How Companies Create a Culture of Openness for Idea-Sharing
Fostering a culture of openness for idea-sharing has become crucial for innovation and growth in business. We asked industry experts to share how their companies encourage employees to share their ideas and perspectives, regardless of their role or level. Discover practical strategies for promoting and facilitating the free flow of ideas among your employees.
- Foster Psychological Safety for Idea Sharing
- Create Structured Opportunities for Innovation
- Implement Weekly Idea-Sharing Sessions
- Establish Direct Communication with Leadership
- Develop an Open Ideas Forum
- Encourage Informal Idea Sharing
- Hold Regular Open Floor Discussions
- Promote Accessibility Across All Levels
- Conduct Demo and Discuss Sessions
- Build a Culture of Open Dialogue
- Provide Anonymous Suggestion Platforms
- Integrate Idea Sharing into Daily Workflows
- Form Cross-Departmental Idea Generation Groups
- Host Monthly Innovation Hours
- Embed Idea Sharing in Sprint Processes
- Solicit Ideas Through Everyday Interactions
Foster Psychological Safety for Idea Sharing
Creating a culture where every employee feels safe and motivated to share their ideas isn’t just a “nice to have” — it’s a competitive advantage. The most innovative solutions often come from those closest to the work, regardless of their title. At our company, we’ve worked to embed open dialogue into our processes, ensuring that idea-sharing is not a rare event but a consistent, valued practice.
Miriam Groom
CEO, Mindful Career Inc., Mindful Career Counselling
Create Structured Opportunities for Innovation
At our company, we believe that creating psychological safety is fundamental to encouraging employees at all levels to share their ideas openly. One effective method we’ve implemented is the “From Me to We” exercise within our teams, where each member shares their ideal communication preferences and work motivations. This structured activity helps break down hierarchical barriers by giving everyone an equal platform to express what they need from colleagues to perform their best work.
Vivian Acquah CDE
Certified Inclusion Strategist, Amplify DEI
Implement Weekly Idea-Sharing Sessions
The mindset is simple: the best idea wins. It doesn’t matter if it came from a junior developer or a client success intern; if it’s solid, we move on it. The culture is built more like a startup jam session than a corporate boardroom. There’s no ego, no red tape, just shared momentum. One thing we do that really unlocks ideas is our “Friday Builds.” Every Friday, anyone — designer, QA, ops — can pitch a product idea, prototype, or process tweak they think would improve something. We treat it like a mini hackathon.
Daniel Haiem
CEO, App Makers LA
Establish Direct Communication with Leadership
The vast majority of global businesses stifle new thinking by requiring anything worthwhile to pass through a suggestion box and be seen as “unslammed,” a process that can take months. I learned this when our night shift mechanics in Bangkok revealed fantastic ideas to prevent bike breakdowns, only to watch them become invisible under layers of management. The solution emerged in the form of Fix-It-Fridays, a 15-minute opportunity for any employee to engage with leadership and discuss operational issues they were observing.
Carlos Nasillo
CEO, Riderly
Develop an Open Ideas Forum
We truly believe that innovation thrives on collaboration and diverse viewpoints. Encouraging our team members to share their ideas and perspectives is a foundational part of our culture. Every voice matters, regardless of role or seniority. One of the key ways we facilitate this is through our Open Ideas Forum, a dedicated platform where employees from all departments can submit, discuss, and refine their ideas. Ideas can be about improving workplace processes, enhancing our platform features, or any innovative approaches that could benefit our clients and customers.
Raj Baruah
Co-Founder, VoiceAIWrapper
Encourage Informal Idea Sharing
Look, everyone’s got something valuable to say. Doesn’t matter if they’ve been here two weeks or twenty years. The new guy might catch something obvious that the rest of us are too close to see. The person who’s been doing this forever knows what’s been tried before and why it bombed. We’ve had our best breakthroughs come from weird places. Our bookkeeper once mentioned something during a boring budget review that became a whole new revenue stream. One of the support team members made an offhand comment about customer complaints that completely changed how we built the next version.
Raul Reyeszumeta
VP, Product & Design, MarketScale
Hold Regular Open Floor Discussions
Our company consistently encourages employees to share their opinions, ideas, perspectives, and even concerns. One priority we’ve always maintained is ensuring everyone can voice their thoughts without fear of repercussions, regardless of their position. I always make it a point to listen to everyone. To support our culture, we hold weekly huddles and monthly “open floor” sessions where anyone can share their thoughts or ask questions. These are not formal presentations but open conversations where everyone feels safe and heard.
