Career Tip: Building on Others’ Ideas
Business June 10th, 2010
Career progress and performance is an important area in life and through my experience in striving to improve my performance I’ve learned to find many ways to perform well in my career. It’s not been without its share of hard work though! And as a manager, I also have insight and perspective from the other side of expectations and performance improvements and so these career tips come from that mix of experience and from my own study and practice in my career. Please comment below if you have related experience or any stories where you have used this tip!
Building on Others’ Ideas
Ideas are an important aspect of change and change is what drives any organization closer and closer towards excellence. If ideas are not used to feed the company’s progress, then growth will typically halt. However, ideas need to be shared in a way that reinforces that ideas culture, not destroys it. Ideas are often very personal and the reaction to an idea can easily have a lasting impact that influences future behavior quite strongly.
When an idea is presented some people criticize that idea and others ignore it and come up with another idea or change it. Saying something as simple as, “Here’s a better idea, blah blah blah” is very common but in actuality, it is harsh criticism about the original idea and a way to claim the new idea selfishly. It is subtle but very destructive. This tip is to change your working and approach when it comes to ideas and that is to always build on others’ ideas instead of criticizing or replacing them. Changing your response to, “That is a great idea AND we could add this or do that also” is an easy way to build on others’ ideas. Supporting people’s ideas instead of judging them is important to promote cooperation and collaboration to work together instead of against each other.
Replacing ideas or criticizing them builds competition and quickly has people learning that when they share their ideas, they are criticized, which leads quickly to people NOT sharing their ideas anymore. This is the last thing you want for any organization and its especially not something you want for your own reputation either. So, support others and their ideas and build on them, adding value and leaving them the credit instead of looking to take it or replace their idea with your own.
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Mike King
June 11th, 2010 at 9:34 AM
Hey Mike,
Great points here. Building on ideas is a critical aspect of innovation and evolution. I think you’re so right that people’s ideas become very personal, as if the individual that presents it somehow “owns” it. It’s one of the aspects of business that I find personally distasteful. It’s true that some ideas are completely original, but in many more instances, ideas that we consider “our own” have been thought up and done dozens of times over.
As such, I think it’s a benefit for each of us to strive to not feel that we are the owners of ideas.. it’s kind of a practice in humility. That’s not to say that we should ever limit our creativity!
Dave
June 11th, 2010 at 8:36 PM
Thanks Dave and yes, you are absolutely right about this being practice of humility. it also goes to show just how little recognition most people do actually get that even an idea is something they strive to be recognized for. Its just an idea, everyone should have many of them each week if they are truly engaged in their work. Anyway, from both sides of this discussion, building on an idea is valuable and it is humbling doing so, which I certainly agree with as well!
June 16th, 2010 at 10:33 PM
Hi Mike,
Have you ever heard of “The Practice of Creativity” by George M. Prince? It is an older book but a great read if you can get your hands on a copy. It describes a process he calls Synectics, a problem solving methodology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synectics
It provides a framework for developing budding ideas into action without all the ego-attachment that normally goes along with typical corporate meetings. The method prevents the very criticism you describe. Well worth your time to look into. Cheers!
Bert
June 18th, 2010 at 1:20 AM
Hey thanks Bert, I have heard that book referenced before in other readings so is definitely one I need to get my hands on. Never knew specifically about it though so thanks for pointing it out to me as a recommendation and for the link to Synectics. Very interesting! I could definitely make use of this in my innovative product development work. Thanks!