Knowledge sharing is crucial for driving improvements in the workplace. Yet, it is often infrequent. If sharing knowledge is an easy and seemingly obvious behavior, why are our well-intentioned team members not practicing it?

When we take the time to ask individuals “the why,” we find that their mindset for adopting these behaviors is inconsistent with their worldview.

Getting “below the iceberg” to understand these beliefs requires asking the right questions to determine why they aren’t behaving a certain way, and developing solutions that address and fundamentally shift the limiting mindsets standing in their way.

Sample questions to uncover limiting mindsets:

• What are some situations where knowledge sharing should be happening more and it isn’t?

• What’s in it for you to share knowledge with others?

Common mindsets:

• I’m too busy to stop and share my knowledge with others (I can’t)

• My knowledge makes me an asset to the team (I won’t)

• I don’t have enough expertise to share knowledge (I’m not allowed)

When it comes to changing behaviors in the workplace, the more questions you ask the more action you see.

^{_{Source: McKinsey}}