When first responding to a new idea, everyone agrees that a workplace culture of, “we’ve always done it this way,” leads to a dispirited team.
In a “we’ve always done it this way,” first response culture new ideas get neutered before they mature into concepts. Creative impulses are squelched. Energy diminishes. And people grow disengaged and despondent.
The opposite of this stifling culture, though, is not to respond to new ideas with a, “we should try it” attitude.
This would suggest that any and all new ideas are worth implementing. And, for anyone who has sat through group brainstorming sessions (or, has been honest about the effectiveness of their own ideas from time to time), it’s clear that just because an idea is new does not mean an idea is better.
The healthy workplace culture is neither, “we’ve always done it this way,” nor is it, “we should try it!”
Instead, the healthy workplace culture invites new ideas and fresh approaches and then asks the question, “what are the potential advantages and disadvantages of trying this?”
Many workplace cultures quickly move to answer for the worthiness of new ideas. Are new ideas better than what we have now? Or, are new ideas not to be trusted to be better than what we have now?
But our kneejerk responses to new ideas are almost always unhelpful.
Pausing first to answer the question regarding the potential benefits and drawbacks of implementing a new idea starts us down a path of implementing the best possible ideas.
