Some time ago, Heinz had decided to take the talent and employee innovation displayed by its workforce seriously as it really was the most unused asset in any company. The improvements suggested was worth $250 million a year. Immersed in strategies and innovation we forget to ask ourselves a very basic question...
...How do we tap into ideas from the people working in our business? What can we do to achieve this?
The organisation should encourage open communication. The key is to bring together diversity in your team and your people. They should encourage informal feedback during projects and formal feedback at the completion of assignments. They also seek views and feedback on new ideas, and work towards implementing sound ideas.
Invest in young leaders. More importantly one needs to establish a common place where all people in the organisation across hierarchies can come together and converge their perspectives. They also encourage regular brainstorming sessions between different business units. Demonstration of how conformity is not always the way to go, helps.
It doesn’t have to be like this anymore.
Online systems for recording, developing, and evaluating ideas have been very effective in attracting contributions and stimulating the company’s employee engagement innovation efforts. Focus on small individual innovations from the people most familiar with a company’s products and processes.
IBM (company), for example, used space on its corporate Intranet to launch a 72-hour “Innovation Jam” that attracted 57,000 visitors and 30,000 posts addressing new business opportunities.
Team members should leverage these online platforms to pour in their ideas even if it strikes them in the shower at 1 in the night. Create a culture for change and continuous improvement where priority is to ship/rollout first, then iterate to arrive at successful employee innovation programs.