What's the biggest barrier to curiosity in the workplace?

Last week, we posted a poll on LinkedIn and asked: What’s the biggest barrier to curiosity in your workplace?

Thank you to everyone who voted. Here’s what stood out from the poll:

📌 Lack of time topped the list. This speaks volumes about how urgency often trumps reflection - and how easily curiosity gets deprioritised.

📌 Siloed teams came in second. When collaboration is limited, so is the cross-pollination of ideas that fuels curiosity.

This confirmed something we see often in learning design - when curiosity isn’t actively nurtured, it doesn’t vanish, it just goes underground.

So what can we do?

Here are 3 ways to start making curiosity visible, valued and viable at work:

✔️ Normalise not knowing. Celebrate questions and first attempts as much as answers or solutions.

✔️ Make space for exploration. Carve out time to think, reflect, and learn without needing to ‘produce’ something.

✔️ Lead with curiosity yourself. Model it in your meetings, decision-making, and feedback.

Curiosity isn’t soft. It’s strategic.

If we want innovation, engagement and resilience, we need to make it part of how we learn and how we lead.

Recent Posts