The other day, I was chatting with a colleague about previous jobs we’d done. I started talking about one of my earlier bosses who suffered from “NIHS”. “What’s NIHS?” asked my colleague. “Not Invented Here Syndrome”, I said.
Whenever I went to that manager with an idea, he’d always reply with things like “We’ve tried that before and it didn’t work”, or “I see what you mean, but we’d never be able to do that here.” Of course, every idea he had was bound to be worthwhile and should be given a go. I worked out that the best way to get my ideas adopted was to feed him some information, and then he would come up with “my idea”. If I had suggested it, then the idea would never have seen the light of day. But by making him think it was his idea all along, we’d be using it within days.
You have probably met people with “NIHS”. They reject the ideas of those around them. Yet they frequently promote their own ideas. If they invent something, it must be good. If someone else is creative, their concept is bound to be bad. That’s what happens in the world of the “Not Invented Here Syndrome”.
New research from the University of Utah has just been published, offering an explanation of why NIHS occurs. It’s a complex issue that is bound up in status. If a manager supports an idea from a more junior colleague, it threatens the “status gap” between them. Managers feel a sense of status difference with their work colleagues. When the manager accepts an idea, they worry that this gap will be reduced, weakening their position in the workplace. It gets worse if the manager agrees with an idea and it fails. The manager’s status is further reduced. The result is that accepting ideas from others more junior to you is difficult, as it interferes with your subconsciously derived sense of status. The researchers also found that managers seem to operate under the misguided belief that rejecting ideas boosts their status.
The story of the Swan Vesta matchbox illustrates this. A factory worker came up with an idea on how to save the company millions. However, his idea was not considered as he was “only” a factory worker. The company eventually listened more than a year later, and his idea was put into practice – saving Bryant and May millions. All he had suggested was to put the striking sandpaper on only one side of the box, instead of both sides. Costs were halved in an instant. The company could have saved so much more money if it hadn’t been a victim of NIHS, triggered by that status gap.
Coincidentally, this week I read another piece of research that adds another layer to the status gap problem. This study showed that in the workplace, most people adopt a “surface acting” approach to engage with those around them. When we are dealing with other people, we have to conduct a large amount of “emotional labour”. That’s the psychological effort we put into dealing with our own emotions and handling the emotions of others. There are two ways we can do this: “surface acting” and “deep acting”. When we surface act, we suppress our true feelings and fake a reaction. The new research shows that this uses fewer psychological resources than “deep acting”, where you show your emotions and interact with others at a much deeper and more real level. But that takes effort, so we avoid it.
Now consider what happens when someone junior to you comes along with an idea. You will inevitably “surface act”, meaning you will not properly engage with the concept emotionally, nor consider the emotions of your colleague. The pressure to maintain the status gap is the motive for rejection; surface acting is the method we use to quickly shut down the idea and preserve our psychological energy. Because surface acting keeps interactions shallow, we fail to emotionally invest in the other person’s ideas. Surface acting means we never get the chance to feel their enthusiasm or to express our own curiosity.
Every day at work, I hear myself or one of my colleagues say, “I’ve been suggesting we do that for years now.” Many brilliant ideas in the workplace are not being accepted. If only people engaged more deeply with a proper emotional response using “deep acting”, more of them would be taken up.
So, what can we, as managers, do to increase the uptake of ideas? The answer is to do things that involve more “deep acting”. Luckily, the researchers explain what to do. Take more breaks from work. Even micro breaks of a few minutes help your brain get enough downtime so that surface acting isn’t necessary to save effort. It’s another example of being “always on” and constantly working that is actually failing us and preventing us from improving, quite apart from the mental health issues. Realising the potential benefits of new ideas is much more likely when we work less. So next time someone brings you an idea, resist the “surface acting” reflex to dismiss it. Take a breath, take a moment. Maybe even take a break and go for a walk. You might just discover your colleague has provided the spark of innovation your organisation has been waiting for.
