For centuries, childbirth was a major cause of death for women. But around 1630, Peter Chamberlen, a British doctor, invented a special instrument to assist women in labor.
Nobody knew what that instrument was, because Doctor Chamberlen and his family kept the device a tight secret. Whenever called in to help a mother in obstructed labor, they would make everyone else leave the room. And they would cover the mother’s lower half with a sheet, so even she couldn’t see the instrument.
The device, of course, was the obstetrical forceps, which Chamberlen and his three sons kept to themselves for decades. They eventually sold the idea to a Dutch physician, who maintained the monopoly until another Dutch doctor published the secret of forceps in 1732.
So for more than a century, thousands of women around the world died of childbirth while Chamberlen and his chosen few sat on the secret.
Your ideas might not be of life-or-death importance, but they’re valuable to those who could benefit from them. Don’t let fear or inhibition cause you to keep ideas secret. Share them. Create an atmosphere of generosity in your workplace, where ideas are exchanged, encouraged and celebrated by everyone.
And also continue to polish the presentation skills of you and your team, so that when ideas are shared, they are easily understood and readily embraced by all audiences.