How do you ensure that junior employees contribute their ideas?

That is a great question. I believe the most important thing to do is create an environment where employees feel safe in and feel that their opinion is valued. One way to achieve that is to treat every idea equally – regardless whether it’s good or not.

Encourage team members to lay out all ideas on the table as much as possible. Give credit and acknowledge not only the idea itself, but the act of sharing, expressing opinion and speaking up. If the idea or opinion is not really relevant or doesn’t fit – provide constructive feedback, but don’t turn it down.

In my experience, teams where employees are highly engaged in discussions and actively brainstorm are also ones with the strongest teamwork, communication, mutual respect and support system. In such teams employees respect each other’s point of view and are connected on a more personal level – regardless how long that person is in the team or how big of an experience he/she has. In fact, Nokia is great at cultivating such mindset and I personally felt how powerful it can be at making sure people who are newer to the company are not intimidated by those with more experience.