Ideas and Twinkies

I think people get in trouble in the workplace when they believe that there are a limited number of "good ideas". When someone thinks that way, they get into a hoarders mindset and behave just like the people who stockpiled Twinkies when Hostess went out of business! There are many reasons people do that:

• To re-sell their Twinkies at a higher rate. (Think of your co-workers who hoard their ideas and once they get bigwig approval they graciously "allow" you to help with all the nasty grunt work and when the job is completed they take all the credit for their fabulous idea.)
• To eat them all themselves. (Think of your co-workers who are anti-social and think they are the world's gift to your business. They don't want anyone nosing in on the fabulous idea they're implementing -and they're secretly scared that this is the last good one they'll have.)
• For nostalgia. (Think of co-workers who don't appreciate the way things "used" to be and their ideas are re-hashes of what has been done before and they don't need any of your crazy ideas, thankyouverymuch. They take a bite out of that Twinkie . . . um. . .  idea and then carefully wrap it up and go back to the same Twinkie until it is gone. Then they cry. Or panic. Or both.)

The best leaders realize that, unlike Hostess, ideas never go out of business and you can always get more. The greatest leaders create an environment where so many ideas are being generated amongst the entire group that no one can take all the credit.

How do people treat ideas at your workplace?