1) Many corporate environments are built around a lack of trust. Generally this parades as "quality assurance" or "change management". There's certainly a place

1) Many corporate environments are built around a lack of trust. Generally this parades as "quality assurance" or "change management". There's certainly a place for QA and change management - the problem is that those processes often intervene -before- a change takes place. Beneficial change, however, is not always obvious prior to implementation. So say some plebe in app management has an idea for restructuring the UI of a particular sub-section, but it gets nixed because "The users won't understand" or "We'll have to retrain." A) This could be the change that would make life easier for the people who interact with that screen, they just didn't know it; B) Even if there's a mock-up, it's not the same as using the system. Now certainly there's a real cost to change, but most organizations are restrictive rather than permissive. This makes the "fight for change" really hard. 2) Bad corporate managers view ideas as a threat, if they didn't buy in. Say you have an idea that could alter your company for the better. If your manager rejects it and you push the issue, you better watch your back. (As a manager this is a hard impulse to overcome if you let yourself get 'sucked into' the corporate environment. Instead of being angry that someone "went around you", realize you missed a good idea (it's ok!) and try and figure out how to make it the best implementation possible.) 3) People are delusional. The linked post talks about people who think they have good ideas. In 'bitch and moan' sessions I've witnessed at conferences, eating with colleagues at lunch or whatever, I hear about how their great ideas are being ignored. Their ideas aren't great. They've come to be ignored because they're the Dwight Schrute of their office. So telling people to 'take leadership' is actually really bad advice.