The more stupid ideas your employees have, the better.
The more stupid ideas you have, the more people will feel comfortable in your organisation sharing and expressing ideas, regardless of whether they’re ‘good’ or ‘bad’ up front. This helps create a culture of original thinkers.
Take Google. Their 20 per cent rule is a game-changer. They encourage employees to dedicate 20 per cent of their week (one working day) to personal projects that they think will benefit the organisation. This incentive led to some of Google’s most well-known applications, like Gmail.
It goes to show that ideas are the biggest asset to your organisation, and they always come from people.
Which is why it’s HR’s responsibility to build a culture where original thinkers can thrive and be heard. We know that diversity of thought unleashes creativity and innovation in an organisation. But how do you make that happen when there isn’t a business case to challenge the status quo?
In this blog, we’ll explore some ways HR can start to create a culture of original thinkers by challenging employees, managers and leaders to kill your organisation.
This doesn’t sound as crazy as you think.
In your next executive meeting, ask the team to pretend they are your biggest competitor and ferociously plot and think of ways to take over your organisation. It’s an exercise called ‘kill your organisation’ created by Lisa Bodell.
Think of it like an out-of-organisation experience.
It encourages people to think of ways to disrupt the organisation. It offers a unique way to uncover your company’s blind spots, encouraging innovation and problem-solving.
This involves brainstorming ways to exploit internal weaknesses and inefficiencies. Asking questions like, “How will you put yourself out of business?”. What can you do about it? Even better, how can you then turn that back onto your competitors? It’s a cool way to look at what your weaknesses are. Think of it as a hybrid SWOT analysis.
Because organisations don’t like risk. They’re risk averse. Executives say they want employees to take on risks and go for it, but are then restricted because of quarterly results.
But by literally plotting the death of your organisation, executives redefine what risk means and will be able to operate with fewer restrictions and guardrails when it comes to their own company. Even if it’s just incremental, it can lead to disruptive change because you’ve allowed employees to come up with original ideas.
So, if it goes well and is received by executives, ask them to lead their team through the same exercise during their next catch-up. They can do it informally during a Friday drinks or a Monday morning meeting.
Think about whether executives lead by example. How much failure or experimentation are they allowed to take? How much time and money do they put toward new ventures?
Because the biggest killer of an organisation's culture is complacency.
Organisations have become so complex by integrating technology and relying on it so heavily that employees have become complacent.
They think there’s no point in bringing new ideas because they won’t be able to effect change, even if they want to. What this also means is HR managers can hide behind a big brand and an HR budget. But then a smaller, more exciting organisation comes around and snatches up great employees because your culture has become complacent.
Challenge leaders to crowdsource their own performance review. It shows that they’re comfortable with feedback and are prepared to listen to others.
And when it comes to HR’s performance, double down on retention at every stage of the employee process. Find out what new employees think of the onboarding experience. Ask managers to ask stay questions in meetings to get an understanding of what’s working. And during the exit interview stage, ask leaving employees to comment on the culture of ideas in the organisation.
Middle management has more of an impact on your organisation's performance than any other part of your organisation.
Because there are more managers than leaders in your organisation. So if you’re trying to create a culture where original ideas can flourish, the best way to get it started is on the ground. Because employees don’t want to be pushed by leaders and managers. They’d rather change within themselves. They make the change themselves, so thinking about how managers can incite that in meetings and the day-to-day is important.
But process still matters and is an important part of developing culture.
Killing your organisation and empowering leaders and managers to be ruthless and transparent doesn’t mean you get to invite chaos and anarchy in.
The point is to rework the culture of your organisation slowly, by developing and adding a process. Good processes lead to good solutions. Poor processes keep your organisatiown complacent and vulnerable.
Even while developing a culture for original thinking, the process itself should nurture original ideas rather than restrict them. Encourage teams to improve processes based on lessons learnt. Because if you can create a culture where everyone, from employees and executives, feels comfortable being stupid and sharing wrong ideas, then you’re giving your organisation the best chance to create a real culture of original thinking.
Because if you don’t do it first, then someone else will do it for them.
Creating a culture of original thinking is about giving everyone the freedom to think out loud, even if their ideas seem ‘stupid’ at first. From exercises like kill your organisation to redefining leadership feedback and sharpening everyday processes, HR can create a workplace where creativity thrives, risk-taking is celebrated, and innovation becomes part of the company’s culture.
Martian Logic helps HR teams build workplaces where stupid ideas spark real culture. Our HRIS makes it easier to support original thinkers by giving leaders the tools to challenge norms, crowdsource feedback, and turn raw ideas into structured change. Whether you're launching a ‘kill your organisation’ workshop or rethinking how middle managers shape culture, we help you operationalise creativity without losing control. Our tech empowers HR to foster psychological safety, smarter processes, and bold thinking at every level of the business. Ready to build a company where ideas actually matter?
