The philosophy to "share ideas liberally" defies the age-old instinct to keep ideas secret.
However, emerging businesses are likely to benefit more from sharing ideas than from withholding them. For starters, new ideas are likely to die in isolation unless they gain traction among employees and partners. Ideas are also liable to alienate your partners and customers unless they are "tested." Of course, ideas area also likely to succeed when refined.
Business leaders flush with ideas should take every opportunity to communicate new ideas broadly, seek feedback, and develop a sense of accountability.
Share your ideas liberally. The benefits from accountability and feedback outweigh the risk that someone steals your idea! Many entrepreneurs claim that they become more committed to their ideas after telling people about them! The fact is that great ideas are plentiful, and very few people have the discipline and resources to make them happen. When you are accountable to others, you are more likely to stay focused.
Broadcast your idea to generate valuable feedback.
Great ideas don't develop in isolation. You may become "drunk" on your own kool-aid without any candid feedback from others. A critical component of pushing ideas forward is gathering feedback to refine the idea.
Engage a few "partners" in every project as a source of accountability.
The more people you work with, the more pressure you will feel to provide further updates (and have some progress to report)! Why do publishers insist on offering advances to authors even when the author prefers to put off the advance in favor of a more lenient time schedule? The importance of deadlines has been a common theme across Behance's research of productive creative professionals. It is no surprise that novels are less likely to end up in a drawer, half-written, when there is an advance cashed and a deadline looming. Use other people and externally-generated deadlines as a way to boost your accountability!
And, if you are extremely concerned about someone easily "stealing" your idea, then it may not be a great idea to begin with!
Unless you have a truly brilliant patentable innovation, any easy-to-reproduce idea will ultimately be quickly cloned if successful. If you are keeping your insights closely guarded, question whether or not you have a "sustainable competitive advantage"to begin with!
Behance articles and tips are adapted from the writing and research of Scott Belsky and the Behance team. Behance runs the premier online creative network and develops knowledge, products, and services that help creative professionals make ideas happen.