Friday, April 10, 2015

Half Baked Ideas...

When was the last time you achieved something really amazing and then tried to replicate it, but couldn't?  That is how it is with innovation – you create something by accident and then can’t figure out how you did it.  Just because you have a great idea doesn't mean it will automatically be successful!  You have to capture it!  And cultivate it!  Then you can then access it anytime it is needed to drive ideas in your company.  But how many companies actually do this and do it well?

The problem is you don’t know when ideas or innovation will occur.  Neither does your leadership team – they don’t know which employee will come up with an idea, when it will occur or how the idea will apply to your business. Oftentimes, ideas happen on the fly – like when an employee is working on one task but ends up discovering something new and innovative instead.    

Your employees have ideas about their jobs on a daily basis, but many are lost because employees feel that leadership doesn't care about their ideas and won’t allow them to bring their ideas to fruition.  Innovation and new discoveries only flourish when your employees have a chance to expand their perspective and to tinker with those ideas. 

One way to accomplish this exploration is through job rotation that allows your employees to use their skills and knowledge acquired outside of their current job title in new and engaging ways.  And to collaborate on those ideas.  For example, if your employee is shadowing someone to learn more about a new work flow, insight from their previous experiences might help them identify areas where a different approach might improve the process.  Chances are, no other employee would have come up with the same idea – because the idea was born of that employee’s unique thought process along with his or her skill set and knowledge.

It is even better if the employee shadowing can actually perform the job for a given period of time – as they will come away with a clearer picture of the overall process and may even replicate parts within their own position. The more your employee understands other roles in the organization – the better he or she can see the interconnection between ideas and how they relate to the overall strategy for your company!


A standardized process helps you to generate, to capture and to implement ideas that may save your business thousands of dollars, improve your cash flow and drive the profitability and the value of your business.  But it won’t happen by accident - success depends on your ability to transform ideas into reality – and replicate them!

Idea Share of the Month!

There is a difference between ideas and innovation.  Innovation is the act of putting your ideas into place and sustaining them over time.

Frame of Mind Consulting understands the unique DNA of your organization, which is necessary to turn any organization into one capable of leveraging the full idea potential of its employees  Please visit Frame of Mind Consulting for more information or to sign up for Page's Idea Share Tip of the Week! 

3 comments:

  1. Good article, Page. Southwest airlines does some these things you mentioned above.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you!!! Always glad to share my knowledge!

    ReplyDelete

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