Best Idea Wins

• business / management / leadership context

In most departments, it is “Boss’s Idea Wins”

• This puts expectation on the boss to have all the answers

• It teaches the team to depend on the boss and not think for themselves

• Bosses need to get better at responding to questions with “What do YOU think?!” instead of giving their answer first

• Bosses can also fall into the trap of trying to get their team to guess their ideas. They give them “autonomy” and “creative freedom” and “responsibility” to spearhead the project but then get mad or frustrated when things

Why we struggle to do this: IDENTITY

• We associate our ideas with our own worth

• We live and die by our ideas

IDEAS ARE CHEAP

• What you do is all that really matters in the end

BEST IDEA WINS requires humility

• You have to be willing to say you might not have the best idea

• It encourages creativity

It’s super democratic: If we assume the best idea can come from anywhere, then your position or power doesn’t make a difference

Ideas: Can go wrong if you don’t create the right container

• questions you ask predicts the answer you will get