Mark Cole: Let The Best Idea Win

I was reminded of a valuable lesson in a team meeting recently.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss an event our team will host this year. After setting aside an entire afternoon to prepare ideas, I felt very confident about what I was bringing to the meeting. But soon after the meeting began, it became very clear we were headed in a different direction than I anticipated.

One after another, ideas were put out on the table—most of which were clearly different from mine. Everyone in th...