Businesses would not dream of operating without insurance; what if someone gets hurt? What if there is a fire? What if there is earthquake damage or a meteor falls from space and lands on your facility? What if someone embezzles or steals confidential information? We need protection against these risks – but what about a much more common risk, the loss of key players?

Knowledge transfer is one of the trickiest aspects of guarding against the loss of team members. In a project setting, people often become isolated. It’s not uncommon to be sitting and working next to someone on a regular basis and have absolutely no idea what he/she’s doing. The first step then is to create a communication strategy.

We might begin with meetings that are designed to help people understand what other various team members are doing. This way, they get a high-level look at what they’re doing, and what other teams are doing. They know how they’re progressing and what their deliverables are. Through this simple, routine communication, you have a lot of knowledge transfer occur organically.

Other techniques we can use:

• Lunch and learns. An individual may lead a talk about what he/she is doing, and what activities, skills, and knowledge are critical to his/her role.
• Webinars and online training programs. These can be used to facilitate a basic knowledge of skills and activities within the organization.

It really depends on the organization and what will work best to facilitate that knowledge transfer. Regardless, though, it is important to have a mitigation strategy, a Plan B. You want to ask yourself – before you lose team members:

• Who are the key players?
• What knowledge is in short supply?
• How do I transfer that knowledge to another individual or to the group?
• Who can fill in if needed in the short term? Who can take over in the long-term?

You have to understand who these people are and plan a mitigation strategy around them. When they are gone is a terrible time to find out how much people really contributed. Many times, when a specific area of knowledge is already in short supply, the organization already knows who they can turn to for help. For instance, they may have had someone fill in that role or perform a similar function in the past. They’re prepared at a high level for the eventuality of losing a key member.

BLTC also has a “bucket of resources” that we can reach into. If we need a person with technical expertise, a coding expert, or another specialized skill, we have a list of potential replacements. The benefit is that we can call on them on short notice and with minimum disruption to the team. The turnaround is very fast.

We address IT risks, financial risks, environmental risks…but we also have to consider people risks. Often, it’s not just the technical knowledge that we need to fill in. It is knowledge of the company, the processes, existing systems, and other aspects of team and organizational life. Are you prepared to move on with projects and initiatives even when you lose a key player?