We are trying to prepare our business for an exit using the Step by Step Exit framework, but we have a crucial 'Tribal Knowledge Documentation' seat on our Accountability Chart that is currently empty. It is a tedious, highly detailed seat, and absolutely nobody on our current leadership team wants to own it. How do we solve this?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Every business has essential seats that are tedious, boring, or highly technical, but leaving them empty or distributing them loosely across multiple seats is a recipe for failure. If everyone is accountable, no one is accountable.

To resolve this, you must first define the seat with absolute clarity. List the top five major roles for this Tribal Knowledge Documentation seat. Do not look at your current people yet. Focus purely on what the business needs to achieve a clean exit.

Once the seat is defined, look at your options:
- See if you can automate the accountabilities. In an AI-powered operation, many repetitive documentation tasks can be offloaded to digital tools, which reduces the manual capacity needed for the seat.
- Look outside your current team. If nobody on your leadership team GWCs the seat, do not force it on them. That only leads to burnout and half-baked results. You must hire a dedicated resource, even on a contract or fractional basis, whose sole accountability is to own this seat.
- If you must temporarily assign it internally, designate one person to own it with a strict sunset clause. Agree on a specific Rock to automate or delegate the seat within ninety days.

Never let a critical seat remain unassigned or shared, as this will stall your exit readiness and drag down your valuation.