A last-minute retirement gift from colleagues

Message four people directly rather than posting in the department channel. A channel post on a two-day timeline is read by everyone and actioned by nobody, because it is visibly somebody else's job.

A direct message with a name on it gets answered. That is the whole technique.

Pick the four by who replies, not by seniority

You already know which colleagues answer messages within the hour. Those are the four, regardless of how long they have worked with the person or how senior they are.

Seniority is the wrong filter here and it is the one people reach for. A director who worked alongside him for twenty years and answers email twice a week is worse for this than a junior who was on his team for eight months and replies immediately.

Ask for the line, not the photograph

On a short timeline, invert the usual request. Photographs take people time to find; a sentence takes thirty seconds and is the part that carries the piece anyway.

Two lines if you have them — something he did, not something you'll miss. By tomorrow lunchtime. Photo optional.

Something he did is a far better prompt than an open one. It produces specifics rather than sentiment, and specifics are what somebody reads aloud on the day.

What to do about the photograph

Most workplaces have one usable photograph of everyone, and it is on the intranet or in a conference album from 2019. That is enough. A piece can be built on one photograph and several lines, and on a two-day timeline it usually has to be.

If nothing exists, ask the person's closest colleague rather than the department. They will have one on their phone.

Say afterwards that it was tight

Colleagues who were not asked rarely mind. Colleagues who were asked and could not manage it in a day sometimes do. A sentence at the leaving do — we put this together in about forty-eight hours — settles both, and it is true.

For one photograph and no dependency on anybody else's inbox, Classic is the straightforward size. With a proper run-up, the wider collection is worth doing and is covered in a retirement gift from the whole team.