113. Engineering Heritage: Transforming Departing Expertise into Operational Capability

Operators with 30 years of pattern recognition leave for competitors. Engineers carrying legacy system intelligence depart. Everyone understands the risk. Few solve the execution: Systematically extracting tacit intelligence that experts can't articulate because it operates below the conscious threshold.

Dr. Refiloe Mabaso and Wisdom Ndashe architected what many struggle to build - knowledge-capture systems that function independently of voluntary participation. At ATNS, harvesting is mandated by policy and embedded in workflows. Their "Legends and Beneficiaries" program identifies critical expertise five years before departure, mapping tacit intelligence to next-generation operators through structured protocols.

The execution breakthrough: embedding capture into SOPs makes retention automatic. Travel with Purpose demonstrates strategic reach - converting unaccounted expenditures into documented intelligence acquisition with measurable ROI. Cost centers become intelligence operations.

Paradigm Shifts:

📌 Policy-Mandated > Voluntary: Board-level reporting makes knowledge infrastructure non-negotiable. Embedding capture in SOPs makes participation a requirement.

📌 Five-Year Windows: Identify critical expertise years before departure. Tacit knowledge requires time to extract through storytelling and observation.

📌 Workflow Embedding: Built into inductions, reviews, and meetings. Automatic retention scales independently of KM capacity.

📌 SLAs + Metrics: Department-specific dashboards eliminate generic buy-in. Performance metrics make KM measurable and competitive.

Operational Impact:

📌 Integration Architecture: FAQs mapped to SMEs. Lessons learned feed dashboards. Domain validation. Systems inform each other, intelligence compounds.

📌 Risk-Based Focus: Stakeholder engagement identifies highest-impact domains - concentrating resources where loss matters most.

📌 Knowledge-to-Operations: Expertise flows into training curriculum, OJTI programs, technical manuals - not static repositories.

📌 Travel Intelligence: TWIP transforms unaccounted budgets into strategic acquisitions with documented ROI - proving value to leadership.

Strategic Reframe:

Organizations recognize the risk of knowledge loss. Few execute systematic knowledge capture at scale. The differentiator: architecture making harvesting automatic through workflow embedding, policy mandates, and integrated systems that compound intelligence. Five-year windows + department SLAs + competitive metrics = self-sustaining infrastructure.

Guests:

Dr. Refiloe Mabaso, PhD, Head of Information and Knowledge Management, ATNS

Wisdom Mcebo Ndashe, Knowledge and Content Management Specialist, ATNS

Host: Dyan Finkhousen, Founder & CEO, Shoshin Works

Series Hosts:

Vikram Shyam, Founder, Vik Strategic Solutions

Dyan Finkhousen, Founder & CEO, Shoshin Works

Ecosystemic Futures is the Shoshin Works foresight series with NASA heritage.

Futures, Foresight, Technology, Industry, Society, Policy