Emergency Knowledge Transfer for Critical Departures
Did a critical member of your team just give notice?
We know from deep experience that critical experts are a bit mysterious. You know they are important but you can’t say exactly what they do, or how they do it. When they leave for any reason, especially with short notice, that ambiguity can be very troubling.
Our Emergency Knowledge Transfer Process moves fast to demystify and manage the risks associated with losing their unique knowledge. In as few as 7-10 days we can define, prioritize and capture their areas of critical knowledge and measurably transfer their most critical knowledge to fellow team members.
Our Knowledge Transfer Process:
Start with Strategy
Our Big Picture tool zooms in to quickly clarify the relationship between the business strategy and the expertise you are about to lose. Then it guides your decisions on what knowledge must be transferred in the short window between now and the departure of your critical expert.
Assess
Org charts, job descriptions, and budgets do not tell you what this key expert has been doing to a sufficient level of granularity. Our Knowledge Silo Matrix maps their work and expertise in relation to their teammates to tell you precisely what will stop happening when they leave and who could take over. The detailed data from the Matrix pinpoints future talent-related risks such as skill gaps and execution bottlenecks so you can choose what to focus on in the short time remaining.
Align
The Knowledge Silo Matrix will help you talk to each other about the challenges of losing a key expert in a way that is clear and simple. When the loss is high profile, the team leader can present their Big Picture and KSM with mitigation plans to any stakeholder in 10 minutes. The data guides the conversation to prioritize mitigation efforts and keep everyone informed.
Take Action
When a critical expert leaves, the most common mitigation is to transfer knowledge to teammates. We start by counting the remaining hours between now and the last day and then using every available hour efficiently. Our process quickly breaks the knowledge to be transferred down into one-hour blocks and then provides proven tools to teach and test learning. It can be driven by the expert, by the learner and/or by the manager so that even reluctant experts who are poor communicators can successfully transfer their knowledge quickly.
We provide hands on support and daily scorecards to ensure that every available hour is used to methodically reduce the impact of the departure in a measurable way.
Get in Touch
Contact us today to discuss your knowledge transfer needs including emergency knowledge transfer for departing talent.
Not yet ready to connect?
Download our 4-Step Methodology to learn more about the work we do.