How to Treat New Ideas

David Magellan Horth, Mitchell

• Publisher: Center for Creative Leadership Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781604917611
• eBook ISBN: 9781604917628
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

This Center for Creative Leadership® publication shows you the important steps you can take to become more self-aware and to treat new ideas and those who suggest them with the respect and consideration they deserve.Ask any leader about innovation and you are likely to hear how critical it is to their organization. Innovation provides a way to stand out from competitors around the globe and to address ever-rising customer expectations for products, services, and experiences that are new, different, and make life easier. Despite what we say about innovation, how we act is often in direct contradiction to our words. Most of us are quick to see new ideas as a risk— lacking all the evidence and detail we need to make us feel comfortable. Rather than embracing new ideas and nurturing them along the way, we tend to discard them out of hand—sabotaging the very creativity we need to fuel innovation. The six tips described in this publication will inspire & equip any leader to become an innovation hero!

Tip 1

Resist the Instinct to Kill a New Idea

CCL research shows that self-awareness is a critical competency for any leader and a key determiner of how effective you will be throughout your career. That’s especially true when it comes to nurturing new ideas. If you want to embrace innovation, it’s important to recognize what your likely first response will be when you are faced with a proposal that is new and innovative.

For most of us, like it or not, our first instinct will be to kill the new idea out of hand, without stopping to give it proper consideration. When we try to align a new idea into our existing mental framework, we notice the sharp edges. We focus on what doesn’t fit instead of what does. Rather than embracing and nurturing the idea, we see it as a threat that we run away from or try to neutralize. That’s because new ideas challenge us in three important ways.

Threat 1

New Ideas Are Risky

By their very nature, new ideas are unproven. They might work, or they might not, and that means risk. As we rise through the leadership ranks, most of us are trained to eliminate risk and to avoid any moves that gamble the future of our organization on the unknown. As a result, we instinctively want to avoid the risk a new idea represents.

CCL’s experience with a senior marketing director for a large global organization says it all. When we asked him how he responded when people came to him with new ideas, he had an immediate and dramatic answer. “If 100 people in this organization came to me with new ideas, I would have to fire every one of them,” he said. “Unfortunately, another 100 people with ideas would stand up, and I would have to fire them too. Why can’t people just do what they have been asked and support the company strategy?”

In this leader’s mind, new ideas that might challenge the established company strategy were a threat to be eliminated, and he was just the guy to do it. What boundless opportunities must he have missed as a result.

Threat 2

New Ideas Can Challenge Power Structures

When a new idea takes hold, it can have a ripple effect. It can take individuals, departments, and organizations in a new direction, which opens the door for new power brokers to emerge. Those currently in power may lose influence or be forced to step aside completely.

Let’s say you work for a consumer products company. As ideas for new products emerge and become popular, the demand for existing brands may decline. That will likely trigger a drop in funding for existing products. Those in charge of the older brands may find they are no longer as valuable or influential in the company. Instead, the power structure shifts to those who control new brands.

If you’ve watched this happen to colleagues, what do you think your reaction would be when an idea for a new brand is presented? Would you embrace the new idea and nurture it along in a way that will benefit the broader organization? Or would you instead feel threatened and do your best to torpedo the new idea right out of the gate?

Threat 3

New Ideas Are Most Often Not Our Own

As human beings, many of us tend to fall victim to the well-known “not invented here” syndrome. We simply reject ideas that come from someone else. Perhaps we believe the idea won’t work because the person who came up with it doesn’t have the experience we do. Perhaps we resent not coming up with the idea ourselves. Whatever the case, this gut reaction can damage our objectivity and thus ability to evaluate a new idea.

Effective leaders find ways to break the pattern. They understand that most ideas will not be their own and can bubble up from anyone and anywhere in the organization. Rather than shouldering the sole responsibility for dreaming up new innovations, it is a leader’s role to encourage the new ideas we encounter, evaluate them fairly, and build on their potential.

Using Self-Awareness to Break the Pattern

Understanding how your brain works can be a big help in developing the self-awareness you need to embrace new ideas and give them a fair shot. When we are faced with information that threatens our status quo, our natural tendency is to either fight it off tooth and nail or distance ourselves from the threat.

This “fight or flight” response is hardwired into our limbic system—a very large and well-developed part of the brain. When the limbic system senses a threat and reacts, it can swamp the reactions of the much smaller prefrontal cortex—the “executive judgment” center that is typically in charge as you make decisions and move through your day.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Handle with Care: How to Give New Ideas the Respect They Deserve
• Tip 1: Resist the Instinct to Kill a New Idea
• Tip 2: Practice Innovation Thinking
• Tip 3: Frame and Clarify the Idea’s Purpose
• Tip 4: Use the POINt Technique
• Tip 5: Connect Ideas to Ideas
• Tip 6: Build a Prototype of the Idea
• Become an Innovation Hero
• Background
• Suggested Resources
• About the Center for Creative Leadership
• Ordering Information