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Transition Teams

Planning for a successful leadership transition requires a dedicated team. Transition teams provide an effective way for candidates and leaders-elect to prepare for the many demands that the executive and their administration will take on once sworn into office. Transition teams can take any form, but are typically comprised of networks of staff responsible for various issue areas that the new leader will face — executive operations, communications, strategic planning, political appointments, government agency review, budgets. In some countries, all candidates in an election are required to form a transition team as part of a campaign operation, despite knowing if their candidate will ultimately be successful. In other countries, once the results of an election are known, it is customary for the transition teams of the winning candidate and the outgoing leader to meet ahead of the new leader’s swearing-in to exchange information, institutional memory, and work together to ensure continuity in government during the transition.