I met with two top executives this morning. One of the participants runs a small creative agency. Another manages a manufacturing company 1000 times bigger. One is a man, the other a woman. One has seemingly unlimited resources, the other has to scrape for every dime. Here are some of the results of the meeting:

• one left the meeting with a plan to rearrange top management to make the company more responsive, quicker to market, and more innovative. “We’ve been doing things the same way for years. I feel like this is going to really open up the future for us.”
• one left the meeting with three things to do immediately to re-energize and re-engage employees. “I’ve been worrying about this for over a year. This is the first time I feel like I know what to do.”
• one left the meeting with a plan to identify, recruit, evaluate, and reward employees based on behaviors and attitudes vital to the company’s success. “This is something I’m going to put in place right now, It completely changes how I think about my business.”
• one left the meeting with an idea worth tens of thousands of dollars over the next year. “I can’t believe I never thought of this.”
  

Can you guess who’s who?

It doesn’t matter. You don’t get fresh ideas from people who are just like you. You get them from people who are different. It always matters who is in the room, but maybe not in the way you think.

When leaders work together to help each other succeed, good ideas come from surprising places.