Unsticking the Stuck
How institutional knowledge can derail alignment
Eric von Hippel at MIT introduced the concept of "sticky information"—institutional knowledge that’s hard to share between individuals, teams, or departments. This type of knowledge is often specific to an organization’s habits and culture, and deeply connected to experience. It’s rarely written down in formal guides or manuals; instead, it’s embedded in an organization’s unwritten practices and behaviors.
Because this information is so context-dependent, transferring it takes time and effort. New hires or people switching roles usually need to observe, shadow, or learn through trial and error to absorb these insights, which can slow down collaboration and integration. It’s frustrating to be on either side of this divide and creates a weird insular culture.
As a company grows, some people may begin to hoard information to remain relevant to the larger organization and for status reasons. People may also resist sharing information or adopting new processes because they feel attached to their ways of working, often unconsciously. This can lead to "siloed" thinking, where teams hold onto knowledge out of habit or a lack of trust, making it hard for the organization to work as a unified whole.
This siloed way of working is a problem that can destroy a company and create misalignment across an organization.
The resistance to sharing or updating these ingrained practices becomes part of a company’s culture, though not intentionally. A lack of alignment can cause teams to diverge on goals and strategies. When different parts of the organization rely on their own methods without a common understanding, aligning everyone around shared objectives becomes challenging. Over time, this can lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. Without a structured way to identify, transfer, and evolve this sticky information, organizations risk ongoing misalignment, which limits innovation and overall effectiveness.
How do you fix it?
Create a knowledge repository: Forge creates templates for shared artifacts like user research, personas, and workflows. This shared knowledge base allows all team members to document key insights and best practices. Forge removes the burden of keeping your information accessible, organized, and easy to update.
Standardized documentation practices: Documentation should be part of every project phase to capture institutional knowledge as it’s created. Forge has scheduled reminders to regularly review and update documents to keep them relevant.
Set shared goals across departments: With Forge, everyone is working toward a single strategy, which makes it easy to view shared goals. This empowers each team to work toward the same organizational objectives. Each team understands their role in these goals and how it supports other teams.
Regularly review progress: Scheduled postmortems and check-ins are built in processes for organizational transparency. Stakeholders from different teams can track progress and adjust as needed to stay aligned.
Be the first to shape the future—join our early access list and get exclusive access to Forge!