The Best Lessons in Leadership Often Came From an Open Door
Some of the most valuable lessons in an organization come from the people closest to the work. Drawing on my years of leadership experience, I share how open-door team conversations helped turn everyday observations, successes, and challenges into shared knowledge, stronger decisions, and lasting Experience Capital.
Roger Campbell, Sr.
11/1/20262 min read
Over my more than 40 years in leadership and operations, I've learned that some of the most valuable information in an organization doesn't always come from management meetings, performance reports, or executive discussions.
Sometimes it comes from an employee who walks through your door and says, "Can I talk to you about something?"
Throughout my career, I've believed in keeping my door open. I wanted employees to feel comfortable sharing their ideas, concerns, frustrations, and even their successes. Those conversations often told me more about what was really happening in the organization than the reports sitting on my desk.
And I learned something important along the way. The people closest to the work often understand things that leadership may never see.
An employee might explain why a particular process wasn't working as intended. Someone else might share a simple adjustment that saved time or prevented a recurring problem. Another person might describe a customer situation that revealed an issue we hadn't recognized.
These weren't always major discoveries. Sometimes they were small observations that made a significant difference.
But here's what I came to appreciate.
Each of those conversations was an opportunity to learn something about the organization that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. The challenge was making sure that information didn't remain between just two people.
When someone shared an idea that improved operations, I wanted to understand why it worked and whether others could benefit. When an employee described a problem, I wanted to know whether we were dealing with an isolated situation or something happening throughout the organization.
That kind of communication helped us make better decisions. It also helped employees recognize that their experience and observations mattered. Today, as I continue developing The Experience Advantage Program, I look back on those conversations differently.
I now see them as examples of what I call Experience Capital.
Experience Capital is the practical knowledge, judgment, relationships, and understanding people develop through their work. Much of it never appears in a procedure manual or training document.
And unless organizations make a deliberate effort to recognize and share it, that knowledge can remain with just one individual. An open door can create the opportunity for that knowledge to surface. But leadership has another responsibility: making sure valuable lessons become part of the organization's collective understanding.
When an experienced employee moves on, retires, or is simply unavailable, the organization shouldn't have to rediscover lessons someone learned years ago. Looking back, some of my best leadership lessons didn't come from the executive conference room.
They came from listening to the people who walked through my door.
And I believe organizations would be stronger if more of those everyday conversations became knowledge the entire organization could use.
Roger Campbell, Sr.
Founder, Over 60 Dam, LLC
Experience Capital and Institutional Knowledge
over60dam.net
Protecting Knowledge. Preserving Advantage.