Here’s a great time-saver for all of you leaders who are looking for innovative ideas from your team. Don’t bother listening to:
·     the quiet people
·     people who are new to the organization
·     lower-paid team members
·     lower-ranked team members
·     interns
·     introverts
These people never have good ideas. At least, that’s what you might conclude if you were a fly on the wall in a typical corporate team meeting.
If you were that fly, you’d be forgiven for concluding that the only ideas that matter are the ones that come from the loudest, highest-ranking men (and it’s almost always the men) at the meeting.
This next part may shock you. Because I’ve done the research, and try as I might, I’ve been unable to find ANY scientific correlation between vocal volume and intelligence.
In other words, the loudest people are not necessarily the smartest.
I know. Shocking.
I used to produce a comedy TV show. One time a guest canceled on the day of the show. We were scrambling, unsuccessfully, to find a substitute. At one point, my lowest-paid, lowest-ranked writer came up with some stupid idea involving himself and liquid nitrogen.
I, of course, blew him off because he was low-paid, low-ranked, and not nearly loud enough.
But eventually we ran out of options, and we were forced to use Bill Nye’s stupid idea.
And that’s the night that my lowest-paid writer became Bill Nye the Science Guy.
The truth, leaders, is that nobody has a monopoly on million-dollar ideas.
ShareAUG
2022
About the Author:
29-time Emmy Award winner and Hall of Fame keynote speaker Bill Stainton, CSP is an expert on Innovation, Creativity, and Breakthrough Thinking. He helps leaders and their teams come up with innovative solutions — on demand — to their most challenging problems.