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Practices Preventing Idea Generation by Employees in Hierarchical
Structures1 |
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Hijacking of ideas
by the time they make it up the corporate ladder – when that
happens, workers retaliate by keeping good ideas to themselves, thus
slowing down the organization's thinking
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Taking away sharp edges of ideas while they pass
up through a hierarchical structure - when their ideas get honed
down to something that doesn't mean anything, people become
discouraged and state that they either don't have the time or
interest in putting forth their ideas
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Human barriers to change –
rejecting good ideas that may change the status quo and thus
threaten personal interests of a corporate 'gatekeeper'
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Though Nobody Argues...
Though everybody agrees that the best
ideas
should win, creating a corporate environment where the best idea –
regardless of origin – does win is an art not yet mastered by most companies
and it prevents them from
thinking and moving
faster than their competition.1
9 Signs of a Losing Organization
Lack of
Initiative:
poor
motivation
and encouragement; people do not feel their contributions make a
difference; management fails to engage the organization effectively;
people work defensively and not creatively, they do their job, and
nothing more...
More
12 Effective Leadership Roles
delegate authority; be open
to to ideas;
have faith in the
creativity
of others...
More
Loose-Tight Leadership
Case
in Point
GE
"Use the
brains of every worker," kept teaching
Jack Welch,
the former legendary CEO of
General Electric (GE).
"Make sure that it is the person with the best idea who wins. Reward and
celebrate new ideas to encourage others to want contribute as well. Reward
those who live the company's values, show "guts", and, in doing so, make the
numbers."...
More
With
Work-Out
as part of its DNA, GE has become one of the most innovative, profitable,
and admired companies on earth. At its core, Work-Out is a very
simple concept based on the premise that those closest to the work know it
best. When the ideas of those people, irrespective of their functions and
job titles, are solicited and turned immediately into action, an unstoppable
wave of creativity, energy, and productivity is unleashed throughout the
organization. At GE, Work-Out "Town Meetings" gave the corporation access to
an unlimited resource of imagination and energy of its talented employees.
Case
in Point
Google:
10 Golden Rules
Encourage
creativity. Google engineers can spend up to 20 percent of their
time on a project of their choice. There is, of course, an approval
process and some oversight, but basically we want to allow creative
people to
be creative.
One of our not-so-secret weapons is our ideas mailing list: a
companywide suggestion box where people can post ideas ranging from
parking procedures to the next killer app. The software allows for
everyone to comment on and rate ideas, permitting the best ideas to
percolate to the top...
More
Case
in Point
Lend
Lease's Guiding Principles
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