Someone knew, and it never reached the work. Context disappeared at a handoff. A lesson existed, but never reached the next team.
01WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
Someone knew something the work needed, but that knowledge never made it into the work. It may have been in a person’s head, a file, another team, or a tool. Loss is hard to spot because the missing information leaves no obvious trace.
02HOW TO OBSERVE IT
Start with a piece of work that went wrong, or simply came out weaker than it should have. Work backward and ask where useful knowledge stopped moving.
Trace one recent piece of work back through the people who touched it. Ask each one privately: "What did you know that the next person didn't?"
Compare what existed with what reached the decision: the documents, the people in the room, the customer feedback, and the lessons from last time.
Listen for the sentences: "I didn't know that was a factor," "I had a feeling, but there was nowhere to put it," and "We've been saying this for months."
03WHAT TO TRY
Most fixes for loss create a route for knowledge that currently has nowhere to go: a round that asks what only one person knows, a read-back at a handoff, a map of who knows what, or a written reason attached to a decision. Start with the point where useful knowledge most often disappears.
The patterns
Mark the ones you’ve seen in your own work. Open any card for the full picture — signs, how to observe it, and moves to try.
