Urgent pressure to downsize or re-organize quickly often results in worry about throwing the baby out with the bathwater, an unhelpful metaphor that distracts us from the real task in hand: skilfully pruning a living organism. For sure there may be dead wood that can be thinned from the tree of organizational knowledge without risking long-term damage. But rash action with a chain-saw can take many years to repair, or might accelerate eventually fatal decline, so careful planning and time are needed to avoid vital knowledge and skills being lost to the organization. 
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