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I work as a software architect in a Fortune 500 company. According to some people I know from the outside, I'm introverted and "too modest". There are 80 developers and 6 software architects.

I usually find some really nice technologies and ways to improve our system and most of the time, things work as I expected. Plus, whenever there is a bug nobody knows how to deal with, I'm the one they call.

The thing is there are some architects who sometimes challenge my ideas and even refute them. I'm Ok with that. But the worst and that's what makes me sick is that when I'm spot on, those same architects who refute my ideas, copy/paste my solutions and even sometimes evangelise them to other It departments in my company.

Question : how do you deal with people appropriating your ideas in a company (especially after they publicly criticised them ) ?

(PS: I'm not saying "I'm the best" and "they are all wrong". I'm just describing what sometimes happens).

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    What is your goal? Do you want them not to use your ideas? Do you want them to stop critisizing them? Something else?
    – mustaccio
    Sep 19, 2021 at 13:31
  • If they stole it and presented it as their own, why do you fix it? Just look to them to fix it. And if you are asked to look at it, keep going back to them with technical questions about the detail they should understand :) Did this when a colleague stole my stuff - they looked a real **at, then most understood what had happened and kept on at them to sort "their" material.
    – Solar Mike
    Sep 19, 2021 at 17:09
  • Let it go. It shows that you are a better idea person than they are and you will continue to come up with good ideas. Over time, it will become obvious who is the one with the ideas.
    – David R
    Sep 20, 2021 at 14:28
  • Can you clarify one thing, are you saying that those who criticize then use the same ideas they shot down, or that they criticize some and promote some others?
    – crasic
    Sep 21, 2021 at 4:08

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You're telling your ideas to the wrong people. Tell your managers instead of your colleagues, otherwise they'll tell the managers for you.

You might be the one who has the ideas, but if you're not willing to act on them then somebody else will.

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    It's possible that the "architects" in question are the OP's managers, or filling an analogousrole in whatever project management methodology their company uses.
    – nick012000
    Sep 20, 2021 at 4:06

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