Build Innovation Into A Day’s Work
Game-changing ideas may abound at your workplace – in the minds of your employees. The hard part is figuring out how to tap into those ideas and make creativity part of the daily routine.
But regularly harnessing your staff’s brainpower can provide an important edge to small businesses competing against larger competitors with bigger budgets and deeper resources.
1. Awards and Recognition
Allison De Meulder wanted to hear new ideas from employees at her online custom-invitation store. Her staff of 24 rarely made suggestions, but she had a feeling they had more to offer than they were letting on. “People don’t always feel comfortable coming into my office,” she says.
Ms. De Meulder, who is president of Tampa, Fla.-based Invitation Consultants Inc., bought a white mailbox and installed it in a central spot in the office.
Employees are encouraged to drop in new ideas and lift the red mailbox flag. Once a quarter, Ms. De Meulder and her husband, Olivier De Meulder, the company’s vice president, select a winner from as many as 30 ideas. They host a catered lunch and read the top three aloud. The winner is awarded $500 cash and a sculpture resembling a glass-encased electric-blue light bulb.
“I really wanted to do something to motivate people,” Ms. De Meulder says. “People are motivated by recognition.”
2. Required Suggestions
3. Online Document Sharing
Photo by Invitation Consultants Inc..
CoolProducts on October 10th, 2008 11:13 am
This is a very good idea, but shouldn’t be stopped at simply finding innovative ideas. In larger corporations, awards and recognition can go a very long way in increasing productivity, lowering costs, etc.
One example of this is the Kansas City busing system where they were having to pay about $1 million in costs for accidents. They ended up creating a positive reinforcement system based on simple awards and high up recognition for the best performances and found that it greatly reduced the costs of accidents.
Kevin Elliott on October 10th, 2008 11:47 am
Is this post incomplete? I do not need paragraphs for 2 and 3, and I feel that this might have been a draft that was never completed. I was really looking forward to a detailed article on this topic.
-Kevin
Kevin Elliott on October 10th, 2008 11:48 am
Yikes, I typo’d. I meant, I do not SEE paragraphs for #2 and #3.
Rich on October 10th, 2008 3:56 pm
The post was origianlly 3 Ways To Build Innovation Into A Day’s Work.
Awards and recognition was the more interesting of the three.
If you would like to read more on the others, go to:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121682783807477467.html
Kevin Elliott on October 10th, 2008 7:10 pm
Rich,
Thanks for the clarification! You may want to note that in future articles, since the format looked incomplete. I’ll definitely read the WSJ article now.
Thanks again,
Kevin
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