What do you do when you have the seed of an idea? Do you share it? Do you sit on it until it’s fully ripened? I think that depends on you and the trust you have in those around you. 

I often wait until an idea has matured before sharing it with others in a meeting. However, I’ve noticed that I share seedlings more readily if I trust the people I’m talking to. I can share seedlings with my close colleagues who will help me figure out if the idea is worth developing. However, I’m cautious about sharing seedlings with others who may not have the patience or empathy needed for me to throw something out there that may not be golden. I don’t think I’m alone in this behavior. 

I’ve noticed a lot of women at work who have ideas but don’t share them until they are fully ripened—until they have all the answers like how to make them impenetrable to criticism and how to make sure they do nothing but impress others. I also observe men speaking up way before their ideas are fully ripened. So what gives?

Whether you prefer to hear seedlings or only fully ripened ideas in a meeting may vary from one person to another. It can take patience to welcome the seedlings. However, the risk of withholding your ideas until they are very developed is two-fold. You miss out on the collaboration—the fertilization—of an idea with other team members, while they miss out on the brilliance you have to share. As women we can’t afford to stay quiet until we’ve grown our ideas on our own. If we do our meetings will (or already do) simply look like men talking without saying much because they see the value in occupying the air space, while we sit on the sidelines waiting for our own brilliance to mature.

I’m not saying we should speak for the sake of speaking. But I am saying that we should speak more when we have the seedlings of ideas—and we shouldn’t apologize for the birth of our ideas—they may not be ripe but they may be just enough to change the course of your team for the better. 

This doesn’t come down to simply an individual behavior change though. This one relies on the trust a team must develop to help innovation thrive. If you’re thinking about how to make a shift in your group dynamics, consider the following prompts.

• What do you need from your team to create an atmosphere of trust? 

• What can your team provide that would help you share your seedlings comfortably and confidently? 

• (How) can you get those things out of your current team?