New ideas often arrive quietly because they have no reputation yet.

New ideas have no track record to speak for them, so they cannot borrow authority the way established ones can. They enter without a reputation, which makes them easy to overlook in a room where confidence and familiarity are doing the persuading. Volume is not the same as merit.

When an idea seems small, ask what it would need to be big rather than whether it currently is. Give the quiet suggestion in a meeting the same minute you would give a loud one. Reputation follows adoption, so it cannot be the test.