Departure Impact Analysis

When someone leaves a team, the impact is not just the loss of their technical contribution. It is the loss of their behavioral contribution — the dimension they covered, the friction they balanced, the dynamic they anchored. A high-S departure from a high-D team does not just create a vacant role. It removes the stabilizing force that kept the team's velocity from becoming chaos. The departure impact analysis quantifies this behavioral loss so the replacement decision accounts for what the team actually lost.

1. Calculate the Composition Shift Recompute the team aggregate without the departing member. Which dimensions shift? A team average S that drops from 48 to 38 after a departure has lost meaningful stabilization capability. The magnitude of the shift indicates the behavioral impact — small shifts mean the dimension was well-covered by others. Large shifts mean the departing member was a single point of coverage.
2. Identify Dynamic Disruptions Map the departing member's key working relationships. Who did they balance? Which friction patterns did they moderate? A high-S who moderated a D-D conflict leaves behind not just a coverage gap but an unmanaged tension. The dynamic disruption is often more immediate than the coverage gap.
3. Design the Replacement Profile The replacement should be profiled not for the departing member's role description, but for the behavioral gap they leave. If the team lost its only high-S, the replacement needs high-S regardless of the role title. If the team lost a moderating dynamic, the replacement needs the specific profile combination that restores that moderation.