Ideas about Ideas

This is the title that I am giving this blog in the series of my SharedForward thoughts from our leadership journeys about making the corporate world more efficient, more sustainable, more productive and last, but certainly not least – more fun.

 We as leaders and managers rely on the insight and experience of our front-line colleagues, production teams and logistics agents. Without up-to-date ideas “from the field” our strategic grand plans fall flat and lack real-life innovation.

 But just how do we get our teams engaged in sharing these ideas and insights?

 Just rolling out modern idea apps or old-school recommendation letter boxes is not enough. I have been working with this challenge and here are my take-aways on how to drive this idea generation process. For me, this is a work in progress. Let me know your feedback from your experience.

 Philosophy of change. Whatever ideas we want to harvest, we must have a culture of change in place. Otherwise all new ideas are just a disruption of stability. Change is not easy as it requires effort, new adaptation, new dynamics. And yet, there is no growth without change. We need to have an open conversation about change with our teams before we ask for ideas. We all need to be on the same page, that change is what we want – either on corporate or personal level.

 Channel. Once we have the understanding of change in concept, we are ready to ask for help – that is, insight and ideas. And here we need a simple technical process that allows to submit ideas to the innovation or management teams. Something so intuitive and easy to access. Effortless and present. An app on every desktop, a link in every email, a major section on intranet. If people have to make time and effort just to figure out how to submit their ideas, they are not likely to do so. The idea generation process itself should not require ideas on how to improve it.

 Feedback. Have you ever had that feeling, that your suggestion gets lost somewhere in the black hole of time and space? The lack of response can perhaps be the biggest impediment to engagement. We need to show, that every – and let me emphasize – every idea will be considered and there will be feedback within 5 or 30 days.

 Expectations. “My idea is too small.” Or the opposite – “it sounds just too ambitious, it will never happen”. We need to set the expectations right by showing that even seemingly insignificant tweaks are welcome and have real impact. And also, that a grand idea may be the missing piece to set some major change in motion.

 Motivation. It is not so much about monetary rewards even that these can play a significant role too. It is about being noticed, recognized and thanked. Perhaps a dual approach can help – small, but noteworthy “thank you” to everyone and a big “thank you” in a shape of a prize to those with actionable contributions.

 I am now working on this five-point plan and will see how it works. I am hopeful. We are blessed with talented people from whom I am eager to hear.

 As ever in these blogs, let me know your takes and experience from implementing various engagement and idea generation methods and processes. Was this useful to you? What am I missing? Share your idea about ideas. Thank you.