I don't think I have ever sat in an interview with a company where someone doesn't say, "We want our employees to think outside of the box! We want fresh ideas and inspiration! Get out of the box and make a difference here....” Usually this message is conveyed by a young company recruiter, Human Resources representative, or a brand new manager who has yet to learn the unwritten rules of which names, strategically placed on an email, will get things done. "Thinking outside of the box" is such a common phrase that one out of every twenty persons with a desk have it displayed on some poster, note pad, or piano wire sculpture. In fact, I have seen this wire figurine balanced on a teeter totter over a wire frame box more times than I have seen personal office refrigerators (usually stocked with Weight Watcher lunches which are never eaten but make everyone think you are dieting) and that's saying a lot. It’s amazing the message we send out to our employees - "we want everyone to think differently" - ironically means that if everyone did it, we would all be the same....again. But that is the rabbit hole we will go down yet another time. But what we, my dear fellow employees, are not told is although we tell everyone to stick their head out of the box, reality will quickly tell us how dangerous that can be.

Let us consider the ground hog, the original cubicle worker. He does his job in his ground hole; he lives his life comfortable in the knowledge that, as long as he stays where he is supposed to be, he is safe. Danger only exists when he sticks his head up and gets noticed. He gets one bright idea too many, sticks his head outside and… whack!  He becomes eagle food. Just watching 15 minutes of any outdoor hunting cable series will teach you that any animal who sticks his head out gets shot at. Animal gets notice, animal gets lesson in why it should not get noticed. So it is in many companies.

Everyone is told the story of the employee who discovered that his company was paying millions of dollars on hundreds of varieties of working gloves. The employee stuck his head out and made the dramatic case for the CEO by piling up every variety of gloves on a table with their price tag. CEO sees the display. CEO is impressed. Employee saves company a fortune....happily ever after. There are about seven such inspirational stories which we tell employees to motivate them to take chances and think outside the box. The reason there are only about seven of these stories is that such happy endings are extremely rare. Most employees who stick their heads out of the box usually get it handed back to them for daring to challenge the status quo. For every hero of creativity there are a thousand victims of "who do you think you are?!"

I am not saying you should not be creative, bold, and inspired about a unique idea that will propel the company (and your reputation) skyward.  You should absolutely give every ounce of your creativity a chance to lift you up. What I am saying is that you had better understand the politics, personalities, and culture you will be dealing with before you become the next whack-a-mole target. For example, one company I was blessed to work with had a highly creative, entrepreneurial, “any idea is a good idea” culture....so long as you were one of the original 15 founding employees. Anyone else was considered too junior to know the business well enough to have a good idea and some of those "juniors" had been with the company more than seven years. If the idea didn't come from one of the approved brains of the company, you were an idiot who didn't know what he was talking about, which created a huge problem because the company was always hiring the best and the brilliant from other companies. Their stated purpose was to bring in "fresh and new ideas from outside the company," but each new hire soon learned that if they did not conform to the "way we work here" and accept that "you need to understand the business more before you share your ideas" they were in for a long frustrating time.

Most managers don't like it when their employees get noticed more than they do. It’s threatening to many to have people more creative (or smarter) working for them. No one likes an employee who jumps up and down waving their hand like they have an urgent bowel movement and are trying to get attention. It's human nature and we already know how nature treats things that want attention.

The key is to learn when you want attention and when you don't. Watch what happens to others who stick their head up and learn where the eagles are. Then go make friends with the eagles. You may have a million dollar idea, but you need to think about who might be embarrassed by that idea. Think your communication strategy through. If someone listening to your idea is going to say to anyone else "why didn't you think about this..." you might want to find a better way to get your idea out. ALSO - Nothing is worse than a great idea for another department. It's a sure way to end up eating lunch alone the rest of your career.

As much as we hate it, great ideas always require greater communication, political awareness, and dumb luck. So before you stick your head up, raise your hand, or shout "eureka!" make sure you know what is out there waiting to pick you up and eat you. If you are not sure, give the idea to your boss and let him run with it....who knows, you might just end up with his job. 

 Copyright © 2010 Mike Baumgartner | HR | Consulting | Coach |  Human Resources | Search - CEO, Worklife Survival Center LLC