Do you have a few employees at your business that seem to know everything? Or be the only ones who know their specific job? If you were to ask a couple other employees to fill in for this person when they are on vacation, would they be able to?

If you answered yes to the first two, and no to the last question, you may have an elusive force within your organization called Tribal Knowledge.

What is tribal knowledge? It is a skillset, information, or ability that seem to belong to only one person in your organization, and is not documented. That person is the only one on your team that knows how to finesse a purchase requisition process, or the “right” way to apply a label, or the correct setting on the dishwasher that gets the lip gloss off the soda glasses every single time, etc.

Why is trial knowledge a problem? The answer is in the following statement: Your team members are invaluable, but no one is invincible.

To expand upon this, what if the employee who knows everything quits or gets into a life-altering car accident? That is a highly valuable skillset and knowledge base that is never going to step foot into your business again. If they were no longer a part of your team (morbid reasons or not), your organization will struggle trying to relearn all of the information that they had.

To show how tribal knowledge can be expensive, let us use an example: Rodney is a buyer in the indirect procurement group at an RC Car Factory. He regularly orders electric tools and manages the forklift leasing program. Each month he meets with the tool vendors, which usually involves getting taken out for lunch. For managing the forklift leasing program, he negotiates new leases, manages purchase orders, and litigates repairs and warranty claims. He is also the only person in the indirect procurement group that has ever handled this piece of the operation.

Everyone in the entire company knows Rodney and how valuable he is, but no one really knows the intricacies of what he does. He is also an avid storm chaser. In late February, at the age of 59 ½, he decides to call it a career and retire. He wants to chase tornadoes and drive sports cars instead. He submitted his two-weeks’ notice, had a couple retirement parties where everyone was not entirely sober, and walked out the door.

This left the company with no idea how to handle managing the electric tools and forklift rental accounts. The rest of the indirect procurement team needed to scramble to get back on their feet. As a result, the following misfortunes happened:

1. Leases for 4 forklifts were not renewed, resulting in less material handling capacity.
2. A manufacturing defect on one of the forklifts was incorrectly categorized as an operator error incident at the factory, resulting in repairs of $12,000 that the company was on the hook for.
3. One of the electric tool suppliers maliciously upselled one of the other buyers into purchasing electric drivers that had no application in the assembly operation, costing the company $45,000.

This was at least $57,000 over two months that was lost due to tribal knowledge going out the door with Rodney. Extreme example for sure, but you get the point. Since no one else was knowledgeable enough in the electric tool and forklift procurement to take it over from him, the company faced financial consequences.

How to Find Tribal Knowledge and What to Do About It

Helpful Hint: This is best done as a team exercise, but can be done individually as well. Once everyone on the team is present, and well awake (or caffeinated), gather as a group and start working through these steps.

Step 1: List All Job Tasks.

Have each team member list every single job responsibility. From the high-level tasks (like setting up part routings and balancing the cash register), to the tiniest of tasks (typing up a PowerPoint slide for the weekly update). Not one task can be missed. Take a few passes at this to ensure everything is captured.

Step 2: Compile the Teams Job Tasks into one big list.

Take everyone’s tasks and make one great big list. Its okay if it looks intimidating.

Step 3: As a Team, Go Through Each Task and Determine if it has a Standard Operating Procedure or Work Instruction for it.

As a group, talk through each task. Determine if that task has a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) or a Work Instruction (WI) document for it. “Does Everyone Know How to Do It?” is the wrong question to ask.

Instead ask these questions for each task:

1. Is an SOP or WI needed for this task?
2. Does an SOP or WI exist?
3. If so, can the team locate it?

Highlight every task that needs an SOP or WI but does not have one, as these are identified as tribal knowledge. Not each task needs an SOP or WI. A good rule of thumb is that if the task requires more than simple communication or status updates, having an SOP or WI is a good idea. They are definitely needed for tasks requiring computations, use of software programs, or manual work processes.

Step 4: Create SOPs or Work Instructions for Each Task Identified as Tribal Knowledge.

Make an SOP or WI document for each highlighted task. Include pictures and screenshots whenever possible. Make sure that it is detailed enough to have someone outside the group be able to complete the task to standard.

Step 5: Store these SOPs or Work Instructions in a Common Place.

Create and designate a common location for these SOPs and Work Instructions. Microsoft Teams pages are an option, but a SharePoint site would be even better.

Step 6: Have your Team Train Each Other on These Tasks.

Start a meeting series where at each session, one of your employees trains the team on one of the highlighted tasks that an SOP was developed for. The best training sessions are done like this:

1. Demonstrate to the team the task.
2. Everyone complete task together.
3. Trainer watches others complete the task.

Wrapping This All Up

Expect this knowledge documentation to take 3-4 hours/week over the course of 12 weeks. This is a significant investment of time and resources, but your team will be in a much stronger position because of it.

Ultimately you do not want your organization to be vulnerable enough where a sudden change in personnel grinds your operation to a halt. Documenting and sharing as much tribal knowledge as possible will certainly be an effective hedge against it.