Blaz Korosec
CEO, Medical Director Co.
Promote Accessibility Across All Levels
My co-founder and I founded a remote-first organization and continue to be highly involved in every member of our staff’s onboarding and experience. By making ourselves available early on in the process, we make it clear that we’re not just here to listen, but to learn. We don’t just passively leave our metaphorical doors open — we encourage our employees to reach out with new ideas and perspectives to whomever and wherever they feel the most comfortable.
Maurice Harary
CEO & Co-Founder, The Bid Lab
Conduct Demo and Discuss Sessions
The most valuable ideas often come from the people closest to the work. We’ve built open forums where any team member can propose changes or improvements. One example is our “demo and discuss” sessions. Anyone, from engineering to support, can present an idea or prototype. We focus on listening first, then exploring how it aligns with our mission. I believe that creating space for ideas without hierarchy builds stronger products and stronger teams. When you make it clear that ideas are welcome from every level and act on them when they’re strong, you reinforce that contribution is about impact.
Alexander De Ridder
Co-Founder & CTO, SmythOS.com
Build a Culture of Open Dialogue
Creating an environment where every team member feels comfortable sharing ideas isn’t just good business practice — it’s essential to serving our clients effectively. As a firm that deals exclusively with personal injury and wrongful death, we need to harness everyone’s empathy and understanding. From these baseline qualities, we see clients start to feel like family (and they say the same about us). We’ve built our culture around the principle that good ideas can come from anywhere, and hierarchy should never silence valuable perspectives. To achieve this, we strongly support open communication among all team members.
Joshua W. Branch
Managing Partner, The Law Office of Joshua W. Branch, LLC.
Provide Anonymous Suggestion Platforms
We created a digital suggestion box for anonymous submissions, which encourages contributions from all levels. In my experience as co-founder of all-in-one-ai.co, quiet team members have pitched some of the most powerful ideas through anonymous submissions. One junior engineer suggested an automation adjustment that saved us many dozens of hours a month in the future.
Dario Ferrai
Co-Founder, All-in-one-ai.co
Integrate Idea Sharing into Daily Workflows
We don’t have formal “innovation meetings” or dedicated idea channels. That approach feels forced, and people tend to hold back when you put them on the spot. What works is creating an environment where people feel comfortable speaking up during our regular workflows. During our scrum calls, when we’re sharing updates, someone might mention an idea they’ve been considering. Or they’ll schedule a quick call if something’s been on their mind.
Aastha Jaiswal
Client Relations Manager, WrittenlyHub
Form Cross-Departmental Idea Generation Groups
Building trust in an organization and fostering engagement at any level flourishes in an environment that feels welcoming and gives recognition for all efforts made. It is an approachable matter of creating an environment where employees feel they are not judged or taken for granted. The small group nature and cross-hierarchical structure are conducive to participation from everyone. Every member, regardless of their physical or official position within the organization, is free to express their views in an uninterrupted environment.
Mohit Ramani
CEO & CTO, Empyreal Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
Host Monthly Innovation Hours
We foster a culture of open communication and collaboration, encouraging employees at all levels to share their ideas and perspectives. One way we facilitate this is through our monthly “Innovation Hour,” where team members are invited to pitch their ideas for improving processes, services, or even company culture. Our platform gives everyone a voice, regardless of their role, and creates a safe space for open sharing. As a result, we’ve seen greater employee engagement and more innovative ideas that have benefited our business.
Jack Nguyen
CEO, InCorp Vietnam
Embed Idea Sharing in Sprint Processes
We’ve always believed that good ideas don’t follow the hierarchy chart. So, whether it’s a senior architect or a fresher developer, we make sure that everyone has space to be heard. Every sprint has dedicated time slots where everyone on the team shares suggestions on how we could be doing better. And it doesn’t mean everyone has to give groundbreaking strategies. Sometimes, it’s the everyday, on-the-ground insights that create just as much impact.
Dharmesh Acharya
Co-Founder, ZeroThreat
Solicit Ideas Through Everyday Interactions
Our company prioritizes open communication channels that allow every employee to contribute ideas regardless of their position in the organization. A key example of this is our structured forums, where team members at all levels can voice perspectives and propose solutions to business challenges. This system provides a level playing field for every employee and builds trust throughout the organization. With this system, employees feel genuinely empowered to shape the direction of our firm at a time of growth, which is great to see as a leader.
Anna Blood
Founder and Managing Attorney, Blood Law PLLC
Original Article: How Companies Create a Culture of Openness for Idea-Sharing | DevX.com
