The document provides tips for organizations to promote idea generation and implementation among employees. It suggests that frontline staff, not management, are often the source of novel ideas. It advocates focusing on small, easy-to-implement ideas rather than large ones. Key recommendations include not rewarding individual ideas financially and measuring idea quantity/quality rather than results. Managers should promote idea sharing and hold regular idea meetings. The benefits of ideas are difficult to quantify fully, so cost-benefit analysis should be avoided. Instead, organizations should focus on being process-oriented and solving specific problems. Fostering conditions for creativity like self-initiation, unofficial activity, serendipity, diverse stimuli and communication can also increase idea generation.

1. Have more breakthrough ideas

2. The greatest source of
competitive advantage
is creativity.

3. Black Belt
1.5 million
euros
Green Belt Project
1 million in Savings
Idea System
8 million savings

4. 2 types of new ideas

5. Improvements

6. Innovations

7. Most creative acts are
not plannedfor,
or even anticipated

8. Most great ideas come from
front line staff individuals,
not management

9. Study of projects in Japan
Facts:
• More then ½ award winning projects initiated by
individuals, not anticipated by management
• Novelty and impact of these projects far exceeded
those initiated by management
• Award winning projects were individual initiated
• Not especially novel ones were management
initiated

10. Creating an idea system

11. Go after
SMALL ideas

12. Small ideas
• Would you prefer to implement 1 big idea or
10 small ideas?
• Easier to implement:
– Less resistance
– Easier to do
– Lower risk
– Better for learning
• Stay proprietary and create sustainable
competitive advantage

13. Share your
good ideas

14. How to share new ideas?
• Who needs to know this buttons?
• Ideas of the week/month newsletter
• Ideas corner on intranet
• Ideas searchable database
• My great idea workshop
• Push and pull strategies (push- newsletter,
ideas corner, pull database, workshops)

15. Don’t
reward or incent
idea creation!!!

16. Quantity
and quality
of ideas
Money paid for
individual ideas

17. Not so easily
quantifiable ideas
Easily
quantifiable
ideas

18. Make ideas part of everyone’s job

19. Idea Goals
• For Employees measure:
– Quantity and quality of ideas
– Number of ideas, number of ideas implemented
• For Managers measure:
– How well they promote ideas
– How many get implemented from their teams
**there is no such thing as a bad idea

20. Measure how many ideas get
implemented

21. The idea board

22. Increase share of wallet Increase efficiency Innovate Growth
Actions
These are the goal categories of what we want to achieve

23. Increase share of wallet Increase efficiency Innovate Growth
Actions
PROBLEMS GO HERE
Input can be complaints, inefficiencies, new ways of doing things, from your team or from
suggestions from others

24. Problems are
half
of the
solutions

25. Hold weekly 30 minute idea
meetings

26. Decide about what to
work on

27. Increase share of wallet Increase efficiency Innovate Growth
Actions
ACTIONS GO
HERE
Actions Owner Date

28. Increase share of wallet Increase efficiency Innovate Growth
Actions
PROBLEMS GO HERE
Input can be complaints, inefficiencies, new ways of doing things, from your team or from
suggestions from others
ACTIONS GO
HERE
Actions Owner Date

29. Good idea process
• Drive down decision making and
implementation to the lowest possible levels
• Pass constraints down as well
• Resource support functions for the volume
and type of ideas that come in, make
supporting ideas part of the job
• Only pass up completed work

30. Only report
implemented
actions!!

31. Be
Process-Oriented
Not
Results-Oriented

32. Avoid Cost- Benefit
Analysis

33. How far can CBA see?

34. CBA
• Can be good priority/ decision making tool
– appropriate when outcomes are well known or
when prior experience with similar situations
• Tends to see the costs more readily then the
benefits
– Estimates CBA sees as little as 20% of benefits
• Increases the cost of decision making, filters
out small ideas

35. Aspects easy to
quantify
Aspects hard to
quantify
Non-quantifiable
aspects
Unknown
aspects
Benefits
Costs

36. Ask for specific
problems to be solved

37. Focus Employees on Ideas You
Want
• Articulate and legitimize
• Focusing people on particular topics leads to
more ideas
• Expose employees to new experiences to
broaden their perspectives
– Improve their powers of observation
– Hone their idea generating skills
– Give them problem-sensitizing questions

38. Change creates the need
for further change

39. How to increase creativity

40. 6 elements of creativity

41. Self-initiated activity

42. How can we promote self-
initiated activity?

43. Unofficial activity

44. How can we promote unofficial
activity?

45. Serendipity
Fortunate Accidents Sagacity Creativity+ =

46. How can we promote
serendipity?

47. Diverse Stimuli

48. How can we promote diverse
stimuli?

49. Within-company communication

50. How can we promote within
company communication?

51. Strong Alignment

52. How can we promote strong
alignment?

53. Questions?
Thank you!