Suppose you are part of your organization’s management team. The organization is trying to encourage an employee idea program so employees will come up with possibilities to improve your prospects, processes, and products. You really want to get employees involved generating and sharing ideas, but nothing is happening. That may be because your organization is committing some or all of the sixteen employee idea killers in the list below.
Employee Idea Killers
- The management team does not share information about the organization to allow employees to generate strategic ideas.
- No one openly requests employees share their expertise and insights.
- Requiring all employees to participate in the program.
- Not explaining the impact employees can have on the organization with their participation.
- Hanging up a suggestion box - either physical or virtual - and expecting the rest to take care of itself.
- Designing an overly complicated process for employees participation.
- Demanding employees only share completely brand new ideas.
- Announcing the organization is only looking for “big” or “game-changing” thinking.
- The management team exerts pressure for employees to participate - or else.
- The management team criticizes employee submissions (or allowing others to do so) prematurely and inappropriately.
- Not demonstrating appreciation when team members participate.
- Prematurely comparing ideas to one another.
- Unnecessarily trying to correct and fix ideas in their early stages.
- Rewarding participating employees with additional unwanted work to document ideas.
- Expecting someone who has submitted a concept with big impact will always have big impact ideas.
- Never sharing success stories of the impact employee-generated ideas are having for the organization.
Are any of these sixteen employee idea killers going on in your organization?
Are there other idea killers you see happening?
Are you part of a management team that is struggling with committing some of these employee idea killers in your organization?
If so, you need to stop it right away and get on with trying to rehabilitate your employee idea generation efforts. Right now. - Mike Brown
The Brainzooming Group helps make smart organizations more successful by rapidly expanding their strategic options and creating innovative plans they can efficiently implement. Email us at info@brainzooming.com or call us at 816-509-5320 to learn how we can help you enhance your strategy and implementation efforts.
