Stephen Turner
Akash Kumar
Jordan Lee
Taylor Scott
Capture what a colleague knows before they leave
When someone leaves, the knowledge most at risk is what they never wrote down: why things are the way they are, who to call, and what breaks. Plan a few short, recorded handover sessions around real work, ask for stories rather than summaries, and keep the recordings in one place the successor can search.
What gets lost when someone leaves
Process documents usually survive a departure. What leaves with the person is the context around them.
Aim the handover at that context. Skip anything already written down and well maintained.
| At risk | Example |
|---|---|
| Why decisions were made | Why the invoice run happens on the 3rd, not the 1st |
| Who to call | The one contact at a vendor who actually fixes problems |
| Known failure points | The report that breaks when a field is left blank |
| Unwritten workarounds | The manual step before the monthly export |
| Open commitments | A promise made to a customer on a call last month |
Plan the sessions
Several short sessions work better than one long brain dump. One topic per session keeps each recording easy to find and replay.
- List the person's recurring responsibilities with their manager.
- Group them into three to six topics, one session each.
- Invite the successor, or the people covering the work, to every session.
- Book sessions early in the notice period, not in the final days.
Questions that surface unwritten knowledge
Ask for stories and walk-throughs. "Tell me about the last time this went wrong" brings out more than "summarize the process".
- Walk me through the last time you did this, step by step.
- What would you check first if this broke tomorrow?
- Who outside the team do you rely on for this, and for what?
- What have you promised someone that isn't finished?
- What would you change if you were staying?
Record the sessions
Tell everyone the session is recorded and why. A recording keeps the exact words, including the asides that matter later.
In Bridge, you can host the session on Bridge, capture it on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or record it in person. Each meeting ends with structured notes (summary, decisions and follow-ups) and a speaker-labeled transcript.
In-person recordings label voices Person 1, Person 2 and so on. Update the speaker names on the transcript after each session, so the successor knows who said what.
Leave a record the successor can search
Create one Space for the handover. After each session, open the meeting and choose Add to Space. Inviting other people to a Space needs a paid plan.
Then share the Space with the successor as an Owner or Member. They can ask the Space Assistant questions across every meeting in the Space, and each person's Assistant chats stay private.
- Owners can view meetings, add or remove them, manage sharing and use the Space Assistant.
- Members can do the same, except manage sharing.
- Guests can only view meetings. People invited from outside your workspace start as Guests.
Close the loop before the last day
- Check that every handover session is in the Space.
- Have the successor list what is still unclear after reading the notes.
- Hold one final session to answer that list.
- Move each open commitment to a named owner.
- Ask for a contact route for the first few weeks, if the person agrees.