If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking. - George Patton
When we encounter organization where the leaders are not interested in opinions, suggestions, advice, or new ideas, then there is going to be trouble.
Steve Jobs had a quote (true or not, it's profound) - we hire people who tell us what to do. I don't want to hire people I have to tell what to do. This was probably not literally true, since he micro-managed everything. But I have personal experience on both sides. One "boss" (Senior VP) that treated everyone as colleagues. We would sit in the conference room and have "free and frank" discussion about what to do. Then we'd have Concurrence (not consensus). Concurrance means everyone agrees inside this room that this is the collective decision. When outside the room we are "all in this together." This is one of the behaviours of Heliotropic Abundance as described in Making the Impossible Possible.
The other experience is one where if the idea was not originated or acknowledged to coming from the leader, it was not a good idea. This person had to be recognized as the smartest person in the room. Problem was of course that that was rarely the case.
In the former, hiring was done with explicit intent, to find the best people possible to lead the program.
When you manage in that way - finding the best people - you're success as a leader is greatly increased. So it's a win-win. The project, program, company wins, the people wins, and EVERY ONE gets credit.
This is obvious in the agile development world. But no so obvious is the managerial world. For some reason this understanding fades as people move up the ladder in management. It's a hard lesson to learn.
