, negotiated a lease for our first facility, designed uniforms, raised money, picked a payroll provider, and tried to repair a relationship with a local city councilman who told me the school would open over his dead body.

Succession planning didn’t make the list until years later, when we would determine independently that it was time to hand over the reins to other people, and face the unique challenge of successfully replacing both of us while keeping the organization we built moving ahead.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR).