Thursday, August 5, 2021

New Word: Positionism

August 5, 2021


I coined a word today: Positionism. It’s like ageism or sexism; except that instead of being overlooked because of your age or your gender, you’re overlooked because your ideas for improvement are considered to be beyond your position in the company.

Personally, if somebody—even a temp—walked into my office and said, “By doing a little reorganization, we could save the company thousands of dollars a month,” I’d be all ears. But I see, time and again, good ideas ignored because the person proposing them wasn’t the right sort of person for that idea. The accounting person has an idea to make warehouse operations more efficient, or somebody in the warehouse has a dynamite marketing idea—but the best they get is an indulgent, “It’s something to think about,” and then the idea is lost forever.


What a waste.


So make sure your company isn’t practicing Positionism. Pretend that whoever is giving you the idea is exactly the right person for the job, and listen with an open mind. You may hit the jackpot.





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