Getting The Best Employee Idea

Getting the Best Employee Ideas

Management Series

An inspiration from Management article

“ The right approach to generating ideas from your employees creates a virtuous circle” say Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder, professors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, Ind.), respective ly.

W orkers become more engaged when they see their ideas being used. And m anagers, seeing the impact of employees’ ideas, give employees more authority— which leads to more and better ideas.

5 Ws in the form of question can explain

1. What’s wrong with the typical approach to idea generation? 2. What are some of the characteristics of an effective idea system? 3. Why the emphasis on small ideas? 4. How should companies guide idea generation? 5. How organizations need to reward ideas to guarantee a large flow of them?

5 Ws

5 Ws 1. What’s wrong with the typical approach to idea generation? Can anyone argued that management’s job was to think and the worker’s job to do , this has been most companies’ default perspective. But, in fact, frontline workers have better knowledge of the particularities of products, services, and processes than managers do They’re better positioned to spot problems and opportunities.

5 Ws 2. What are some of the characteristics of an effective idea system? Ideas are actively encouraged—from all quarters. Submitting ideas is simple, and the evaluation of suggestions is quick and effective. Pushing decision making down to the front lines for as many ideas as possible leads to better decisions, faster implementation, and lower processing costs; it also frees up managers’ time.

5 Ws 3. Why the emphasis on small ideas? Business leaders are always looking for the next breakthrough idea—the home run that will put them well ahead of the competition with one swing. Because of this, the systems and policies they put in place are aimed at big ideas. Few managers realize how severely limiting this is. In many important aspects of business—customer service, responsiveness, quality, and managing costs.you just can’t achieve excellence without getting the little things right.

5 Ws 4. How should companies guide idea generation? A company’s strategy should help it determine where to concentrate its search for ideas. Identifying the primary drivers of performance and then soliciting ideas related to those drivers—that’s the ultimate alignment tool.

5 Ws 5. How organizations need to reward ideas to guarantee a large flow of them? Not as much as they think they do. The Japanese company Idemitsu gets more than a hundred ideas per employee each year without offering any bonuses. Besides, many seemingly commonsense reward plans—for instance, offering a percentage of the savings or profits from each idea—turn out to be counterproductive, creating an enormous amount of non-value-adding work and also undermining teamwork and trust. Most employees have lots of ideas and would be thrilled to see them used. They take pride in contributing to the organization’s success. So the most effective form of idea recognition is to implement the ideas rapidly and to give credit to the employees involved.

ACTION NOTE Question: How can you create such a win-win situation? Answer : Learn to appreciate the power of small ideas, and throw out any beliefs about the need for financial incentives.

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