Restructure coming? How to make sure you are on the list of people they keep

A restructure is coming, or you think it might be. What decides who stays?

Two lists

During the Credit Suisse and UBS integration we were planning across a technology workforce of more than 24,000.

Two lists were drawn at the same time. The first list is who goes. The second is who must not go under any circumstances, because if they leave in the next six months the plan fails.

The second list is shorter, and it is written earlier.

What surprised me was how weakly it tracked performance ratings. Strong performers appeared on the redundancy list. People with unremarkable ratings appeared on the retention list.

The difference was not quality. It was whether anyone in the room could name the specific thing that would break if that person left.

One line, concrete, and the room could see the hole.

The people who came off worst were described in general terms. Excellent. Highly capable. Strong leader. Every one of those is a compliment, and not one of them describes a hole.

Nobody protects a compliment. They protect a dependency.

The list is written before you know

The second list exists before the announcement, often weeks before. By the time you know a restructuring is coming, both lists have already been drafted.

So the question is not what you would say if you were called in. It is what someone else can already say about you, today, in a meeting you will never hear about.

What to do this week

1. Write the sentence someone would need to say about you: the specific thing that would break if you left.
2. If you cannot write it, that is the work. Find the dependency you hold, or start holding one.
3. Make sure the people who will be in that room can say it too. Your manager, and their manager.
4. And build your options anyway. No sentence makes anybody safe.

Your next step

The Optionality Vault keeps a monthly record of what you hold and what changed because of you, so that sentence is backed by evidence. CHF 99 a year, with a full refund in the first 30 days.

If a restructure is already under way and you want my read on your position, The Next Move is where I help one to one.