Andrew Rondeau asked:
We can share many different things with others, such as material things, money and time, but one of the easiest and most useful things we can share are thoughts and ideas. New managers have a tendency to hold onto knowledge and information thinking it will make them look good or indispensable. It will not – sharing the knowledge or information will make you look great!
We tend to look at sharing something with someone else as parting with it or losing it, for instance sharing sweets, but with thoughts and ideas you are not losing them or gaining any less by sharing. In fact quite the opposite, because now the other people with whom you have shared the information can benefit from having it too.
However, it is sometimes human nature for us to keep things to ourselves, to give us what we believe to be a good advantage over others. This can sometimes be a smart thing to do, giving us the edge, however nowadays with the internet at our disposal, there is rarely any piece of information we can possess which will truly give us that advantage. The combination of ideas and concepts not thought of by others, is what can make us truly successful, so therefore sharing thoughts and ideas with others is what is most advantageous.
Discussions with others and sharing of ideas and concepts is critical in the formation of new ones, so it is important to point out that by doing this, there is a risk of someone taking your ideas for themselves. Therefore, a good plan is to keep back some details critical to making the idea work, but give enough information out to paint the big picture to others.
Each of our brain references are unique as they are based upon our own knowledge, experience and backgrounds and so therefore everyone will interpret ideas or speeches in different ways unique to them. Therefore by sharing your ideas with others, different thoughts and ideas will be formed that you won’t have thought of. Sometimes you aren’t aware of the ideas being formed through sharing and you’ll think it was something you thought of yourself, when in fact it was formed by someone else planting the seed there.
Another thing you have to remember when sharing ideas is, that the person you are sharing your ideas with at that time, is not always going to share their ideas back with you. However in most cases people do out of human nature, but not necessarily at that time. It could be a few months down the line. What they share with you may be of no use at that particular time, or never, but it will be stored in your reference memory and may be of use further down the line, or as a part of a combination of ideas shared with you by others. If you don’t share with others, you may never receive that one idea you need, to bring to life your big concept. That is a high price to pay, as you could miss out on that one fantastic opportunity you need to become great!