This piece, obviously, will be about tribal knowledge, the pros and cons of it in working in an office or a business, and how to handle it. But let’s first define it so we’re all on the same page.
Tricks of the trade, insider information, or just the stuff we learn after a lot of years doing this. There are a lot of ways to categorize the information we all pick up when we do a job for several years. So much of what we learn on the job isn’t in a book or an employee manual. It’s stuff Joe tells you when you’re on a call with him. Or the things Betsy shares with you about the people and inner workings of the office. Again, not in a manual, but just as if not more valuable as the stuff that’s in those manuals.
This stuff, this side learning, this inner circle information, whether it’s about a process, a way of doing things that other companies don’t, or the personalities in the office, they all fall under the category of “tribal knowledge.”
So, if you’ve been reading my blogs for any amount of time, you’ll know that I am an actor and that business is chock full of tribal knowledge. And the best thing about theater tribal knowledge is that you keep learning it. You learn stuff in the classroom if you’re studying the art, and that only goes so far. So much of acting is about action and doing that the classroom stuff fills about a third of what you’ll know by the time you finally say, I’m done.
The little things that separate a pro from a tourist are the things that matter. Such as hearing the stage manager give the call, how long before you go to places, and knowing the proper response. The proper response is the time and thank you. So, the stage manager says, “15 minutes.” The actors’ reply is, “Thank you, 15.” This tells the stage manager three things. One, it tells her that you’re there. Two, it tells her that you heard her. And three, it tells him you know what the call was about. We have 15 minutes before places. Newbies will say thank you, and that’s fine, but pros say thank you 15. Just because.
There are a myriad of other bits of tribal knowledge in the theater. You tip your dresser weekly or at the end of the run. In an IATSE house, you get permission to walk on the stage from one of the union crew members because, until they say so, the stage is still theirs, and they might be setting scenery or checking lights. You get the okay before you walk on stage. What else? Oh, never wear white to tech unless you wear all white in the show, and then you ask the stage manager. Simple things, little things that you learn as you work. The theater is just full of tribal knowledge.
Tribal Knowledge
This blog, obviously, will be about tribal knowledge, the pros and cons of it in working in an office or a business, and how to handle it. But let’s first define it so we’re all on the same page.
To start, tribal knowledge is insider information known or common within the tribe. Now, the tribe is the people you work with or the people in your same industry. They are your tribe. The knowledge of that tribe is valuable, unwritten expertise, skills, and insights held by a few experienced individuals in a company, passed down informally through mentorship or word of mouth rather than formal documentation. It’s the insider track on how to get things done, usually going around the SOPs and rules to get a task done more efficiently.
Key characteristics. There are some key points to look for when seeking tribal knowledge:
- Undocumented: Not found in any formal procedures or handbooks.
- Informal sharing: Transferred through stories, shadowing, casual conversations, and in-person training.
- Implicit: People just know it, often without realizing it’s not common knowledge.
- High value: Can be critical for quality, problem-solving, and productivity.
These are all pretty positive outcomes of tribal knowledge, but it can also be risky. This is especially clear if we add the bus factor.
The bus factor is a project management metric estimating how many key team members could become unavailable, hit by a bus, before the project fails or stops due to critical loss of knowledge or skills. In these situations, a high bus factor, many people, indicates low risk, while a low bus factor, fewer people, indicates significantly higher risk and single points of failure.
Almost any company has tribal knowledge, and every level of employee has come in contact with tribal knowledge specific to their part of the work spectrum. Some of the places you’ll see tribal knowledge include:
- Technical. That specific sequence to restart a machine without crashing it.
- Procedural. The best way to handle a difficult client or a unique customer request.
- System-specific. An obscure shortcut in software or a forgotten password.
- Cultural. Unspoken team norms or advantageous internal relationships.
There are, of course, good and bad parts to tribal knowledge, and that’s what we’ll examine next.
The Good Stuff
There is debate. Is it good? Is it bad? We’ll look at the good side of tribal knowledge first.
Tribal knowledge is positive because it holds undocumented shortcuts, best practices, and problem-solving insights that boost efficiency, foster innovation, and maintain operational continuity, all of which provide a competitive edge. Let’s get a little more specific.
The benefits:
- Boosts efficiency and productivity. Contains hidden tips and tricks that speed up processes and improve workflows beyond formal documentation.
- Enhances problem-solving. Offers solutions for unique or complex issues not covered in standard procedures, preventing costly delays.
- Drives innovation. Sharing insights from experienced employees sparks new ideas and better approaches to long-standing challenges.
- Ensures continuity. Preserves essential know-how, preventing knowledge loss when employees retire or leave, securing the company’s institutional memory.
- Creates competitive advantage. Unique insights and methods can set a company apart from rivals.
