Department heads carry context for several teams at once. Keep it manageable with four habits: a shared decision log, a weekly view of new decisions and commitments, a quarterly map of single experts, and a standard handover whenever someone moves. The goal is that your department's memory does not depend on you, or on any one person.
Habit 1: Decisions in one place
Ask each team to log decisions with reasons. Review weekly. Answer "why?" questions with links. See why teams keep rediscussing decisions.
Habit 2: A weekly view
| Section | Question |
|---|---|
| Decisions | What was decided this week? |
| Commitments | What is due or overdue? |
| Risks | What new risks were raised? |
| People | Who is joining, leaving or moving? |
| Attention | What needs me? |
Habit 3: Map single experts quarterly
See key-person risk and the bus factor.
Habit 4: Standard handovers
Every move gets a handover, even internal ones (project handover checklist).
Where Reattend fits
On the Business plan, Reattend's dashboard gives a department head a control room scoped to their department, a daily digest, a one-page board pack to save as a PDF, and the topics only one person holds. Organization admins and Leadership also get same-day alerts. It is built from the organization's memory under access rules, with counts by team, never scores for individuals.
Frequently asked questions
How can a department head keep track of decisions across teams?
Ask each team to keep a short decision log, review new entries weekly, and make decisions findable by question rather than by folder.
How do I know which people are single points of knowledge?
Map critical topics to the people who understand them. Any topic with one name is a risk. Review the map each quarter.
What should a weekly leadership view include?
New decisions, commitments due or overdue, risks raised, people changes and topics needing attention.