Value of a message

I was recently in a meeting with a management group listening to a presentation. The presenter, another manager, was telling a message that I had been trying to convey several times to the same group of managers. I was questioned at best, ignored at worst. But suddenly, the message came through loud and clear. People were nodding, asking to follow up questions and showing great interest.

Then I realized (or was rather reminded) that the value of the message received is relative (proportionate, or perhaps even exponential) to the trust and respect relationship between the messenger and the receiver. How this works very much depends on the culture of the organization.

In a culture that helps people being humble and open to ideas from the outside, there is no predefined notion of who the messenger will be. People will be willing to listen to anyone in pursuit of the best idea, no matter who brings it. No matter the messenger's position in the hierarchy or role. This trait is essential to be able to create innovations, because just as Clayton Christiansen claims — many of the disruptive ideas in markets have come from people outside of that market.

If your culture requires ideas to come from specific people and to be conveyed in the right forum, you will miss out on a lot of good ideas. You will simply not hear them, and eventually, people will bring their ideas elsewhere, or the idea well will dry out.