Using Knowledge Management to Minimize the Costs of Departing Leaders

Institutional knowledge loss can take many forms, but one of its most common instances occurs when long-standing leaders and experts decide to step down and leave the organization. Departures arise as individuals look for new opportunities, retire, or as a result of organizational restructuring and downsizing. Regardless of the circumstance, the impact of these departures is predictable: individuals take their hard-earned knowledge with them. Lessons learned through years of experience within the organization, their know-how, and relationships forged from interacting with vendors, clients, and other stakeholders within and external to the organization are lost. For remaining staff, work becomes harder; and for remaining leaders, there is a loss in efficiency that impacts the bottomline.