"Don't Bother Sharing Anything Because Your Ideas Are Worthless"
On November 21st 2016 I published an article on LinkedIn titled:
“The Importance of Giving People a Chance to Share Their Best Ideas”
Today, on 25th January 2025, I am republishing the same article here on TOSCEO, with some additional closing comments at the end.
Enjoy the story, and share it with whoever comes upon your heart.
The Importance of Giving People a Chance to Share Their Best Ideas
One of the most influential lightbulb moments I have had in my career came in 2008 when I was asked by a large housing association to help them "improve and redesign our company intranet". As part of the redesign project I planned out a series of 1-1 research sessions with different levels of staff members from across their SE England offices.
At one of their offices, the next employee to come in for the research session was a very timid looking lady who said when she came in to the meeting room:
"I really don't know why I've been asked to come in to this, but I've come along anyway."
The start of the hour long research session to understand how the intranet is working for her and how it could be improved to make her job easier or more streamlined, was tough. It was clear that she didn't really want to be in the session and she didn't know that what she was sharing was, actually, going to get used.
Through open questions, building up our rapport, and encouraging the lady to share her honest views and ideas, she started to build in confidence. Half way though the hour long session and the lady shared with me a quite excellent, potentially innovative idea for how their intranet could be improved to assist not only her but but many of her colleagues in other offices across the SE of England. I thanked her for her suggestion (which as I felt would at the time, made it in to redesigned intranet). The lady responded reluctantly accepting the praise I had just given her.
The final half of the research session was a more progressive, talkative discussion, with more suggestions being proposed by the lady who was rubberstamping the fact that out of the 15 employees I had spent time with, she was providing me (and her employer) with the most intelligent, impactful suggestions which would go on to help streamline their processes and enhance employee productivity.
At the end of the session, after I had thanked her for her time and she walking out of the meeting room with more confidence than when she came in, she turned back to me and said:
"Paul, can I just thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share my ideas with you today, and most importantly for listening to me. When I'm at home with my husband, he so often says to me "Don't bother sharing anything because your ideas are worthless."
This woman and her experiences have stayed with me ever since, and whatever she is doing now, and whoever she is spending time with, I hope she is being given opportunities to share her very best ideas.
We should never, ever, stop giving other people chances to share their very best ideas.
Closing Comments For 2025 & Beyond
God tells us in His Word that the human tongue a “whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself”. James 3:6 NLT
My closing comment for this story, for everyone upon the earth that will ever read this, is:
Repent for every single idle word you have ever spoken. Repent for every single lie you have ever told. Repent for every time you have used your tongue to put someone down, particularly the people closest to you. Repent for each time you have verbally abused someone.
Now ask the Holy Spirit to help you throughout every single day to speak the truth in love, to speak ONLY the words of Jesus. Remember, you have been chosen to be the hands of Jesus, the feet of Jesus AND the voice of Jesus.
