A manager asked his team for 15 ideas in 48 hours and noticed the biggest idea generators were often the worst at executing them. He argues real meritocracy rewards execution, not idea volume, and that asking for bad ideas too reveals who can actually build things.
I don't believe in telling people, "Give me your best ideas." That's too much pressure. I want all your ideas. I want your worst ideas. And I went to the team, the whole team, and I said, "Okay, here's the vision. Here's what I'm trying to do. I don't know how to do it. I want from every single person on this team 15 ideas on how to achieve what I want to achieve in the next 48 hours." And I only took 2 or 3 ideas at a time so that everybody would get to share something, right? Here's what I discovered. I had some people who Their creativity was spectacular. They had 5, 6, 7, 8 ideas if I was keeping score. And some people, zeros. But my best idea people were my worst executors. Yeah. And my worst idea people were my best executors. And I realized I've got a great team. And so I can't call it a meritocracy if I kept score on who had the great ideas. It's only a meritocracy if the team is able to execute on its own ideas. It's the team's ideas, not a person's ideas.
AI Won't Tell You the Full Truth | Arthur Brooks + Simon Sinek | A Bit of Optimism Podcast
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