Criticism is Stupid

Criticism is easy.  Any knucklehead can do it.

Real genius is in seeing why something will work rather than the 100 reasons why it won’t.

photo by daftgirly

As the team leader you need solutions from your team.  You need them to unabashedly throw out half-baked ideas because it’s only from those nascent thoughts that real change comes.  Allowing criticism to creep into your work environment creates a competitive scenario where people are first looking to score points by killing the ideas of others rather than coming up with solutions of their own.

Instead focus on collaboration.  People shouldn’t be made to feel stupid because there were a couple flaws in their idea.  Focus on what works in the idea and follow those breadcrumbs.

It all begins with you.  The team will follow your lead.  With that, a few thoughts:

• Encourage your team to throw out their filters
• Don’t tolerate criticism.  Instead require people to build off the original idea if they feel the need to comment
• When presented with a problem ignore your first reaction to spew out an answer.  Ask people for their solutions first.  Get them in the habit of thinking ahead and seeing opportunity instead of hurdles
• Have fun with your failures.  Celebrate them in a light-hearted way.  It’s not the end of the world
• Act on the ideas. If your idea will change the world then you’ll need to know how.  Often the problems you thought you would have before your idea was unleashed aren’t the ones that matter most

This is something I struggle with all the time in my internal voice.  I’m my own greatest critic, but I’m changing.  What else do you have?  Any other ideas?

No related posts.