Every IT department has one. That one person—let’s call him “Server Steve”—who knows everything about a critical system.
When the legacy CRM goes down, everyone panics and finds Steve. When the backup script fails, Steve is the only one who knows how to fix it. He’s a hero, a genius, the indispensable guru.
But Steve isn’t a hero. He’s a single point of failure. He’s a knowledge hoarder, and this reliance on him is a silent, creeping threat that is killing your IT team’s efficiency, morale, and resilience.
Knowledge hoarding—the practice of keeping critical information confined to one person or a small group—is one of the most dangerous and overlooked problems in IT. Let’s explore why it happens and how you can build a culture of sharing that protects your department from chaos.
Why Knowledge Hoarding is So Dangerous
Relying on a “Server Steve” feels fine when things are running smoothly. But the moment something goes wrong, the danger becomes real.
- The Bus Factor: This is a morbid but effective thought experiment. How many people on your team would need to be hit by a bus before your projects or systems grind to a halt? If the answer for any critical system is “one,” you have a massive problem.
- Expert Burnout: Steve might feel important, but he’s also perpetually on call. He can never take a real vacation. He’s constantly being interrupted with the same questions. This leads to burnout, resentment, and eventually, turnover—taking all that critical knowledge with him.
- Team Inefficiency: While Steve is fixing the problem, the rest of the team is sitting on their hands. They can’t learn or contribute to the solution, creating a permanent skills gap between the “guru” and everyone else. Resolutions are slower, and the team’s overall capability stagnates.
Why Does It Happen?
Knowledge hoarding is rarely malicious. It’s a natural outcome of a broken system.
- Lack of Time: IT pros are firefighters. They are so busy solving immediate problems that they never have time to stop and write down how they did it.
- No Easy Tools: If the only way to document something is in a clunky, hard-to-use system, no one will do it. The friction is too high.
- No Incentive: If documentation isn’t treated as a core part of the job—and if employees aren’t recognized or rewarded for it—there is no motivation to share knowledge.
How to Build a Culture of Sharing
Breaking down information silos requires a conscious cultural shift, supported by the right processes and tools.
1. Make Documentation Part of “Done” A project or a support ticket isn’t truly “done” until it’s documented. This needs to be a non-negotiable step in your workflow. For major incidents, this means filling out an Incident Response Report. For new processes, it means creating a quick how-to guide.
2. Start Small and Easy Don’t try to document everything at once. Start with the most frequent, repetitive questions your helpdesk receives. Every time a ticket is resolved for the second time, it should become a knowledge base article.
3. Provide the Right Tool This is the most critical step. Your team needs a centralized knowledge base that is fast, searchable, and incredibly easy to use. The easier it is to create and find information, the more likely your team is to use it.
A managed knowledge base like Kandbe can be the ultimate catalyst for this cultural shift. By providing a platform that is already filled with hundreds of useful, pre-written articles, it immediately demonstrates the value of a centralized knowledge source. It lowers the barrier to entry, showing the team how a useful KB looks and feels, and encourages them to add their own unique, internal knowledge alongside the professionally managed content.
You can’t force a culture change, but you can make sharing knowledge so easy and valuable that it becomes the natural way of working.
Ready to break down your information silos?
Kandbe provides the foundation for a culture of knowledge sharing, giving your team a tool they’ll actually want to use.