Owners and successors need to work together to ensure the hard work you’ve put into your succession plan is actually implemented and implemented on-time. You’ll need to set aside some time each month, quarter and year to truly focus on this important monitoring work.

We’ve provided you checklists to make it easier for you. If there are some things not getting done, you’ll have to map out how to get them back on track. That usually involves communicating clearly and precisely and in a way that strengthens your relationships. You’ll also have to adjust the timeline of the tasks that aren’t being completed as well as any tasks they will impact.

And don’t forget – for those sticky situations where conflict is occurring, you’ve developed a dispute resolution method that can help.

Monthly Monitoring

Choose one day a month to focus on monthly monitoring and tell your co-workers and family you’ll need some uninterrupted time that day. You’ll be more efficient that way.

 Use this monthly monitoring checklist:

• Evaluate progress on Labour-Management-Ownership table (Step 6). Even though the timeline is annual, all the work can’t happen at once. Owners and successors might decide to break down the timeline into a monthly or quarterly schedule to help with implementation.

• Evaluate how the communication plan is working and adjust as needed (Step 7).

Quarterly Monitoring

Choose two days near the end of the quarter to do your quarterly assessments and monitoring. That uninterrupted time is the most efficient way to monitor progress on your succession plan since it keeps your focus on the work at hand. Ask your workers, colleagues, etc. to minimize interruptions for you.

Use this checklist:

• Assess progress on successor development plan – Are we keeping up with the development plan tasks and timelines (Step 4)?

• Assess progress on action plan to fulfill goals and objectives: are we keeping up with the tasks we developed that will help us reach our objectives and goals (Step 4)?

• Evaluate advisors’ (and our own) progress on ownership transfer-, financing-, living arrangement-, business structure-, legal-, tax-, insurance-, off-farm financial-, and will/estate-related implementations.

• Evaluate progress on Labour-Management-Ownership table (Step 6). Even though the timeline is annual, all the work can’t happen at once. You might decide to break down the timeline into a monthly or quarterly schedule to help with implementation.

• Evaluate how communication plan is working and adjust as needed (Step 7).

Annual Monitoring

Choose one week close to year-end to look back and evaluate your progress over the past 12 months. You will need that uninterrupted time. Succession planning has a lot of working parts so it’s easier to stay in it once you start the evaluation process. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting time trying to remember where you left off and you may miss some important detail. And if you get it done in less than five days, good on you!

Use this checklist:

• Check-in with Significant Other, Partner(s), and Successor(s) about how succession planning is going. Note any new insights or conversation details in your Succession Planning Workbook (Step 2).

• Have there been any significant family changes in the last year that might affect the succession plan, like births, deaths, divorce? If so, adjust your contacts and succession plan accordingly. Adjust the financial assessment of farm (Step 2).

• Am I growing the operation sufficiently to fund our retirement and our successor’s lifestyle? (Step 2) 

• Are our successor’s progressing sufficiently with the successor development plan? (Step 3)

• Quality assessment of existing advisors – Do we need to replace any or add any new advisors? (Step 2)

• Are goals and objectives still relevant? (Step 4)