Ideas come from everywhere and everyone. And yes, we tend to think that anyone can come up with bad ideas.
We expect good ideas to come from people whom we think of as creative: thought leaders, speakers, authors; product managers, leaders, executives; those higher up who move in influential circles.
However, great ideas do come from unexpected sources:
• A number cruncher helped the Oakland baseball team win a record-breaking 20 games in a row instead of experienced scouts (cf. the movie Moneyball)
• Random discovery: Percy Spencer noticed that microwaves from an active radar melted a chocolate bar in his pocket. This led to the invention of the microwave oven.
• Accidents: Known for being clumsy, Richard James invented the Slinky when he dropped a tension spring and saw how it moved across the floor.
• Low level workers: An assembly line worker discovered that by heating the paint before applying it to the cars, it prevented the paint from peeling. The auto company didn’t realize this until after the worker retired and paint started peeling off their cars.
Lesson learned: don’t prematurely dismiss an idea because of where it comes from. Especially do not be dismissive of unusual sources of ideas. The first idea could be a dud. But if you act dismissively, you may never get to hear the second, winning idea.