You've probably sat through some version of this. The CEO succession item gets a solid forty minutes. Names on a slide, a "ready now" column, an emergency plan somebody clearly worked hard on. Fine. Good, even. Then someone at the far end (it's always the quiet one) asks what happens if the chair goes next quarter. Nobody says anything for a second. The chair makes a joke. Next item. I find that pause more revealing than any survey. Boards aren't careless about chair successi