- Strengthens culture. Sharing fosters teamwork, builds stronger employee relationships, and creates a more open, collaborative environment.
- Provides context. Stories and informal knowledge explain why certain practices exist, offering a deeper understanding.
As far as context goes, it’s been shown that people remember, digest, and retain meaning when material is presented in story form. Tribal knowledge is often presented that way. Why do we do this? Okay, here’s the story. There was a guy who worked here named Henry, and one day, Henry did something that caused a problem. And thus, a bit of tribal knowledge is born. Shared casually through a story. And those who hear it are more likely to remember it and put that bit of knowledge into practice than they would if it were subsection L, paragraph 249 in a 500-page handbook given to them on day one by human resources.
The Not So Good Stuff
Despite all the good this kind of knowledge offers, there are some drawbacks. When it’s unwritten or no system has been put in place to codify the information, you run the risk of other roadblocks, such as employee dependency.
Only Roger knows how to fix the copier. There’s a process he knows. Now, if we want to copy anything and the copier is broken, we’re all waiting for Roger to get back from lunch.
And what happens when Roger hits the lottery and flips the office off? Then no one knows how to fix the copier the right way. So we have to call a technician, and that costs money and time. If you don’t call for help, you’re going to get a bunch of inconsistent processes. Katy was close to Roger. She thinks she knows how to fix it. And then Katy stumbles along until she realizes she just liked Roger’s voice, and she wasn’t really paying attention to what he did or how he fixed it. So we end up going for a week or more without a copier because Roger got rich.
These unwritten, undocumented processes can also lead to inconsistency, poor onboarding, and even reduced innovation. All of which ultimately harm quality, productivity, and growth. And all of this comes from locking expertise away or leaving it in the hands of one person instead of documenting it for everyone.
Vital leadership note:
From a leadership perspective, this isn’t just inconvenient. It limits scale. When critical work depends on individuals instead of systems, growth slows, risk increases, and execution becomes fragile. Tribal knowledge, unmanaged, becomes a structural liability.
So, what can be done? Obviously, having tribal knowledge is good for productivity and output. The inner knowledge of systems or workarounds that only a few know about does save money and time. So they can be seen as a positive. However, as in the case with Roger and the copier, if we put all that knowledge into one person, we’re one bus accident away from total chaos.
Capture That Information
The information that one or a few people hold within a company, this tribal knowledge, is unbelievably valuable. The wisdom of employees who have spent years with the company is more important to operations than most people realize. How things get done. Who does them best? Who not to bother. Who is open to helping? Who is out for themselves. Who will go the extra mile? How do we work around this problem? Does anyone know how to…
The value of this type of information is only truly seen when one of the gatekeepers of the tribal knowledge leaves or dies. Then we understand why and how things were done right. Not by the books, but right in the sense of more efficient, more control, and better outcomes.
That type of information can be kept by the few, the proud, the tribal, or, better yet, documented and saved.
The best way to keep all this information is to combine a structured process with collaborative digital tools. Think mentorships, documentation such as SOPs, or videos of interviews with the architects of tribal knowledge. It’s also important that you foster a culture that emphasizes sharing so it feels natural for a seasoned employee to tell new folks how to do things the quick, efficient, but not on-the-books way.
Be ready, because there could be a problem if you implement this sharing culture. Knowledge is power, and some employees might be hanging on to that power for dear life. Maybe Roger really likes being the only one who knows how to fix the copier. His ego gets a boost when someone says, “Roger, we need your magic touch.” Roger might not want to give that information up. You’ll have to deal with the Rogers of the world, small people who cling to anything that makes them feel powerful and purposeful.
Some ways to capture tribal knowledge for the good of the company include mentorship and job shadowing, documentation, interviews and workshops, video tools, and communities of practice.
Let’s Implement
Once you’ve decided to reduce reliance on tribal knowledge alone, you’ve got to figure out a way to implement the information.
Be patient. The people you’re extracting knowledge from might not even realize what they know. They may have done the workaround so long ago that it’s now procedural memory. Give them time. Walk through the steps. Document everything. This becomes gospel, so treat it carefully.
Also, be active. This requires time and resources. Don’t start and stop. Don’t hand it off to someone who isn’t busy for a day. Treat it as vital, because it is.
The Takeaway
At ThoughtLab, we spend a lot of time examining how organizations really function beneath the org charts and process maps. Tribal knowledge lives in that gap.
It isn’t something to eliminate. It’s evidence of people solving problems when systems fall short. But when leaders rely on it without capturing it, they trade short-term efficiency for long-term fragility.
The organizations that scale well don’t lose tribal knowledge. They respect it, document it, and design systems that allow it to live beyond any single person. Because eventually, Roger will leave. And when he does, the companies that planned for that moment will keep moving, while the others will still be standing around the copier, wondering how things ever worked at all.
