We Create an Environment Where the Best Ideas Win: Idea Meritocracy

In this series, we are covering how Bonial came to a turning point after some successful years and how that changed our leadership approach and defined our principles. This is the introduction to our fifth principle.

Our fifth, and last, principle is Idea Meritocracy. In the four previous principles, we have discussed our power and potential for success, how we interact with external factors, and how we are all leaders. This last principle focuses on how to improve our chances of finding the best idea in a VUCA world where we might only have one shot at trying something.

We go from the premise that there exists the best idea on how to do things, how to run the company, how to attract more users, etc. We are mainly concerned with these ideas and how to find them. Finding those ideas is like science — not religion– meaning that they are not set in stone by one person and need to be discovered over time. We learn based on mistakes and merit is based on actual contribution to finding the best ideas. It is more important than hierarchies, titles, and egos.

In Idea Meritocracy we challenge assumptions and status quo and seek alternatives. We gather all context and details required to come to meaningful new ideas and we bring our ideas forward. Knowledge versus assumptions. It promotes professional discussion instead of taking things personally. It provides convincing, structured thinking and context.

Our role model for this principle is Albert Einstein. Einstein excelled at math and physics from a young age, reaching a mathematical level years ahead of his peers. After graduating from his mathematics and physics teaching diploma program he was unable to find a teaching position so he started working as a clerk in the Swiss Federal Office of Intellectual Property. He continued publishing scientific papers, for example, the theory of relativity in 1905 and was awarded the Physics Nobel Prize in 1921. Due to his Jewish background, during World War II Einstein was forced to move around until he settled as a refugee in the United States. In his career, Einstein published hundreds of books, articles, scientific papers, and non-scientific ones.

Einstein’s scientific work was the result of a lot of curiosity, study, investigation, and research. His merit was that he looked for the best idea and when he talked, people listened. He was a genius and his findings were the leading path for many others that would come later.

How are you challenging assumptions?

Do you do your homework and gather information to get meaningful ideas?

How do you bring your ideas forward?

Author: Victor Boscatt, Employer Branding Manager at Bonial