Most organisations don’t shut down curiosity on purpose. They do it by accident.

Curiosity and experimentation are often talked about as personal traits - and I do believe they are! - but they are also heavily shaped by the systems people work within.

Over time, many organisations unintentionally train curiosity out of their workforce. It usually looks like this: 

• Constant urgency leaves no time to reflect or explore 

• Mistakes are penalised rather than examined 

• Learning focuses on right answers, not better questions 

• Compliance is prioritised over capability 

• Workloads crowd out experimentation 

Google’s Project Aristotle famously found that psychological safety is the strongest predictor of high-performing teams. Without safety, people don’t ask questions, they don’t test ideas, and they don’t experiment. 

Learning design plays a quiet but powerful role here. 

When learning: 

• Rewards certainty over exploration 

• Separates learning from real work 

• Leaves no room for practice or reflection 

…it reinforces risk-avoidance. 

When learning: 

• Encourages discussion and experimentation 

• Normalises not knowing 

• Builds in practice and reflection 

…it sends a very different message. 

Curiosity doesn’t disappear at work. It responds to the environment it’s placed in. 

Jen