Member-only story
Most “leaders” at organizations:
- Don’t understand that organizational breakthroughs can come from anywhere
- Aren’t really that comfortable with ideas outside of their own
This varies by organization, of course, but most managers/leaders I’ve worked with fall into those camps. If you don’t believe me, look at how promotions tend to work: the guys (mostly guys) closest to the power vortex in terms of politics get promoted. Why? Because the people who already have the power want like-minded people in their top-dog meetings. They’re not comfortable with ideas opposite their own. Remember, at a certain level, you can explain the entire working world by just realizing that your manager fears being viewed as incompetent.
Three European economics professors conducted a study of roofers, carpenters, and inline skaters to collect ideas on how to improve the comfort of their respective safety gear. What’s fascinating is each group came up with better ideas to improve gear from the other two fields than its own.
That shouldn’t actually surprise anyone, per se — people have ideas about things they don’t do day-to-day, often because what you do day-to-day becomes kind of rote to you, and things that are rote become less creative…
