The best idea is determined by the quantity and quality of the data, not by positional power
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A commonly held belief in the corporate world is that most organizations as operated today will be unsustainable in a world of ever-advancing smart technology. To remain viable, most organizations will have to achieve not only higher-level technological capabilities, but also higher-level human cognitive and emotional performance.
To do that organizations will have to overcome challenges at both the organizational and individual levels. They’ll have to replace outdated operational practices based on hierarchy, silos and elitist leadership models; reduce group think; and learn how to simultaneously operate both efficiently and innovatively. Their human workers will have to excel at doing the higher-order thinking and emotionally engaging value-add activities that the technology won’t be able to do well. That will require human beings to excel at managing their egos and emotions and to be excellent hyper-learners.
A New Story
This kind of organizational and personal transformation in the age of smart technology requires an inspirational and aspirational new story about what it takes to achieve personal and organizational success. A story that if operationalized can lead to the highest levels of human performance in concert with smart technology. I believe an Idea Meritocracy is such a story.
An Idea Meritocracy is an environment in which the best idea wins. The best idea is determined by the quantity and quality of the data, not by positional power. I have studied examples of companies that have created Idea Meritocracies, including Google, Intuit, Pixar Animation Studios and Bridgewater Associates. In those organizations, an Idea Meritocracy has played a key role in driving consistent high performance and has warded off complacency and group think by empowering employees to have the curiosity and courage to challenge, to explore like scientists by asking the three W’s: Why? What if? Why not?
Intuit’s co-founder and executive committee chair, Scott Cook, explained an Idea Meritocracy this way:
To flourish in the innovation age, companies must change how decisions are made and change how leaders lead. To do so you must change how decisions are made to what I call leadership by experiment. Moving from politics and PowerPoints to enabling the idea to prove itself. From boss votes with their opinion, to the customers vote with their feet. From the hierarchy sets the agenda, to the innovators set the agenda.[i]
[This article has been reproduced with permission from University Of Virginia's Darden School Of Business. This piece originally appeared on Darden Ideas to Action.]