Dear friend,
The issue you bring up is an important one, and there's no pat answer. I
personally have always been suspicious of anonymous ideas, but I know that
many workplaces foster secrecy because of feared consequences of telling
the truth. This pattern becomes a norm and creates a culture thet becomes
self-fulfilling.
I think, however, that where fear has been driven out of a workplace,
ownership of ideas and opinions enhances learning and ultimately builds
trust, understanding and openness. Since people can have the opportunity,
if they choose, to engage in dialogue with the real-time source of an
idea, deeper learning and reelatedness can occur. (i did say ideally
speaking!).
Another pattern I've noticed where employee input is typically solicited
on an anonymous basis, is that people learn that they don't have to take
responsibility for their opinions or ideas - which means that they don't
have to DO anything! Peter Block says a lot about this kind of dependency
in his book, The Empowered Manager.
-- Don Shapiro DonS43@aol.com