Are important ideas being ignored at work?

You come up with a great idea that you feel will enhance the work environment, maybe even save time and money! But the supervisor doesn’t want to hear it.

“We just don’t’ do things that way, Gary.”

“You might want talk to Phil about it. I don’t have time right now.”

Or worse yet – “Whatcha been drinking, kid? A computer you could hold in your hands? That doesn’t make any sense at all.”

So many businesses lose great people because they stymie their creativity and their suggestions by belittling, ignoring, or even punishing the “idea” carriers for thinking outside the box.

Someone once said, “Ignorance is bliss,” but in business, “Ignorance is disaster.” We listen to ideas so we can grow. Otherwise, we invent our own competitors.

My father once told me that when he worked in the upholstery business, he came home frustrated and angry not because people didn’t hear his ideas, but that they simply ignored them.” I saw upholstery as more than just fabric. It was the environment people lived in, and I felt the company should market upholstery like you would a trip to the Bahamas. Now, my boss thought I was too young and too ignorant, and he’d sidestep my suggestions, tell me to just focus on my sales job, and then call me ‘kid.’”

So at 32 years old, my dad walked out but he took his brothers with him, and they started their own upholstery company, which turned into Riviera Convertible Sofas (with franchises all over California). The phrase “Live on the Riviera, Convertible Sofa, That is” more or less capitalized on my dad’s quest to reinvent the furniture business as a lifestyle: Come home and feel like you’re on vacation.

The upholstery company my dad worked for went out of business, and Riviera (still around today) survived as a sofa company for nearly 30 years.

What ideas are you ignoring at work? Who are you cutting off and what does that say to your staff about your tolerance for creativity and input?

The greatest way, I think, to increase your competition, is to devalue and de-validate your employees, forcing them to express themselves in other ways. They’ll seek revenge by stealing from you or starting their own business, neither is a good alternative to good, plain open conversation where employees feel heard, understood, and at the very least, appreciated.
Tune into some horror stories of people who have been ignored at work and what businesses they started on their own. It’s our pre-Halloween special on blogtalkradio.com The Consultant/Insultant Show with Dr. Brian and Dr. Gary. Wednesday October 21 at 7 a.m.