We call it The Successful Succeeding Solution.
That’s how we solved the problem of how to create a list of people (or items, actions, or conditions) that determines your first-choice order but then goes on to determine what happens if “Plan A” doesn’t work out. Because of the nature of our customers, we see it most often in forms where successor trustees, executors, or personal representatives need to be named, but the same issues arise in almost every business. In any use the issue creates a very high error rate. How does one include explicit directions for contingencies without misnaming or mis-ordering? Here’s a simple example of the issue: “We want to choose A. But if A is unavailable, then we want B. If B is a no-go, then C… ad infinitum. In a no pressure situation it’s not too bad, but when working on a deadline, or when multiple roles are involved, the error rate pops to the ceiling. Here’s what the solution looks like.
You can download our actual code and an example by clicking here or by searching the Knowledge Base for the term “successor.”
