Our Head of Quality Assurance is an absolute culture fit and has been with us for five years, but as our production volume triples, he is failing the Capacity check for his seat. He possesses deep tribal knowledge about our proprietary manufacturing processes that is completely undocumented. How do we handle this Right Person, Wrong Seat call without risking our operational stability during the transition?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a highly sensitive operational risk. If you abruptly move or terminate this individual, you risk losing years of undocumented tribal knowledge, which could halt your production and damage your business value just as you are trying to scale. You must handle this transition systematically.

First, acknowledge that he is a Right Person because he fits your core values perfectly. However, he is in the Wrong Seat because the capacity demands of the scaling QA department have outgrown his personal limit. To resolve this, you need a transition period dedicated to knowledge transfer before you vacate his seat.

Make documenting his tribal knowledge his primary Rock for the quarter. Use simple video recordings or screen captures to document every step of his daily workflows, from QA testing protocols to vendor troubleshooting.

Once this knowledge is securely documented and accessible, use the Accountability Chart to transition him into a newly designed, highly valuable seat that fits his capacity, such as Senior Technical Advisor or Quality Process Auditor. This new seat will allow him to focus on what he does best without the burden of managing a scaling department. You can then hire a new Head of Quality Assurance who fully GWCs the capacity requirements of the seat, ensuring a seamless and risk-free transition.