The bus number
Every organization has one: the person whose departure would halt a process, lose a client, or void knowledge. When the bus number is low, the risk isn’t on the spreadsheet — it is in the org chart.
How dependency forms
Never through malice. A capable person solves a problem quickly; others route around learning; the capable person, flattered, keeps solving. Within a year the process only exists in their head.
De-risking is behavioral
Documentation alone won’t fix it. The pattern that created the dependency — heroism rewarded, learning optional — must be addressed, or the document goes stale the day it is written.
The One Action: Ask each process owner: if you left tomorrow, what breaks in week one? That is your dependency map.