“That’ll Never Work”

The director of organizational development for a major corporation shared the following story:

Recently we were in a brainstorming meeting. The ideas were coming fast and furious until our newest employee, a young man we had hired two weeks earlier because of his energy and creativity, threw out an idea. Almost before the idea had even left his lips one of the senior people in the meeting said sarcastically, “That’ll never work.”

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence and the meeting continued. I noticed that our new employee had slunk down in his chair and never said another word during the meeting. He didn’t say a word in a meeting we held two days later either. I wondered if he would ever feel free to contribute the creative spirit we had seen in him.

This incident transported me back to fifth grade. My teacher had placed a basket of fruit at the front of our class and asked us to sketch it. I worked hard at my drawing and when it was complete I proudly strode up to my teacher to show her my work of art. My teacher glanced down at my sketch and said, “You used the wrong paper.” She then turned her attention to another student. Dejected, I shuffled back to my seat and slunk down in my chair. I never tried to do anything artistic again.

Have you ever had one of your ideas “dismissed?” Have you ever ridiculed someone else’s idea? To come up with creative solutions, it has to be safe to consider new ideas that might help your business, even ones that might not succeed. Is your workplace a safe place to Play with a new idea?