The Excel matrix, and why it dies
Most maps start in a spreadsheet: people in rows, skills in columns, crosses. It is right the day it is made, then nobody updates it, because nothing ties it to real work.
The method in four moves
1. Start from processes, not job descriptions
Break the activity into processes and tasks. Each task calls on knowledge. That link is what keeps the map alive: when a task disappears, its knowledge loses relevance.
2. A short reference list, in your own words
Fifty to two hundred pieces of knowledge are enough for a site. An imported industry reference helps to start; yours is built by validating what people declare.
3. Mastery, assessed, from 0 to 5
5 means "can teach it". The assessment is the one piece of data the machine cannot invent, and it feeds everything else.
4. Criticality, computed
Availability (how many holders), transferability, confidentiality, usage, fit, historical importance: six criteria, adjustable weights, one score per piece of knowledge. The detail is published.
What the map then shows
- Single holders and rare knowledge, structure by structure.
- The five-year retirement wave and what it takes away.
- The real network of who consults whom, often different from the org chart.
- Untapped knowledge: what people already know, read from their CVs, that the organisation does not use.
Mapping in four languages
Interface and search in French, English, Spanish and Arabic, right-to-left included: one map shared between a head office and sites that do not speak the same language.
Connecting what already exists
The map also feeds on your documents: the intranet connector reads your pages, even without a sitemap, while the SharePoint and document management connectors read your libraries, all read-only. To build everything from a blank space: the order that works.