Today I attended the funeral of credit union advocate Philip Elliott. Over a period of more than 30 years Philip promoted credit union ideals through trade associations and government lobbying for policy and legislative changes. Philip's passing at 62 was a shock to all.

A colleague commented to me that Philip was the person you went to when you wanted to know "why" a certain thing was done a particular way or how things in the organisation had occurred in the past.

Whilst it is always important to innovate, it is equally important to understand why existing systems were set up and to understand the historical context of an organisation. "Grey hairs" can be useful at times!

If you have a "go to" person in your organisation, try to retain some of his or her knowledge in a wiki, blog or other record to make sure your corporate memory is not lost if they leave suddenly.