By asking while people are still there, about concrete episodes, and not in an exit interview. Someone already on the way out has little incentive to go into detail, and tacit knowledge isn’t reachable through generic questions.
Why does a concrete episode work better than an open question?
Because nobody can list what they know, but everybody can recount what happened last Tuesday. The judgment shows up inside the episode, without needing to be stated.
Doesn’t this cause panic in the team?
It does, if it’s announced as preparation for cuts. That’s why the scope is declared, anonymity is architectural, and the communication comes from the company — never from Zthex. And we decline any scope whose purpose is to justify cuts.
How far in advance is early enough?
Before the decision is public. After that, what gets captured is perception about the decision, not the operational judgment you wanted to preserve.
Documenting tacit knowledge on request doesn’t work — the literature is clear. Asking about episodes works, because the person doesn’t need to know they know in order to say what they did.