Not My Idea, Not My Problem
The Trust Deficit Behind Rejected Solutions
Not Invented Here (NIH) Syndrome isn’t just about dismissing outside vendors or rejecting software tools. In most organizations, it's subtler and more corrosive. It shows up in meetings where someone says, "We tried that before," or when ideas quietly die in shared docs without discussion. At its core, NIH isn’t a process failure. It's a trust problem.
It’s about teams and leaders who default to my way, my team, my solution. It’s about invisible walls between departments, skepticism toward other people’s inputs, and egos too fragile to let go of authorship. And more dangerously, it’s often reinforced by incentive systems that reward ownership more than outcomes.
Let’s explore how this plays out, why it persists, and how leaders can fix it.
And so we’re clear, I’m guilty of NIH all the time. Especially if I’m distracted, busy, or in a rush. Even worse when I forget to check my cognitive bias at the door.
TL;DR: Your team isn’t rejecting outside ideas because they’re bad; they’re rejecting them because your culture quietly rewards control, not collaboration. “Not Invented Here” isn’t a mindset problem. It’s a trust issue wrapped in a broken incentive system. Fix it, or keep watching smart ideas die in shared docs.
The Silos We Build to Protect Our Fragile Egos
One of the most common ways NIH shows up is the subtle undermining of external or cross-team ideas. Nobody says, "We only use our ideas here," but:
A junior team member shares a solution they learned from a previous job, and it's ignored.
A sales insight is dismissed because it's "anecdotal," even though it reflects frontline reality. Or the insight comes from someone outside “the boys club” or buried in the org chart.
A department quietly deprioritizes an idea, a solution, or a tool vetted by another group.
This isn’t about bad intent. It’s about ego, status, and control. People fear that adopting someone else's idea means diminishing their value.
The Ballplayers Who Won't Listen to the Coach
Championship teams trust their coaches. They take feedback. They adapt. But in many orgs, teams operate like solo athletes who only want to swing the bat their way.
Think of the Chicago Bulls: Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman didn’t always agree, but they bought into the system. They trusted Phil Jackson. They knew the goal wasn’t to be right, it was to win.
Think Hoosiers. Wooden’s UCLA basketball dynasty. You get the point.
In contrast, NIH creates a culture where:
Teams design or reinvent new processes instead of improving shared ones.
Leaders downplay pilot results if they didn’t initiate them.
Product managers ignore customer support data because "they don’t understand the roadmap."
This isn’t just inefficiency. It’s a trust breakdown.
The Psychology of "My Way or the Highway"
Why does this happen?
Ego. Admitting someone else had a better idea can feel like a personal loss.
Control. Leaders fear giving away ownership or becoming dependent on another team. Or worse, not getting “credit.”
Identity. Teams define themselves by their unique value. Outside ideas feel like threats.
Insecurity. If you're unsure of your standing, the safest move is to assert control and visibility through internally-driven work.
Beneath all of this lies a deeper engine: the misalignment between explicit and implicit incentives.
"If your culture rewards ego over outcomes, then NIH isn’t a syndrome, it’s a signal. It means you haven’t built enough trust, clarity, or credibility for your teams to believe that winning together matters more than owning the idea." - Mitchell Levy, Global Credibility Expert
We Say Collaboration, But We Reward Ownership
Most organizations say they value collaboration, openness, and cross-functional wins. But what do they actually reward?
Promotions based on individual projects, not shared success
Recognition for original thinking, not strategic adoption
Headcount increases for building internally, not integrating externally
The result? People optimize for visibility and credit, not speed and outcomes. Teams protect their turf. Leaders hesitate to promote borrowed ideas. NIH becomes a rational response to a misaligned system.
You can’t fix NIH just by encouraging openness. You have to close the collaboration gap:
Build performance reviews that reward external integration
Celebrate borrowed ideas that delivered impact
Fund or execute pilots that explore someone else's proposal
If you reward only invention, you will get NIH.
How to Build a Team That Trusts Each Other
Create No-Ego Zones
Run idea reviews where submissions are anonymous.
Rotate facilitators so power dynamics don’t dominate.
Borrow from Improv: "Yes, And"
Make idea discussions additive, not adversarial.
Train teams to build on others’ inputs before evaluating them.
Cross-Team Rotations
Move leaders across functions so they understand other teams’ constraints and value.
Build Incentives That Match the Message
Share wins that highlight adopted (not invented) solutions.
Make adoption metrics visible and tied to team KPIs.
Leadership Vulnerability
Model the behavior: Adopt ideas publicly. Credit others. Defer.
Championship Teams Don't Care Who Scores
The best organizations operate like elite sports teams: they trust each other, they know the goal, and they care more about winning than about who scored the point.
NIH syndrome isn't just a failure of imagination. It's a failure of trust and a misalignment of incentives.
If leaders want more innovation, faster execution, and stronger teams, they need to reward openness, humility, and shared wins.
Because at the end of the day, great companies don’t care who invented the idea.
They care that it worked.