It happens all the time. You're in a meeting, brainstorming with your team to uncover the next big idea. As the discussion unfolds, one of the standout ideas is yours - or so you thought. Suddenly, you realize a colleague is getting the credit.
You've just encountered an idea thief.
Despite the high reputational cost of being caught, idea theft is surprisingly common. A 2015 poll of 1,000 British workers revealed nearly half had their ideas stolen by colleagues, while one in five admitted to stealing an idea themselves.
Why is idea theft so common? And how do so many idea thieves get away with it? Zoe Kinias, professor of organizational behaviour and sustainability at Ivey Business School, tackled these questions with her colleagues in a new study, Social inattentional blindness to idea stealing in meetings, published in Scientific Reports.
Boardroom blind spot
Today's managers and executives are juggling more than ever, balancing diverse tasks in dynamic and information-rich workplaces. It's hard to stay fully informed and keep a finger on the pulse of everything that matters, experts say.
"As humans, our senses are constantly working together to create a vivid and detailed perception of the world," said Kinias. "Yet, our brains process only a tiny fraction of the information around us, leaving much unnoticed. This phenomenon, known as inattentional blindness, highlights just how selective our attention truly is."
Inattentional blindness offers profound opportunities for understanding complex social dynamics. But how do you study something most people fail to notice? Enter Theodore C. Masters-Waage, then a PhD student at Singapore Management University, who approached Kinias - an expert in empowering workers - with a bold idea: leveraging virtual reality (VR) to explore social attention in the workplace.
"While VR has long been a powerful tool in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields, its use in organizational behaviour research is still in its early days," Kinias said. "For this study, VR was essential. It allowed us to create a hyper-realistic scenario with complete control, enabling us to examine how subtle social changes influence where people focus, or fail to focus, their attention."
In their experiment, 154 participants used VR headsets to enter a virtual meeting, where they watched four team members brainstorm ideas. Their task was straightforward: Identify the best idea. But there was a twist - midway through the meeting, one person blatantly stole another's idea and claimed it as their own.
Spotting idea stealers
The results were surprising: While nearly all participants - over 99 per cent - could pinpoint the best idea, only 30 per cent could recall who originally shared it. The study revealed that the person who swooped in and claimed the idea as their own reaped the rewards. In fact, 42 per cent of participants mistakenly credited the idea thief.
"Many people know the famous study where participants, engrossed in simple counting exercise, missed a person in a gorilla suit beating their chest," said Kinias. "We didn't have gorillas, but our study showed something similar: In real-world settings, laser focusing on one task can make you miss both subtle and important details - like who actually provided the best idea in a meeting."
For Kinias and her team, the results raised an even more troubling question. If people fail to notice something as blatant as idea theft, could other social misconduct be slipping under the radar in the workplace?
Giving credit where it's due
While idea theft might not top the corporate agenda, it can unfairly reward the thief while stalling the originator's career progression and sense of confidence - potentially leading to a detrimental work environment, Kinias said.
"While some research suggests the merits of shared ownership of ideas, the social costs of idea stealing are too significant to ignore," she said. "That's why it's crucial for managers to step in and address it meaningfully."
To curb idea theft, Kinias offers two actionable strategies for leaders and organizations:
- Practice active listening: In your next meeting, go beyond evaluating the ideas themselves and pay attention to the dynamics behind them. Are certain voices being overshadowed? Does the social hierarchy in the room allow for balanced contributions? Recognizing these nuances can reveal whose ideas might be overlooked or co-opted.
- Encourage amplification: Make it a habit to explicitly credit the originator of an idea. For example, say, "I really appreciated Emily's idea about X." This small gesture ensures recognition and discreetly discourages idea theft.
"Amplifying a teammate's idea doesn't just build team support and confidence around the concept, it also boosts the reputation of both the idea's creator and the amplifier. At the end of the day, this small and easy action achieves two powerful outcomes: it boosts team morale and delivers a strong message to those eyeing their chance to claim the next big idea," Kinias said.
