In a bid to encourage innovation, most organizations want to create a culture and environment whereby employees are encouraged to share ideas with one another. Doing that can be hard, however, when things like promotion and pay are so often determined based upon one’s individual contributions.

Research from the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business explores how managers can encourage employees to be more open with their ideas. After quizzing over 1,000 employees from across the US and China, the researchers found that employees would often regret offering up an idea if the manager told them to subsequently “make it happen”. This would discourage them from contributing ideas in future.

“If the supervisor said, ‘Good luck, you’re on your own with this,’ that led to the most overload and the most regret,” the researchers explain.

Offering support

By contrast, when managers offered to help employees take their idea to fruition, whether with advice, resources, or even personal help, this made employees much more likely to continue offering up new ideas in the future.

“If the supervisor says, ‘great idea, let’s do it, I’m going to be here in the trenches with you,’ employees felt less overload and experienced less regret,” the researchers explain.

Good management means letting employees have a say in their ideas and working with them to make those ideas happen. Managers should talk to their employees when making decisions so that the employees feel like they’re part of the project and have a stake in it.

It’s also important to explain why an employee’s idea might not be used. This way, the employee won’t feel like their idea was ignored. It shows that their idea was thought about, and that the leadership still wants to hear from them. This kind of communication keeps everyone engaged and happy at work.