Strengthen ‘the Handover’ as a team matures and grows
As teams evolve, so too must the way they transition work, knowledge, and responsibility.
In early stages of team maturity or in very small teams, handovers are often informal, ad hoc, or not even necessary. But as a team matures, growing in size, complexity, and interdependence, the quality of handovers becomes a critical factor in sustaining excellent workflows and creating accountability.
There’s lots of benefits, felt internally by team members and also externally by customers:
Internally, good handovers sustain performance, trust, and continuity. People know where jobs are in the workflow. They know what they’re accountable for, and they know where the goalposts are.
Externally, smooth handovers ensure that customer work and projects keep flowing. Promises are more likely to be upheld, and customers don’t have to repeat the same information if they deal with different members of the organisation.
Strengthening handovers also is a risk reduction tool, reducing single points of failure and shoring-up continuity even when people are unavailable.
I often look to address handover issues when working with a business on new processes or their ways of working.
Here’s my playbook for what to address, in which order.
My Playbook for Strengthening Handovers
Analyse, Then Make A Plan to Improve
1. Map the Workflow
Not every business has the same setup — we begin with a little analysis.
Process mapping helps massively here. Visualise the flow of work to identify:
How tasks and items flow through the business
Who is involved at each stage
What tools are used
Where handovers currently happen
Where they should happen
Where things get stuck or dropped
(note - sometimes you need to introduce handover points where they don’t currently exist - sometimes people hang onto stuff when it would be better placed going to someone else in the team)
2. Clarify Roles and Responsibilities
Agree who is responsible for each part of the process.
Use a RACI or simple ownership model to make this visible and shared.
3. Check the Tools and Access
Audit what tools are used at each stage:
Are they fit for purpose?
Does everyone have the access they need?
Are there gaps or overlaps?
Try not to introduce any new tools at this point (not unless it is blaringly obvious that that truly is the root cause of the handover issues)
4. Communicate the Plan
Share the mapped process and proposed changes with the team.
Explain the why behind the changes and what’s coming next.
IMPORTANT NOTES!
Don’t expect resounding or universal enthusiasm. Some team members may resist - not everyone welcomes structure. A few may even prefer the ambiguity of chaos, where expectations are unclear and accountability can be avoided.
Strongly reinforce the notion that we are going to implement small changes - try them out, learn, adapt and iterate - we will not get it right form the first try.
Codify Handover into The Day-to-Day
Start simple, but start the team on handing over.
I PROMISE THIS WILL BE CLUNKY AT FIRST!
Doesn’t matter - keep doing it.
I don’t usually find it helps to be overly formal at this stage. Simple email handovers often suffice. The business may have tools like Jira or Field Service Management tools etc. where work can be assigned around team members. Use whatever makes sense without introducing anything new.
Build Knowledge, Not Dependency
As teams grow, memory and informal knowledge-sharing become unreliable.
There will come the point one day when the handover cannot be done because the one person in the business who knows how to do ‘that thing’ is out, ill or on holiday. To create a backstop for this problem, the important partner to handovers is knowledge sharing.
Pretty quickly after establishing simple handovers, and to future-proof the business:
Make time and space to cross-train team members.
Encourage documentation that is stored in shared locations (no good it being on someone’s personal drive)
Make sure all the people who are sharing knowledge also have appropriate levels of access and rights to tools and locations too
Normalize knowledge-sharing as part of the culture
IMPORTANT NOTE!
This can be harder than expected. People often conflate “owning knowledge” with “job security.” You may need to gently challenge this mindset and show how shared knowledge strengthens the team. The very best way to do this is to model it yourself by sharing your own knowledge with others.
Move From Transactional to Relational
Early-stage handovers are often transactional: “Here’s the task, here’s the deadline.” But mature teams benefit from relational handovers—those that include context, intent, and care. This means not just passing the baton, but ensuring the next runner knows the terrain ahead.
Include context - Why was this decision made? What constraints were considered? What trade-offs were accepted?
Share intent - What outcomes are we aiming for?
Facilitate success - What does the next person need to do to succeed with what has been done thus far?
Include Customer handovers
Handovers aren’t just internal - they extend to your customers too. These are the moments when work, responsibility, or information transitions from your team to the client, or vice versa. Examples include:
Delivering a completed piece of work or project milestone
Returning a defect or issue for customer testing or sign-off
Transitioning from onboarding to ongoing support
Moving from sales to delivery or from delivery to account management
These moments are just as critical as internal handovers and often more visible.
I recommend addressing customer handovers after you’ve made progress on your internal ones. Why?
Internal clarity and consistency make external communication smoother.
You’ll be better equipped to explain processes and expectations to customers.
You reduce the risk of exposing internal chaos to the outside world.
Think of it as getting your house in order before inviting guests in.
Define the Customer Handover Points - Where do these transitions happen in your customer journey?
Create Simple Handover Templates - checklists or summary documents, include key details such as what’s been done, what’s next, who’s responsible
Clarify Roles and Contacts
Make sure the customer knows who to speak to next
Avoid “handover black holes” where no one is clearly accountable
Set Early Expectations with Customers - Let customers know what to expect at each stage of the journey and when things will be handed over for them to do something with.
Evolve Handovers with Complexity
As the team’s work becomes more complex, so should the handover process. Mature teams adapt their handovers to match the stakes.
For high-risk or high-impact work, conduct risk assessments for the handover points. Agree mitigations or contingency plans.
For important project transitions (such as sign-off points, UAT test outcomes, service acceptance etc), prepare well, run a formal meeting and involve multiple stakeholders to ensure alignment across the whole team.
Finally, Make it a Ritual
Once all the core functions of a handover are in place, and work is flowing smoothly, handover points can become rituals that reinforce team values—such as trust, transparency, learning and excellence.
Create handover space for reflection: What worked? What didn’t?
Create handover space to celebrate successful transitions
Create handover space to reinforce learning and growth.