My phone wasn’t working, so I got in touch with my phone-line provider. Two technicians came to my house expecting to fix my line, but they worked for more than an hour until they admitted they had no idea how to correct the problem. These technicians were maybe 25 years old. I heard one of them say, “Let’s call Hank.”

“Who’s Hank?” I asked.

“Hank knows everything about phone lines because he’s worked here for over 35 years, and he’s gonna retire this year,” said one of the technicians.

Hank described the problem and the solution to the technicians, and my phone line was repaired shortly thereafter. “We’re kinda nervous about our job when Hank retires because we don’t know as much as he does,” said the technicians. This happened in 2009.

Where was your lean/quality focus in 2009 during the economic downturn? Did you witness your organization doing little to retain its tribal knowledge from people like Hank, only to end up with a skills gap in 2015?

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