When Tribal Knowledge Stifles Growth
April 29, 2025
In many of the hundreds of companies we at Qorval have worked on, a frequent common denominator problem has been the overreliance on good old tribal knowledge. And for all of its institutional firewalling, its promise for always showering false pride on the “keeper of the tribal flame,” or what we call the BigMac, the consistent betting on this flame keeper has often put the company at risk, by choking new product/service roadmaps through a bunch of well placed potholes, and a lack of free flow of information that other people in the organization need to do their jobs – people who want to move the organization forward.
Who is the BigMac? Well, he or she is the “I’m kind of a big deal” in the organization, the MacGyver. He or she is the person you always have to go to to plead your case and get the information you need – information which is usually embargoed, or obfuscated – so you can move things forward.
The Big Mac is the one who holds up projects, holds up deadlines, and holds people – and management – hostage. Management which is often lulled unwittingly into celebrating this person’s elongated tenure – as if it’s a cornerstone of the building they operate in.
The Big Mac person will usually counsel you with 149 reasons how not to, or why not to, do something or make a change, and maybe bring one faint glimmer of a solution or a hope.
What we’ve often experienced, however, is that the Big Mac usually turns out to be more of MacGuffin – a plant, a plot device, a bit of a cliche – than a MacGyver. Sure they can fix a few things – but they also can break a few.
The problem with many legacy organizations is that they place disproportionately high value on tenure and years with the company, rather than constant innovation and development. Besides, if your company is stuck in the past, and you’re relying on a person who has never worked anywhere else, and things, well, aren’t going well – well, maybe there’s a glaring issue.
This is by no means a robust scientifically defensible metric, nor is it based on lots of rubric, but I can tell you having worked on 90ish companies in 40ish industries myself, that my general assessment on tribal knowledge is that at least 50% of Tribal Knowledge is BS.
For tribal man space was the uncontrollable mystery. For technological man it is time that occupies the same role. –Marshall McLuhan
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the guy (or gal) with 31 one-year experiences in one company has 31 years of experience. He’s usually the guy who will keep just enough close to the vest to ensure his survival in a changing ecosystem.
He or she is the under sink cockroach. They often do just enough to not get fired, get paid just little enough that they aren’t on the “let’s cut some salaries and shrink to greatness list” that comes around usually every time amateur boards, owners or senior managers are running the show.
I have seen some of the most “experienced” people – who have never worked anywhere else – make some of the most colossal errors in judgment, the biggest design fails, and the worst conceived products and service offerings.
Elephants have a hard time adapting but cockroaches outlive everything. – Peter Drucker
They are masters of hiding from the flashlight, and they know where to hide in the sink, under the sink, in the drains, in the walls.
Our job as turnaround experts and interim managers, and truly, diversified and experienced C-level practitioners, is to smoke them out. To find out what they know, and place a minimum confidence level on the accuracy and relevance of that information.
Nothing changes until something changes. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a roach or two, or wipe out the roach colony. It’s the only way to move the organization forward.
It’s important to put these tribal elders to the test and give them a chance to draw from those decades of experience to really dig in and create lightning in a bottle, and if they can’t, don’t or won’t, then be the exterminator.
Somebody else can guard the flame.
Or put it out.
Change is good.
Paul Fioravanti, MBA, MPA, CTP, is the CEO & Managing Partner of QORVAL Partners, LLC, a FL-based advisory firm (founded 1996 by Jim Malone, six-time Fortune 100/500 CEO) Qorval is a US-based turnaround, restructuring, business optimization and interim management firm. Fioravanti is a proven turnaround CEO with experience in more than 90 situations in more than 40 industries. He earned his MBA and MPA from the University of Rhode Island and completed advanced post-master’s research in finance and marketing at Bryant University. He is a Certified Turnaround Professional and member of the Turnaround Management Association, the Private Directors Association, Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Association of Merger & Acquisition Advisors (AM&MA), the American Bankruptcy Institute, and IMCUSA. Copyright 2024, Qorval Partners LLC and/or Paul Fioravanti, MBA, MPA, CTP.
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