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.