202504051623
Status: #idea
Tags: #business #institutions #government #bureaucracy
# Maintaining functional institutions requires skill succession and power succession
Successful institutions are generally founded by a highly-competent, skilled great founder. The institution is piloted by this person until they step down, at which point a successor must be picked. In order for the institution to continue to be successful, two types of succession must occur: skill succession and power succession.
Skill succession involves transferring the hidden knowledge necessary to succeed at piloting the institution. This includes all relevant tacit knowledge and trade secret.
Power succession involves ensuring that power remains in the hands of the successor, rather than outsourced to bureaucracies that inevitably spring up as an institution ages.
If one or both types of succession fail, the institution will become a dead player and slowly decay until it ceases to exist (or is taken over internally by a live player with the requisite power and skill).
## Related Ideas
- [[Creative destruction is required because we haven't solved the succession problem]]
- [[Intellectual dark matter holds our society together]]
- [[Great institutions require planning and insight from the beginning]]
- [[Social technologies are the operating system for a civilization]]
- [[One of the primary roles of a ruler or leader is to shape incentives]]
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# References
[[Great Founder Theory]]