The “Idea Bake Sale” and Why It’s a Bad Idea to Have One

“Phew, we sure have a lot of challenges right now,” the frustrated CEO mused after completing a day at the annual planning offsite. “While my executive team is pretty solid day to day, they’re too in-the-box. They’re not creative. They never have any new ideas about how to fix our problems.”

“Other than asking me for more headcount. They’re pretty darn good at doing that,” the CEO chuckled, gazing pensively over the whitecaps from the patio of the luxury resort where the executive leadership team (ELT) was huddled.

“Wait. I’ve got an idea. We can rely on our people. They’re great. They’re out there every day with our customers. I bet they have tons of ideas on what we can do better. How we can improve our organization and processes. What features we should put into the product to make customers happier. And maybe even what new products we should build.”

“Eureka!” the CEO thought. “Since we feel kind of stuck here, I’ll declare the Leverage Our Super Team initiative. We’ll ask every employee for a good idea about how to improve the company. They’re going to love this. People are going to feel so engaged and they’ll love that all their voices are being heard.”

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And there are plenty of good intentions here. Intentions are not the problem.

But what happens Monday morning, when everyone sees the company-wide message announcing the new initiative?

By noon, half the company is polishing up their resumes. And that’s after having called their significant others to delay any pending large purchases.

This is what you might hear, if you could eavesdrop by the virtual watercooler:

• We’re screwed with a capital S.
• Jeez, I thought we were in trouble before, but now I’m sure.
• Our leadership team is quite simply out of its depth. Nice people, but they don’t know how to run the company.
• We’re caught in a strategic squeeze and the best they can come up with — after three days at an offsite — is asking us what to do?
• Don’t they get the big bucks in order to actually run the company?
• Sure, we’re in a tough situation right now, but we can get out of it. What we need is leadership, but this ain’t it.
• Did anybody notice that the acronym for the new, save-the-company initiative is LOST? Leverage Our Super Team. That’s just perfect.

This happens all the time. I’ve seen it at just about every company I’ve worked at for 30+ years.

The first time I saw one of these initiatives, it came complete with a marketing graphic, a depiction of teamwork featuring an eight-person crew boat with everyone pulling together — but missing the coxswain.

You literally cannot make this shit up.

The point here being:

• People expect leaders to lead.
• They get scared when they don’t.
• People understand when the company’s in a tough spot.
• All they generally want to hear is that leadership is aware of the situation (i.e., not in denial) and has a reasonable plan to address it.

As for the “idea bake sale” (think: sales will make brownies, marketing will make cookies, and finance will make cupcakes to save the company), it’s a terrible idea because it does the opposite:

• Leaders abdicate instead of lead.
• It clearly demonstrates that there is no plan. (Let’s hold the idea bake sale to make one.)
• In some cases, it’s patently absurd. (Let’s ask the receptionist what new products to build.)
• And, if everyone were doing their job, for the most part we wouldn’t need one.

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Isn’t it PM’s job to know what features customers want? Isn’t it management’s job to work on improving our processes? Isn’t it the CEO, CPO, and CTO’s job to work on product strategy, including product line expansion? If those processes aren’t working, let’s fix the root cause. Not have an idea bake sale.

I’m all for the odd hackathon to flush out potential new features. Or the brainstorming meeting with PM to discuss product line strategy. Or the town hall with the sellers to hear concerns about our sales process. Or the partner summit where we can hear from people outside the company about how we’re doing. These events harness energy and drive discussion. And they’re all normal parts of a leader’s job.

But that is not the same as throwing your hands in the air and effectively saying, “we don’t know what to do — what do you people think?”

The moral: one day, if you find yourself in a meeting where somebody suggests an idea bake sale, do these three things:

• Kill the idea off quickly
• Directly address any failing core processes that made it seem necessary
• Ensure that you’re doing the usual communications and strategy events

Most importantly, recognize that the bake sale might just be a distraction from an elephant in the room, and what needs discussion is the elephant, not the bake sale.

You can use The Crux to help you do that.