Where do you put your attention?
Estimate how your time splits across owner, director, organisation leader, team leader, and technician work. The first measurable look at the role you actually hold today.
Opening the workbook…
The 12 activities behind Design for Succession.
A digital workbook of the Succession Thinking® activities Bill Withers takes founders through inside the retreat cohort.
An activity, in two screens
How the workbook actually works.
Every activity is a piece of structured thinking. You answer, the workbook reflects something back. Below is one real activity from inside the workbook, with example numbers, so you can see the shape of it.
Activity 1a · Scoring
Where do you put your attention?
Estimate the share of your time across the five roles every SME has.
Owner10%
Director5%
Organisation leader15%
Team leader10%
Technician60%
Total100%
See your results
Your attention
You spend most of your time as technician.
Your time concentrates in one role at 60%. The other four split the rest.
Owner
10%
Director
5%
Org leader
15%
Team leader
10%
Technician
60%
Most of your week is being spent doing the work of a specific role, not leading the business that does the work. That is the single most common pattern in early SMEs, and it is the one that quietly makes the business depend on you.
Example: Activity 1a, "Where do you put your attention." The percentages shown are illustrative.
01
Saves as you type
Your answers persist on your device automatically. Walk away from the activity, come back tomorrow, pick up where you left off.
02
Reflects something specific back
Every activity generates a personalised reading based on the answers you actually gave, not a generic score.
03
Goes on the record with Bill
When you save, your responses land in your private workbook record. Bill sees them inside the retreat and works through them with you.
Twelve activities, structured.
01
SME opportunities and challenges
1bReflection
Harnessing the SME advantages
Six questions on alignment, agility, and what your size makes possible if you stop running it like a big company.
1cReflection
Obtaining finance
The future-success indicators a careful investor wants to see, beyond the P&L. Whether you ever raise capital or not, the questions are the right ones.
02
Introducing succession thinking
2aScoring
What needs to be handed over
Score how much knowledge, decision rights, and wisdom sit only with you. The dependency map, named.
2bMapping
Your Business Way
A stocktake of the practices, knowledge, and standards that make your business yours. What is captured, where it lives, and how it travels.
2cReflection
Power hierarchy
How decisions actually flow in your business, and where trust breaks down before they get made.
03
Principle 1
Seek role clarity
3aMapping
Owner roles
Who holds what role across owners, organisation leaders, team leaders, and operations.
3bMapping
Role acumen
Pick two roles. Document the story, the accountabilities, the skills, and the attributes.
04
Principle 2
Build your owners' vision
4aReflection
The vision and capital interface
Five questions that connect what you want to do with your life to how you allocate the business's capital, remuneration, and ownership.
4bReflection
Build your owner's vision
The big one. Ten stakeholders, one integrated vision. The work that lets the rest of the leadership team know what they are building toward.
05
Principle 3
Build leadership beyond you
5aScoring
You as an organisation leader
Seven statements. Rate where you actually are. The shortest mirror in the workbook.
06
Principle 4
Build culture beyond you
6aReflection
What do you value
Articulate three to five values, what they look like above the line, and what they look like below.
How you get access
Come on the Design for Succession retreat and take a deep dive into Succession Thinking®.
The workbook is the cohort's tool. When you join the retreat, you get a private access link, you keep your responses for 90 days, and Bill works through the activities with you in the room.
· Sign out
Your Succession Thinking® workbook.
Pick whichever activity matches what is loudest in your business right now. Answers save automatically on this device, and you can save them to your workbook record at any time. Bill sees what you save.
Chapter 1: SME opportunities and challenges
3 activities
Activity 1a · Scoring
Where do you put your attention?
How your time splits across the five roles every SME has.
Not started Activity 1b · ReflectionHarnessing the SME advantages
Six questions on whether you are using the advantages of being small.
Not started Activity 1c · ReflectionObtaining finance
The future-success indicators a careful investor would want to see.
Not startedChapter 2: Introducing succession thinking
3 activities
Activity 2a · Scoring
What needs to be handed over
Score how much knowledge and decision rights sit only with you.
Not started Activity 2b · MappingYour Business Way
What is captured, where it lives, and how it travels.
Not started Activity 2c · ReflectionPower hierarchy
How decisions actually flow and where trust breaks down.
Not startedChapter 3 (Principle 1): Seek role clarity
2 activities
Activity 3a · Mapping
Owner roles
Who holds what role across owners and operations today.
Not started Activity 3b · MappingRole acumen
Two roles documented: story, accountabilities, skills, attributes.
Not startedChapter 4 (Principle 2): Build your owners' vision
2 activities
Activity 4a · Reflection
The vision and capital interface
How your life aspirations show up in the business's capital decisions.
Not started Activity 4b · ReflectionBuild your owner's vision
Ten stakeholders, one integrated vision. The longest activity.
Not startedChapter 5 (Principle 3): Build leadership beyond you
1 activityChapter 6 (Principle 4): Build culture beyond you
1 activityHouse-keeping
Your answers live on this device by default. If you want to clear them locally, use the button below. This does not delete what you have saved to your workbook record.