For years, companies have shaped their hiring and development strategies around two dominant employee models:
The T-Shaped Employee: Someone with deep expertise in one area but broad, shallow knowledge across multiple domains.
The V-Shaped Employee: An evolution of the T, where the employee possesses deep expertise in two complementary areas, creating more versatility.
At first glance, these models seem ideal. They balance specialization with some level of adaptability. But in today’s fast-changing business landscape, they reveal a critical flaw: they rely too much on individual expertise and don’t prioritize knowledge sharing.
What happens when your T or V-shaped expert leaves? What happens when knowledge is siloed within a few key individuals? What happens when one person becomes the only bottleneck between problem and solution?
Most companies unknowingly encourage knowledge hoarding—where employees hold onto information because they see it as job security. It’s an outdated mindset that makes teams fragile, creates bottlenecks, and slows down innovation.
Here’s the reality: An organization’s strength isn’t just in what people know. It’s in how well they share what they know.
This is why we need to move beyond T- and V-Shaped models. We need a mindset that prioritizes learning, sharing, and multiplying knowledge across an organization.
Enter the S-Shaped Mindset.
The S-Shaped Employee is the future of work. Instead of hoarding expertise, they master the art of learning, applying, and teaching, making knowledge accessible across an entire organization.
T-Shaped Model: Deep expertise in one area, but reliant on others for breadth.
V-Shaped Model: Dual expertise with versatility, but still focused on the individual.
S-Shaped Model: Knowledge is continuously learned, shared, and expanded, multiplying its value across the company.
It Creates Adaptive Teams – Instead of relying on a handful of experts, teams become self-sufficient and resilient.
It Reduces Single Points of Failure – No more "only one person knows this system" nightmares.
It Accelerates Learning & Innovation – Teaching others deepens understanding, leading to faster problem-solving and fresh ideas.
It Builds Future Leaders – Those who share knowledge naturally step into leadership roles.
Encourage a Culture of Teaching – Reward employees who document, teach, and mentor others.
Turn Experts into Multipliers – Instead of keeping knowledge siloed, experts should spread it.
Build Learning Loops – Implement processes where employees learn and immediately teach others (co-pilot models, mentorship programs, internal documentation).
Invest in Knowledge Artifacts – Capture institutional knowledge in a way that’s easily accessible (not buried in a forgotten email thread).
The workforce is evolving. The question isn’t if your company will adapt to this change—it’s when. Organizations that embrace the S-Shaped Mindset will be more agile, innovative, and future-proof than those clinging to outdated models.
The companies that win won’t just be the ones with the smartest employees. They’ll be the ones with employees who make others smarter.