Gone are the days when spending many years as an employee at the same organization meant stability. There were career plans spanning more than 20 years, and parents, children, cousins, and friends all worked in the same place. Knowing someone who worked at the organization gave a job candidate an edge.
Today, the rules have changed radically. Years with the company no longer count for much, nor does having parents who are close friends with the presidents of large organizations. Today we live in the age of knowledge, of intangible assets.
Something tangible is palpable: we can touch it and see it. Something intangible is what we cannot see or touch, but can feel. Our knowledge is intangible, and it is what organizations need and admire.
Our job market is saturated: there are plenty of analysts, supervisors, coordinators, and managers. So what sets successful professionals apart from those who move forward slowly? Knowledge, and the ability to come up with idea after idea to get around problems with creative, innovative solutions.
Have you noticed how much more creative children are than adults? Children aren’t embarrassed to say what they think, and that is what makes them more creative. If someone asked you what a book is for, you would certainly say it is for reading, for gaining knowledge. A child might say it is for gathering dust on the shelf, for drawing on, for setting on fire, and so on.
How many of us hold back from sharing our ideas with our bosses, afraid of looking ridiculous?
Competition between companies is getting fiercer, products are created and reinvented every day, and sometimes ridiculous ideas (or overly smart ones) make companies’ revenues grow by large amounts.
I know of a toothpaste company that needed to increase its revenue. It held an internal contest, and the winner was a worker from the factory floor. The problem the organization posed was: How are we going to increase our revenue? The worker’s idea was to widen the opening of the toothpaste tube, so that when customers squeezed it onto their toothbrush, more toothpaste would come out.
A ridiculous idea? I’d call it incredibly smart!
It is time to stop being afraid of presenting the ideas we consider ridiculous, because large organizations need our intangible side and our childlike side, in other words, being unafraid to say what we think.