---
id: "concept-multiplier-behavior"
type: "concept"
source_timestamps: ["§ What Leaders Can Do"]
tags: ["leadership", "performance-metrics", "incentives"]
related: ["action-reward-reusable-workflows", "concept-suppression-of-solutions"]
definition: "The act of sharing knowledge, workflows, or tools that elevate the productivity of peers, which organizations must explicitly reward to overcome knowledge hoarding."
sources: ["execution"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-execution"
originDay: 8
articleStem: "hbr-cl-76-employees-not-transparent-ai-usage"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/why-employees-arent-transparent-about-their-ai-usage"
sourceTitle: "Why Employees Aren’t Transparent About Their AI Usage"
---
# Multiplier Behavior

Actions taken by an employee that elevate the productivity and capabilities of their *peers* — such as sharing highly effective AI prompt sequences or reusable workflows.

The authors argue organizations must shift from rewarding **individual** AI productivity (which encourages hoarding and fuels [[concept-suppression-of-solutions]]) to explicitly rewarding **multiplier behavior**. Concretely, this means recognizing and compensating employees whose documented workflows are adopted by others — transforming them from individuals 'donating their advantage' into recognized organizational multipliers.

This is operationalized in [[action-reward-reusable-workflows]] (performance-review credit, protected experimentation time, a share of downstream gains, and closing the loop by telling creators where their work was used). It is the third of the five [[framework-leadership-commitments-for-disclosure]].