Succession Planning
Planning for Tomorrow
Starts Today.
Every organization will face leadership transitions. The question is not whether they will happen, but whether your organization will be ready when they do. Retirements, resignations, and unexpected departures are predictable, yet too many organizations find themselves scrambling to fill critical roles, losing institutional knowledge that took years to build, and struggling to maintain continuity.
30+
YEARS OF ORGANIZATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE
3
INTEGRATED
DISCIPLINES
4
PHASE PROVEN
FRAMEWORK
ICF
ACCREDITED
COACHING PROGRAMS
WHY IT MATTERS
Succession Planning is Not About Filling Seats
It is about building a resilient organization that develops talent, preserves knowledge, and sustains the leadership capacity needed to thrive through every season of change.
For many organizations, succession planning amounts to little more than replacement planning: a list of just-in-time substitutes for key positions. CI goes further. Our holistic succession management framework combines analysis, assessment, and development to continuously identify and build a pipeline of purposefully developed candidates for critical roles at all levels.
Retirements, resignations, and unexpected departures are predictable — yet too many organizations find themselves scrambling when they happen, losing institutional knowledge that took years to build and struggling to maintain continuity. Proactive succession planning is not optional. It is essential to organizational continuity and long-term success.
The Cost of Not Planning
» Loss of critical institutional knowledge when experienced employees retire or depart
» Imbalanced workloads and declining morale among remaining staff
» Costly and time-consuming external searches for leadership roles
» Disruption to mission-critical programs and service delivery
» Erosion of organizational culture and team cohesion
» Loss of competitive advantage and strategic momentum
OUR FRAMEWORK
From Assessment to Sustainability: CI’s Four-Phase Approach
We do not arrive with a prescribed playbook. We meet you where you are, learn your culture and context, and design a strategy that is right-sized for your needs and built to grow with your organization. Through our four-phase approach, we help you move beyond a static plan and toward an ongoing succession management discipline — one that proactively mitigates vacancy risk, ensures functional continuity, and develops leadership at every level. Knowledge management is built into every phase, ensuring that critical institutional expertise is captured and transferred as leaders transition.
CI’s goal is to help organizations not only identify and grow candidates, but to institutionalize a process that becomes part of the organization’s DNA: comprehensive, adaptable, repeatable, and sustainable.
01
Assess & Prioritize Workforce Risks
We conduct comprehensive environmental scans combining HR data, qualitative analysis, and employee surveys to identify workforce vulnerabilities. Working with your leadership team, we prioritize the roles most at risk and determine whether each requires a short-term contingency solution or a longer-term development plan.
02
Design Your Succession Blueprint
We design and develop the processes, tools, and guidelines needed to implement succession planning in your organization — including the identification of the core competencies, skills, and leadership attributes required for success in your critical roles. We build a succession solution that is flexible for your needs and scalable as your organization grows.
03
Strengthen the Talent Pipeline
Through structured talent reviews and assessments, we evaluate the readiness, potential, and aspirations of employees across your organization. We identify high-potential individuals, surface development gaps, and create tailored plans to build a strong, diverse internal pipeline of future leaders.
04
Develop, Implement & Sustain
We design and implement targeted development initiatives including leadership programs, mentoring, coaching, and rotational assignments. We build in knowledge management strategies, and help you establish a repeatable succession planning process with defined measures to monitor progress and refresh the plan so it remains relevant over time.
WHAT WE OFFER
A Full Continuum of Succession Planning Support
Succession planning requires more than a single solution delivered in isolation. CI International’s holistic approach weaves together strategic consulting, targeted learning and development, and individualized coaching to address every dimension of your succession planning needs — from initial assessment through long-term sustainability.
Consulting, Learning and Development, and Coaching: A Unified Approach to Succession Planning
What sets CI apart is the integration of three complementary disciplines working together to build, implement, and sustain a thriving leadership pipeline.
CONSULTING
Consulting forms the strategic foundation: assessing workforce risks, identifying at-risk positions, defining competencies for future success, evaluating pipeline strength, and building the frameworks and knowledge management strategies that anchor a plan built to last.
LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
Learning and Development builds the pipeline from within: designing and delivering leadership development programs, mentoring frameworks, rotational assignments, and competency-based curricula that prepare high-potential employees for the roles ahead and strengthen leadership capacity at every level.
COACHING
Coaching accelerates individual readiness and organizational growth: supporting senior leaders preparing for expanded responsibility, developing high-potential talent through individualized engagements, and creating forums for peer learning and reflection that build the confidence, self-awareness, and leadership presence your next generation of leaders needs.
CONSULTING
Workforce Risk Assessment
Environmental scans, HR data analysis, and stakeholder input to identify vulnerabilities and succession priorities.
Succession Planning Strategy
Custom frameworks aligned with your strategic direction, organizational culture, and human capital goals.
Talent Pipeline Analysis
Structured talent reviews to assess pipeline depth, identify high-potential employees, and surface development gaps.
Knowledge Management
Strategies and tools to capture, document, and transfer institutional knowledge so expertise is never lost in transition.
Organizational Design & Change
Guidance on restructuring, role redesign, and managing organizational change that succession initiatives require.
LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
Leadership Development Programs
Evidence-based curricula to build leadership competencies at every level, from emerging leaders to senior executives.
Mentoring Program Design
Structured frameworks pairing experienced leaders with high-potential employees to accelerate readiness and transfer expertise.
Rotational Assignment Design
Developmental rotation programs that broaden organizational perspective and build cross-functional experience.
Manager & Supervisor Development
Targeted programs building the competencies critical to developing talent at the front-line and mid-level leadership tiers.
Competency-Based Learning
Custom curriculum mapped directly to your organization’s defined leadership competency model for targeted, aligned development.
COACHING
Executive Coaching
One-on-one coaching for senior leaders to strengthen self-awareness and prepare for expanded responsibility.
High-Potential Coaching
Individualized coaching for high-potential employees to accelerate their readiness and career trajectory.
Group & Team Coaching
Targeted group coaching to build cohesion, develop shared leadership capacity, and strengthen team effectiveness.
Coaching Circles
Peer-facilitated, coach-guided leadership circles that foster candid discussion, reflection, and cross-organizational learning.
Leadership Assessments & Mile Marker 360°
Our proprietary 360° assessment tool alongside tools such as MBTI, FIRO, and DiSC, grounds leaders in the self-knowledge they need to grow.
WHY CI
The CI Difference
At CI International, our approach leans on listening and places partnership over predetermined solutions. We personalize your challenges, owning them as our own, and invest not just in the moment but in the mission — bringing business acumen earned from nearly three decades across industries, organizations, and levels of government. We have seen a lot, and we stay around. That staying power is what transforms a succession plan from a document into an enduring organizational discipline.
Succession planning is ultimately an act of organizational confidence — a belief that the future is worth preparing for and that the talent to meet it already exists within your walls. CI is ready to help you find it, develop it, and build the systems to sustain it.
EXPERIENCE
Organizations We've Served
» Federal Reserve Board of Governors
» Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
» U.S. General Services Administration
» U.S. Forest Service
» U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
» Western Area Power Authority
» First Bank
Ready to make succession planning a strategic priority?
CONTACT US
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By email:
Address:
7852 S. Elati St., Suite 201
Littleton, CO 80120
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