Strategem

Tacit knowledge capture

Turn expert judgment into a model other people can use.

The process works until an unusual case appears. Then everyone asks the same expert, because the document explains the steps but not what that person notices.

Discuss the decision that keeps coming back

We use the call to look at one decision that keeps returning to the expert. We do not build a free model on the call.

Routine documentation with an exception path that depends on expert judgment The normal documented path stops at an exception and returns to the expert until the Exception Map shows what to notice, what to do, and when to ask for help. THE NORMAL PATH SOP step SOP step Exception NOW WHAT? Ask the expert again EXPERT LOOP EXCEPTION MAP Signs + choices Act or escalate WITH REASON
The Exception Map starts where the SOP stops. It shows what to notice, what to do next, and when the expert still needs to step in.

Short answer

Useful knowledge transfer goes beyond writing down the steps. Strategem draws how the expert reads the situation, handles the common exceptions, and decides when somebody else can act or should ask for help.

What keeps happening

The documented path ends exactly where judgment begins.

Routine cases move through the process. An exception creates calls, messages, and another review because only one person knows which clue matters.

What you see

The same difficult cases keep coming back

The team can follow the steps. They get stuck when two signs point in different directions, a number sits close to the limit, or the case looks like two things at once.

What happens next

The expert becomes the queue

Senior people keep answering versions of the same question. Everyone else waits and still does not know which cases they should handle themselves.

Why the usual fix fails

The SOP records the normal case. The hard part starts when normal stops.

  • An SOP can name the next normal step without showing how the expert weighs two conflicting signs.
  • A transcript tells you what the expert said in one case. You still have to guess what they noticed and why it mattered.
  • A knowledge base answers known questions, but the line between acting and asking for help stays buried across many examples.

We draw the Exception Map

We work through real cases with the expert and ask what they noticed, what changed their mind, and where they would stop. Then we draw the part of that judgment other people can actually use.

Industrial equipment manufacturer

The owner's sales process became three decisions the team could see.

At an industrial equipment manufacturer, the whole sales process was still the owner's responsibility. The team could support him, but the important calls and choices kept returning to the same person.

We separated the owner's sales process into three decisions. During Opening, someone contacted the enquiry and decided whether another conversation made sense. During Setting, the team worked out what the buyer needed and whether the fit was there. Only qualified buyers reached Closing.

Opening → Setting → Closing

Difficult or unusual calls could still need the owner. But the team could now see what to handle before they brought him in.

The owner's judgment as three visible decisions, the finished model from this client work Three stacked decision cards show the question at each stage: whether another conversation makes sense, what the buyer needs and whether the fit is there, then offer and decision. Unusual calls route to the owner. THREE DECISIONS THE TEAM CAN SEE OPENING Does another conversation make sense? SETTING What does the buyer need? Is the fit there? CLOSING Offer and decision ONLY QUALIFIED BUYERS REACH IT Unusual calls still go to the owner
The owner's judgment as three visible decisions. From the client work described above. Details simplified and anonymized.

Is this your situation?

The normal process is clear. The same exceptions still need the expert.

Worth discussing

A repeated decision still depends on experience

  • Routine steps already exist in documents or training.
  • The same few exceptions repeatedly return to senior people.
  • The expert can work through real cases and explain what they noticed.

Probably not a fit

The work has no repeatable decision to examine

  • You want to document every part of a person's experience at once.
  • There are no cases, examples, or people available for testing.
  • The work needs absolute certainty and an expert must review every case.

How the work starts

Start with the case that keeps returning to the expert.

One repeated decision gives us something real to draw and test.

  1. Bring the explanation that keeps breaking
  2. Find where people lose the thread
  3. Draw the model
  4. Try it on a real case

Questions

What the team can use, and what should stay with the expert.

What kind of tacit knowledge can Strategem capture?

Start with a decision that keeps returning to the same expert. The normal steps may already be documented, but unusual cases, close calls, and exceptions still depend on what that person notices.

How is this different from writing an SOP?

An SOP records the normal steps. A visual model can show what the expert notices when the normal path stops working, how they tell one exception from another, and what they do next.

Does a visual model replace the expert?

No. Some difficult, new, or high-risk cases should still go to the expert. The model helps other people handle the repeated situations that can be explained and tested safely.

How do you know whether the model works?

Give the model to the people who need to use it and test it on real cases. Can they spot the exception, explain what matters, choose the next move, and know when to call the expert?

How long does the work take?

Two workshops. The first is diagnosis: the problem, the customer, the stakeholders and how each of them has to be spoken to. Between them we draft the messaging and build candidate models. The second fuses the model into how you actually sell. You then use it in the field, and we meet again about three weeks after handover to correct whatever real conversations exposed. Nothing counts as finished until the model has worked in the setting where the explanation was failing.

What does it cost?

The price depends on who is buying, because a committee sale and an expert-led sale are not the same job. For a multi-person B2B company with committee buying, the opening workshop is €5.000 and a full engagement starts at €15.000. For a smaller or expert-led company, the workshop is €1.500 and the full engagement is €5.000. The price is fixed before we start, iteration until the agreed acceptance test passes is included, and if we stop early you pay only for the phases that finished. No day rates and no open end.

Who does the work?

Strategem was founded by Dr. Fritz Hermann, who holds a PhD in organizational psychology and spent a decade as a CMO, with work across banks, insurers and Premier League clubs. The extraction runs as structured interviews on your own real cases, won, lost and difficult, using grounded qualitative method from that background. We draw while we listen.

Introductory call

Bring the exception that keeps returning to the same person.

We'll look at the decision, what the expert notices, and whether there is a useful model to build.

Discuss the decision that keeps coming back