ThemeOperations & Process
CardCard 44 of 66
Questions5 to explore

Locations

Managing offices, stores & factories

Physical locations carry a surprising amount of operational knowledge, and that knowledge rarely survives in one place.

Offices, studios, stores, and factories each have their own logistics: leases, contacts, access, services, equipment, maintenance routines, and the informal knowledge of how things actually work in that space. When the people who know it well leave, or when the organization needs to open a new location, that knowledge proves harder to find than expected.

For organizations with a single location, the documentation task is still worth doing: who has keys, who the landlord is, when leases expire, what service providers to call when something breaks. These things feel obvious until they are needed urgently by someone who does not know them.

For multi-location organizations, the challenge scales: each location has its own configuration, and the differences between them need to be captured as deliberately as the similarities.

What to capture

For this part of the company brain, what is worth writing down and keeping current. The goal is not a complete archive but a living record that new people can read and returning people can trust.

Location register

A list of all current locations, their purpose, lease terms or ownership status, and the key contact for each.

Access & facilities

Who has access and how, where utilities and critical equipment are managed, and the contacts for maintenance and emergency services.

Service providers

Cleaning, security, IT infrastructure, and other services tied to each location, with contacts and contract terms.

Lease & compliance dates

Key dates for lease renewals, inspections, certifications, or any compliance requirements tied to the physical space.

Questions to explore

Use these on your own or in a group. There are no right answers, only better conversations.

Who holds keys, access codes, or administrative responsibility for each location, and is that documented?
When did the leases or ownership arrangements start, when do they expire or come up for review, and who tracks those dates?
What service providers are tied to each location and what are the contact and escalation details for each?
What operational knowledge about a location lives only in the head of one person, and how would that person share it if they left tomorrow?
Are there compliance or inspection requirements for any locations, and where is the schedule and documentation for those?

Things to notice

Lease expiry dates and contract renewal windows are exactly the kind of thing that gets missed when the person who managed them leaves; they need to be in a shared calendar or task system, not just someone's memory.
Access control information such as codes, keys, and admin logins is sensitive; it needs to be documented, but in a place with appropriate access controls, not an open shared drive.
Location documentation often reflects the setup at opening and is never updated; the document that says the fire extinguisher is in one place and the extinguisher is actually somewhere else creates a real problem.