It’s not enough for bosses to say that they want to hear ideas. They must demonstrate through their actions that they will prioritize and implement them. By doing this, good bosses and leaders keep the ideas coming and eventually create a vibrant participatory working culture.

Unfortunately, many bosses of all ages never achieve this level of managerial maturity. If courageous employees will professionally challenge their bosses by saying, “That’s great! Now how will we prioritize and implement the better ideas?” If people saying this follow up with their plan for doing so, it takes a significant burden off of the bosses’ shoulders and creates a good promotion path for employees who do this.

There are innumerable ways that decision makers (most of these are managers of some type) shut down good ideas. You describe the attack on the “how”, the suggested means of implementation. Far better, I think, if the decision maker says, “Great idea, but for such-and-such reasons we can’t follow the implementation path you suggest. Can we brainstorm on other ways to achieve the same objective?” Very often there are feasible and economic alternatives to implementing the idea.

Absolutely right. Employees need to have the authority, resources, and organizational support to implement their ideas. Without these, it is irresponsible for managers to toss ideas back in employees’ laps.

A few years ago I was leading a skip-level meeting with about a dozen accountants, warehouse clerks, assembly operators, engineers, etc. One long term material handler close to retirement age made a valid suggestion. I asked if he would be interested in implementing his suggestion provided I give him the money and the authority to make it happen. He looked shocked and said yes. I followed through on my commitment, and he made the improvement happen very quickly. This required coordinating with the Facilities department and the HR department. He also earned the respect and congratulations from his peers in the warehouse and factory since his suggestion was for their benefit.

Gotta be honest, not my idea, but I can’t remember where I found it. Glad I read this idea years ago because it is strongly effective.