How much do people value learning new things, compared to how much they feel the need to protect what they already know?
Since organizational culture is the result of individual behaviour, I’ll explain it in individual terms. The idea is simple, knowers tend to shut down ideas, while learners are more open and seek out contrary knowledge to increase clarity or their understanding of the whole picture.
Clearly, it can be beneficial for an organization to develop a learning culture, as it becomes a significant enabling factor for onboarding and ongoing support, but it may be more challenging depending on the structure of the organization.
Knower cultures tend to have similar traits that create or reinforce gatekeeping behaviors:
▶ Incentivization to gatekeep through rewards or recognition, for example chasing billable hours, competitive schemes, or the need for people to “keep busy” doing their specialized tasks
▶ Highly specialized or professionalized industries especially tend to foster knowledge hoarding, knowledge sharing can be seen as a threat to experts’ status
▶ Risk-averse management sends top-down signals that “we don’t try new things”, instilling a shut it down before it starts mentality
▶ Low-autonomy environments, with high bureaucracy, or workplaces with rigidly standardized procedures signal to people to shut things down fast because it will be too much work to change
The takeaway is, don’t underestimate how much work it will be to launch your new program in a culture that leans heavily toward the “knower” end of the spectrum, you will need to be thinking very strategically long term and planning for how you will overcome all of these areas of resistance from the start for any kind of behavioural intervention.
Developing a strategic knowledge management plan will help, with integrated change management, communication, and training supports. Be sure to factor in all of these costs and resources in your budget to increase the likelihood of success.
