Tribal Knowledge: Why It Matters, and How to Capture It Without Slowing People Down
In every organization, there are people who just know how things work. They've learned through experience, trial and error, and countless real-world situations. Their knowledge isn't in any manual—but it's what keeps operations running smoothly.
That's tribal knowledge. While incredibly valuable, it's also vulnerable. It exists in people's heads, gets shared in quick conversations, and risks vanishing when team members leave, retire, or change roles.
For growing organizations with distributed teams, capturing tribal knowledge isn't optional—it's critical for consistency, efficient onboarding, and sustainable growth. But here's the challenge:
The people with this knowledge are usually too busy doing their jobs to document it.
What Is Tribal Knowledge?
Tribal knowledge is the practical, experience-based expertise that doesn't live in official documentation. Examples include:
The specific sequence to restart a temperamental system
Which vendor contact actually gets things done quickly
Why certain processes evolved beyond the written procedure
Warning signs that indicate common problems before they escalate
Shortcuts that save hours but aren't in any training manual
This knowledge is informal, undocumented, and typically known by only a handful of people.
Why Tribal Knowledge Disappears
Organizations don't lose tribal knowledge due to negligence—they lose it because knowledge holders are too valuable in their day-to-day roles to step away and document everything.
These essential team members are:
Responding to urgent issues
Training new hires on the fly
Making judgment calls that no process manual covers
Working in environments where stopping to write isn't practical
They're doers, not technical writers. Many aren't even desk-based workers. That's why knowledge capture must be effortless, quick, and integrated into existing workflows.
The Living Document Solution: Knowledge That Updates Itself
Rather than forcing busy experts to learn new systems, consider this streamlined approach:
Knowledge holders create simple Google Docs—using tools they already know
Documents live in organized Drive folders (like "Operations Tips" or "Customer Service Insights")
Your intranet automatically displays these folders on relevant pages
No manual updates needed—when someone edits the Doc, the intranet reflects changes instantly
This is the living document approach, and it's exactly how Steegle.One transforms Google Workspace into a powerful knowledge-sharing platform.
Why This Approach Works
Minimal effort for experts: No new tools to learn or complex publishing workflows—just create a Doc like they normally would.
Always current: Edit once in Google Docs, and the latest version appears everywhere automatically.
Smart security: Visibility follows Google Drive permissions. Teams see what's relevant to them based on their existing access levels.
Zero context switching: Everything works within Google Workspace, so there's no jumping between different systems or logins.
Instant accessibility: With Steegle.One, finding the right document is as simple as searching your familiar Google environment—but with the organized structure of a proper intranet.
Making Knowledge Capture Realistic
You don't need to document everything perfectly. Often, preserving tribal knowledge just requires:
A shared folder with a clear name
Quick bullet points in a Google Doc
An intranet that surfaces these resources when people need them
Steegle.One makes this effortless. It's designed specifically for Google Workspace users who want the benefits of a sophisticated intranet without the complexity. Your team can focus on sharing knowledge, not learning new systems.
The Bottom Line
Tribal knowledge is too valuable to lose—but you won't preserve it by adding more tools or administrative burden to your busiest people.
The solution is meeting people where they already work and making their expertise easy to capture, share, and discover. Sometimes the best documentation is just a well-organized Google Doc. And the best intranet is one that enhances your existing Google Workspace without getting in the way.
Ready to turn your Google Workspace into a knowledge-sharing powerhouse? Steegle.One makes it happen in minutes, not months—because when logging in and finding information is effortless, knowledge sharing becomes natural.
