Could You Survive Extreme Senior Management Turnover?

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Consider whether any business or nonprofit organization could survive if, in a six year period, they racked up senior management turnover statistics like the following:

4   different Chief Executive Officers
4   different Chief Division Officers
5   different Chief Financial Officers
6   different Vice Presidents of HR
3   different General Legal Counsels
5   different Special Division Directors
4   different Chief Operating Officers
4   different Chief Information Officers
3   different Communications Directors
17 different Board Members

Could your company handle such disruption among key employees? That's an average of nine senior management changes in each of the six years. Nine key leaders gone each year. Can you guess the Seattle organization that experienced this level of leadership turnover in the six years ending in 2011?

The Seattle School District, the organization responsible for running our public schools. Here's the list again with the actual job titles:

4 Superintendents
4 Chief Academic Officers
5 Chief Financial Officers
6 Vice Presidents of HR
3 General Legal Counsels
5 Special Ed Directors
4 Chief Operating Officers
4 Chief Information Officers
3 Communications Directors
17 board members

Read School Board member Sherry Carr's analysis of what's going on at the school district in this piece published by Crosscut.