You’re a curator, not a self-inhibitor

I loved this notion I stumbled on today.

In the HBR piece “5 Mistakes Employees Make When Challenging the Status Quo,” Lois Kelly and Carmen Medina propose one mistake employees make is not prioritizing their own ideas. Taken from the piece:

“…when you constantly suggest ideas, you risk diluting your impact, particularly if you never engage in the hard work of implementation. Leaders may tune you out as someone who continuously feeds them new ideas. Go forward with the one or two suggestions you have that are most relevant for the organization and stand the best chance for implementation.”

I like this bit a lot. We’ve all heard the platitude, “actions speak louder than words.” While I don’t believe change can happen with just action and no words, I think change needs both. People will truly listen to your ideas when they trust you’ll do the hard work it takes to make the idea happen.

The other part to unpack: while you’re the idea generator, you’re also your own idea curator. It isn’t enough to be a contrarian for the contrary’s sake. It’s about acting as an objective filter of your own ideas, basing it on relevance, chance of implementation, and other criteria depending on your context.

This notion could be taken to the extreme, of course. When putting an idea out there, you’re putting a part of yourself out there. And maybe you think others have better ideas and trust that the group doesn’t need your brain — I’ve certainly fallen into this way of thinking before. There is an aspect of self-validation and confidence involved when you pitch an idea.

Maybe it’s a matter of being comfortable with the vulnerability that comes with putting ideas out there while acting as the filter for only the best. You’re a curator, not a self-inhibitor.

I’ll have to check out Kelly and Medina’s book. Seems like a good idea.