As we prepare for a sale, we need to document all of our operational processes to eliminate key-person risk. Should we create a dedicated Knowledge Manager seat to get this done, or does this accountability belong inside our existing seats?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Do not create a dedicated Knowledge Manager seat to document your processes. When you assign process documentation to a single, isolated seat, the rest of your team stops caring about their own documentation. They assume it is someone else's job. This results in inaccurate, outdated manuals that fail to capture how the work actually gets done, which buyers will see through instantly during due diligence.

On your Accountability Chart, the responsibility for documenting and maintaining processes must live within the seats that actually execute those processes. Every seat must be accountable for capturing its own tribal knowledge.

To ensure this happens, use your Level 10 Meeting™ to set quarterly Rocks for process documentation. Your department heads must lead this effort, ensuring their teams document their core workflows. This distributed accountability guarantees that your operating manuals are practical, accurate, and lived by the people doing the work. When a buyer reviews your business, they want to see a self-documenting organization where every leader owns their systems, not a business dependent on a single librarian to explain how things work.