TomLaForce.com

There comes a point in a meeting when the boss or meeting leader says, “So who has an idea?”  This question is often met with silence which is followed by frustration that nobody is speaking up.

If you’re like me, I used to wonder how it could be that there weren’t any ideas around the table.  Then I realized I was making a big assumption.  Just because nobody was sharing ideas didn’t mean there were no ideas.  It just meant that people weren’t willing to open their mouths.

Why wouldn’t somebody with an idea want to share it?  There are several viable explanations.

1.  The person has learned that opening your mouth means opening yourself up to ridicule.  Ideas are personal.  Egos are involved.  If the group shoots down the idea, it feels like they are shooting down the person who offered it.

2.  We have a tendency to ask the person who offers the idea to run with it.  This does make some sense in that the idea owner probably has energy for seeing it implemented.  The problem is that most people are about as busy as they want to be.

3.  The person fears that the group may agree to the suggestion, but if later something goes wrong, they’ll come back to blame the idea originator.  This concern prevents ideas from surfacing unless they are absolute sure shots.  And how often does that happen?

4.  Finally, there may be some reluctance to give up control of the idea.  When the idea is in my head, it’s totally mine.  Say it out loud, and now the group owns it and may choose to do all kinds of things with it that don’t fit what I had in mind.

If you want more ideas in your meetings, you’ll need to find ways to deal with the four problems listed above.  Take care of these, and hear the ideas begin to flow.