ALT-1 Why you need to come up with Ideas at Work
Ideas are the backbone of any business. There can be no business without a good idea to start it all. A business cannot sustain itself without coming up with new ideas from time to time. A business usually has one founder, or a group of founders, who make a profit based on the ideas that they come up with. However, no one person can come up with ideas forever. That is why they hire people to help them come up with new ideas.
You will end up being an employee for one of these companies. If you are lucky, you are coming up with ideas for your own company instead. Either way, you are going to have to come up with ideas for the sole reason being you are paid to come up with ideas. Not coming up with ideas at work will have the same effect as you not showing up for work. What is the company paying you for if you are not helping to advance things?
Without ideas, the company is useless and will go under. Everything changes, so there is no excuse to not come up with ideas. A business might be able to make money on a general premise, but there are subtle changes in any industry. Just as a business will fail without new ideas, your career will fail if you are not able to add any insight.
Your insight is your most valuable resource as a worker. Just as a quarterback is no good if he cannot adjust against a new defense, a worker is no good if he cannot come up with an idea to solve evolving business problems. Kodak was left in the dust for a time because they weren't fast enough to ditch film products for digital picture products. GM was hit hard because they could not adjust to changing times. Why was this? It was probably because at its core, there was a lack of innovation coming from a lack of new ideas.
If you are not motivated at work to come up with new ideas you should keep in mind that you own your ideas. If nothing else, your ideas are the one thing that you have any control over at work. You are told when to show up, when to leave, how much you get paid, but no one can tell you how to think. A good idea will not only make the company new profits, but it will cause you to profit as well. Your employer is going to measure your value based on how good your ideas are.
So why do you come up with new ideas at work? The answer is simply that you are getting paid to do so because the leadership of a company could not, or did not want to. This means you have an obligation to come up with the innovation that will lead your employer to a new peak of productivity and profit. A person who has no ideas and no direction tends to be perceived as having no direction or motivation.
Keep that in mind when you go to work tomorrow. You might not like it, but you have a responsibility to your employer to come up with at least one suggestion. Everyone has ideas, so let your ideas shine. Remember that when your company sees new heights, so does your career.
