Problem · Knowledge only in heads
She is on vacation. Their knowledge too.
In small teams, the most important knowledge sits in a few heads: customer agreements, special cases, how things really work. You only notice when someone is out or leaves.
Knowledge transfer and SOP check
How risky is the next vacation?
Answer the questions for the team or one area. The result shows where knowledge depends most on people and what to write down first.
Your result
Answer all questions. Then this shows where the problem probably starts and which small step helps first.
Assumptions and limits
- The check shows a direction, it does not measure risk. Use the answers as a reason for a conversation in the team.
- Not all knowledge can be written down. Experience and judgment are better passed on by working together.
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How you'll notice
There is one person, who knows everything.
- The same question goes to the same colleague every week.
- After a cancellation, you spend weeks reconstructing how a customer was handled.
- Decisions from meetings are written down nowhere, so they get discussed again.
Understand the causes
Why knowledge stays in people's heads.
- 01
Writing down has no place
- How you'll notice
- Everyone knows it's missing, but there's never time for it in daily work.
- Why it happens
- Documenting is seen as extra work, not part of the work.
- What helps
- Schedule a fixed weekly appointment for one process, no more.
- Limit
- Without time in the calendar, every knowledge initiative stays a resolution.
- 02
Knowledge is a status
- How you'll notice
- Whoever knows a lot is needed, and that feels safe.
- Why it happens
- Sharing goes unnoticed; being irreplaceable does not.
- What helps
- Recognize it when someone describes a process so that others can use it without asking.
- Limit
- That is a question of leadership, not a tool problem.
- 03
Documents go stale
- How you'll notice
- There's a handbook, but nobody relies on it.
- Why it happens
- Documents have no owner and no review date.
- What helps
- Give each important document an owner and a date.
- Limit
- Nobody maintains too many documents. Fewer, but current, is better.
- 04
Too many places to file things
- How you'll notice
- Minutes are in emails, instructions in folders, notes in personal apps.
- Why it happens
- Everyone files things wherever they happen to be working.
- What helps
- Set one place for processes and decisions and point to it.
- Limit
- Old storage doesn't move itself. Only move what is still needed.
Ways to solve it
Writing down alone isn't enough. Neither is finding things again.
| Way | Enough if | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Shared document or wiki | You have a handful of processes and someone who maintains them. | Goes stale without owners and quickly becomes cluttered. |
| Handoff conversations for vacations and departures | Knowledge has to be handed over rarely and deliberately. | Often comes too late and depends on someone remembering. |
| Screen recordings of processes | Processes on screen are hard to put into words. | Hard to search and quickly outdated. |
| Peak One | Documents, processes, and courses should live in one place and be findable. | You have to do the writing yourself; old storage doesn't move on its own. |
Peak One in action
From your head into shared knowledge.
- TriggerWho knows how this works?
- 01 · ProcessSignalProcess Radar in Peak SOP shows which processes need an SOP.
- 02 · DocumentUnderstandingDocument Library shows which documents exist; Document Decisions, which decisions are in them.
- 03 · SOPDecisionIn Process Builder you describe the process so that others can carry it out.
- 04 · CourseActionIn Academy this becomes a course with a learning goal, so new people learn the process.
The views for it
Available in Peak One.
Process RadarAvailablePeak SOPWhich processes need an SOP?
Process BuilderAvailablePeak SOPHow do we describe the process?
Document LibraryAvailablePeak DocsWhat documents do we have?
Document DecisionsAvailablePeak DocsWhich decisions are recorded in documents?
Academy LibraryAvailablePeak AcademyWhat do I want to understand?
The apps for it
Knowledge that lasts.
Three steps
Start small. One process per week.
- 01 / 03
Name the knowledge islands
Write down which processes only one person masters today. That is your list.
- 02 / 03
Write down one process per week
Five steps, one purpose, and a sign that it's done. That is all you need at first.
- 03 / 03
Have someone else try it out
Whoever doesn't know the process follows it as described. Every question improves the text.
Frequently asked questions
Briefly answered.
How do I get experienced employees to write down their knowledge?
Keep it small: one process per week, five steps, and someone else tries it out. People who notice they're interrupted less often are more likely to keep writing.
What belongs in an SOP?
Purpose, trigger, the steps in order, who is responsible, and how you know the process is done. That's enough to start.
What is the difference from undocumented processes?
This one is about knowledge that depends on people. Undocumented processes are about describing the workflows themselves. The two often go together.
Keep exploring
What's included.
- Use caseOnboard new team membersAn onboarding plan made of a course, a handbook, and set first tasks, so nobody starts from zero.View
- ProblemEverything depends on the managing directorEvery question lands with you, and without you a lot stands still.View
- ProblemSlow onboardingThe new person is here, but weeks later still not able to work.View
- ProblemUndocumented processesHow something is done is known only by whoever always does it.View
- FunctionIntegrationsConnect 3,270 tools without a second copy of your data.View
- Software categoryAll-in-one business softwareOne shared model for tasks, customers, products, and numbers.View
✦ A Peak principle
Understand before changing. Then every step counts.
Peak learns with you
More problems
Typical bottlenecks in growing companies, each with a tool you can try right away, the causes, and the path Peak One provides for it.
Solve it once. The rest follows.
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