We are stingy with our ideas for many reasons; I can think of a few:
- We are afraid a poorly thought-out idea will get criticised
- We are afraid the idea will put us in bad light
- We don’t actually want to take the trouble of executing so we want to spare ourselves the embarrassment
- We think compliance is more important than creativity
- We leave ‘creative thinking’ to others while we practice “critical thinking”
But the chance to share an idea is not a chore; it is not necessarily a right, and often it is a privilege. The ability to execute aside, at the end of each day when we all walk out into the world, out of our offices, video conferences, as fellow man, we want the best ideas to win, we want the world to be a better place because there were great ideas that mankind acted upon. It was a good idea to burn fuel to get energy and turn that energy into useful work. It was also a good idea to generate those motive power from things like flowing water or shinning sun that will not be exhausted, nor throw up more pollutants into the air.
For Singapore to be greener, better, we need to give our ideas – even the simplest ones you may not think too highly of. And honestly, I think for so long, our government have been very open to ideas-sharing as long as you come in as a concerned citizen who wants to make things better. So, please, I’d encourage you to look through the Singapore Green Plan, and then post your ideas and thoughts there.