Principlev1

Assign explicit ownership to operational knowledge to

Assign explicit ownership to operational knowledge to maintain currency, as unowned documentation degrades into misinformation.

Why This Is a Principle

Derives from Exponential Information Decay (information decays exponentially without rehearsal) and Knowledge that exists only in tacit form degrades without (tacit knowledge degrades without detection). The principle prescribes a specific organizational design choice - ownership assignment - that addresses the decay problem identified by these axioms.

Source Lessons

L-1691

Organizational knowledge management

Systems for capturing, storing, and distributing organizational knowledge. Every organization generates knowledge — through its projects, its experiments, its mistakes, its customer interactions, and its daily operations. Most of this knowledge lives in the heads of individual employees and walks out the door when they leave. Organizational knowledge management is the infrastructure that captures this knowledge, stores it in accessible forms, and distributes it to the people who need it. In self-directing organizations, knowledge management is especially critical: when decisions are distributed, every decision-maker needs access to the organization's accumulated knowledge — not just their own experience.

Connections

Derived From (2)

AxiomExponential Information Decay AxiomKnowledge that exists only in tacit form degrades without

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