The “not invented here” syndrome affects many large multinational corporations, which makes it difficult for them to utilise their own great ideas on a global scale.
I have personally witnessed instances where excellent ideas were rejected because they weren’t developed in that location. And this isn’t always just a corporate vs regional issue, where many people think that if an idea didn’t come from corporate headquarters, it couldn’t be a good one.
I have seen Regions reject ideas from Corporate, I have seen Corporate reject ideas from Regions, and even Regions reject ideas from other Regions. I think this is all just part of human nature that we think that only we can have good ideas.
As leaders this is something that we need to combat, we need to facilitate collaboration and sharing of best practices across regions and corporate.
We need to promote the view that great ideas can come from anywhere, and that they should be accepted and embraced, not rejected just because one group didn’t come up with them.
At one company where I worked in order to help with this, we used to have a “Not Invented Here Award” which would be given to a team or group that implemented a best practice or idea from another region.
This really helped reduce the barrier but it didn’t eliminate it completely – human nature is tough to change.
As leaders, we need to be open to ideas from other areas and regions, and we need to set an example, if we are not seen to do this then why should others?
When it comes to great ideas, no one group has cornered the market, and if we restrict our search to just one group or region, then we limit ourselves and will not reach our full potential.
If you want to learn more about creating highly engaged teams or being a better leader click the link to make an appointment to talk about how I can help.
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