In order to transcend a reductive conception of skills management, where design focuses on the evaluation of the sum of individual learning, the development of organizational adaptative capacities was considered as an organizational learning process. The construction of a cyclical pattern for the dynamic of organizational learning provides a framework for the operationalization of the first of its four phases, including the distribution of competencies held by an organization?s members. The aim is to describe and quantify the risk of loss of skills and to locate the expertise held in relation to the organization?s structural entities and the activities it implements. By defining the concept of criticism, it becomes possible to characterize the expertise held according to five factors of criticality: number of holders, frequency of implementation skills, autonomy of holders, formalization of skills, and age of holders. The analysis of the influence of these factors requires the prior creation of a database that identifies the skills attained and their associated characteristics: this enables the study of their criticality levels and of co-occurrences of critical factors. The study was conducted in an industrial pipe laying company that employs about 149?operators in thirteen services. It has helped to distinguish services that are characterized by a massive risk of loss of skills as well as those services characterized by difficulties in developing the expertise held, and services characterized by both these types of risk (called ?blended services?). Our results highlight the need to decentralize the human resources function through the commitment of service heads or foremen to the acquisition of management skills. The study also highlights the importance of redefining modalities of skills assessment in terms of individual, collective or organizational learning levels.