Roughly 80 percent of any organization’s improvement potential lies in front-line ideas. If your organization is not set up to tap these, you are operating with, at best, one fifth of your capability.

Every day, front-line employees see many problems and opportunities that their managers do not. They have plenty of ideas to improve productivity and customer service, for new products or services, or to enhance their organizations in other ways.

When your team or unit gains the ability to implement twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per person per year, everything changes.

A lot is now known about how to promote creativity and innovation. Yet in most organizations, creativity is still a hit-or-miss proposition. It occurs despite the actions of management, not because of them.

“What is the financial return on that idea” is often not the smartest question to ask. Even the 19th century French engineer who invented cost-benefit analysis warned that it was a very limited tool.

Much of what you need to know to tap large numbers of employee ideas is counterintuitive. Most organizations do better at suppressing ideas than promoting them.

Roughly 80 percent of any organization’s improvement potential lies in front-line ideas. If your organization is not set up to tap these, you are operating with, at best, one fifth of your capability.

Every day, front-line employees see many problems and opportunities that their managers do not. They have plenty of ideas to improve productivity and customer service, for new products or services, or to enhance their organizations in other ways.

When your team or unit gains the ability to implement twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per person per year, everything changes.

A lot is now known about how to promote creativity and innovation. Yet in most organizations, creativity is still a hit-or-miss proposition. It occurs despite the actions of management, not because of them.

“What is the financial return on that idea” is often not the smartest question to ask. Even the 19th century French engineer who invented cost-benefit analysis warned that it was a very limited tool.

Much of what you need to know to tap large numbers of employee ideas is counterintuitive. Most organizations do better at suppressing ideas than promoting them.

Roughly 80 percent of any organization’s improvement potential lies in front-line ideas. If your organization is not set up to tap these, you are operating with, at best one, fifth of your capability.

Every day, front-line employees see many problems and opportunities that their managers do not. They have plenty of ideas to improve productivity and customer service, for new products or services, or to enhance their organizations in other ways.

When your team or unit gains the ability to implement twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per person per year, everything changes.

A lot is now known about how to promote creativity and innovation. Yet in most organizations, creativity is still a hit-or-miss proposition. It occurs despite the actions of management, not because of them.

“What is the financial return on that idea” is often not the smartest question to ask. Even the 19th century French engineer who invented cost-benefit analysis warned that it was a very limited tool.

Much of what you need to know to tap large numbers of employee ideas is counterintuitive. Most organizations do better at suppressing ideas than promoting them.

Speaking

Alan is an experienced, dynamic public speaker who has presented at hundreds of conferences, annual and quarterly corporate meetings, and management retreats around the world.

Consulting

Dr. Alan Robinson has extensive consulting and training experience. His advice and initiatives have helped more than 300 organizations around the world to improve their performance.

Books

Dr. Robinson is the co-author of ten books, including the two bestsellers, Ideas Are Free and Corporate Creativity, as well as his most recent book, The Idea Driven Organization.