What do Artificial Intelligence, employee retention and the Incan civilization have in common?
Tribes.
More specifically, tribal knowledge.
Losing an employee has material costs.
It also has hidden costs. One of which is tribal knowledge.
Things like supply-chain intricacies.
Non-formalized processes only experienced employees possess.
The things senior-staffers won’t be around to explain to younger employees.
The Incas lost generations of knowledge through war, famine, and the eventual destruction of their cities.
Wiped them out.
And the great resignation will do the same for a lot of businesses.
Smarter ones are using AI to automate processes and systems.
The brain drain won’t be so damaging if procedures are programmed in advance.
I spend a lot of time around the C-suite.
And when I hear the words ‘head count’ I share the story about the Incas.
Explaining the value of the tribal knowledge that is about to walk out the door.
Those who ignore history - or fail to document it - are doomed to repeat it.
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