The symptom
An activity depends on one person. The day they are away, the service stops.
The signal
Choose one essential piece of knowledge and pass it to a second person, in practice: have them do it themselves.
What’s going on
An indispensable person is a scheduled outage. They will get sick, go on leave, change roles. That day the service stops, and someone calls them on holiday.
Only one person knows how to do the month-end accounting close. She does it once with a colleague watching, then once letting him do it. Together they note the checks that are easy to forget. By the third month, he does it alone.
Practice first, writing second. A document alone is rarely enough. A demonstration, pairing, then a supported attempt do the job. An AI can turn the recording of the demonstration into a written guide; read it through together.
The person who knows is rarely indispensable by choice. Give them time to pass it on, and recognise that work.
Check this
Choose an activity that would stop if one person were missing. Find a willing relay and book two slots.
First slot: the relay watches. Second: they do it, and the person who knows watches. Note what was missing.
Then write the short guide together, and decide who keeps it up to date.
To discuss
Which activity would stop tomorrow if one person were missing?