Recent demonstrations by Belgian farmers against their government’s actions to take away farmland to reduce impact on climate change, reminded me of the importance of being on guard against bad ideas.

Certainly, the Belgian farmers feel it might be a bad idea for everyone if they were forced to produce less food.

Government is not the only source of bad ideas. Leaders must always be diligent about bad ideas in their company too.

If you only seem to see bad ideas in your company, there may be some reasons:

  1. Good ideas have surfaced and were not pursued or even listened to. (People hate being ignored.)
  2. Good ideas were applauded but never executed.  (People hate it when lip service is given to ideas.)
  3. People do not believe it is worth it to even bring up an idea. (Learned apathy.)

Leaders need to be great at listening to ideas and helping people develop those ideas into something worthwhile.

You must also make sure your team knows you are in the market for good ideas.

If they don’t, bad ideas will start to creep in. Nature abhors a vacuum. Make your organization a place where great ideas can flourish.