Ideas: The Stepping Stones to your Success!

Last month I wrote about the pitfalls surrounding a traditional suggestion program where ideas go to die. This month I would like to discuss the benefits of having a simple, focused and powerful system for generating, capturing and implementing ideas where ideas become the stepping stones to your success! 

An organized system enables you to effectively manage and execute your ideas and results in less confusion and complexity. It also increases connectivity and ownership as it allows your employees to channel their energy towards ideas that require action instead of them falling flat. The system becomes a visual platform to prioritize ideas and for employees to see the ideas they are going to pursue in a way that helps us and others relate to them.  Without structure ideas fail to build upon one another.  An organized system also has a built in feedback loop.  This is a key missing element in the suggestion box type of program.

Most companies are better at blocking and snuffing out ideas rather than promoting them. Streamlining operations or being cost effective is no longer enough in today’s competitive environment. Leadership is being continuously asked to do more with less, which is a big for reason flagging profits and increased competition. Leadership is then stuck with too few resources in terms of time, money and people and is operating in survival mode. They then do not allocate the proper resources to the idea system for it to be successful. When constantly putting out fires, the challenge then becomes following through on ideas. To follow through on ideas successfully, you need those things that leadership is short of – time, money and people to evaluate and implement ideas.You also need time to properly train and direct management and employees.

Promoting new ideas can turn your organization into a top performing idea generating company that may result in entirely new business opportunities, innovative product lines, services and processes. Promoting new ideas increases cash flow as ideas may improve old products, services and processes or revitalize markets. Promoting ideas creates a learning organization as everyone is trained to see problems as opportunities and are empowered to develop solutions to complex business problems. Implementing ideas effectively requires an incremental process which requires idea exploration, information gathering and research, experimentation and testing, as well as feedback. Your idea system becomes an immense learning and development tool - every idea incorporates inquiry and learning which drives your organization forward.  Ideas become the stepping stones to your success.

Idea Share Tip of the Month!

An ineffective idea system will demoralize employees and result in fewer ideas than no idea system at all.

Sign up for the Idea Share Tip of the Week! at Frame of Mind Consulting

Hartford CT/ Springfield Area:  Page will be speaking on November 18th on the topic of:  Talent and Imagination:  Map Out the Social Power in Your Organization.  For more details and to register, please visit http://bit.ly/1OJlGdt 

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. Would you like to drive connectivity and ownership throughout your company?  Contact Page at (860) 559-7942 to set up your complimentary consultation during which you will receive some invaluable tips that you can apply to your business right away.

Overcoming THAT Stigma...

An employee idea system works with other improvement initiatives to drive forward organizational performance.  However, executives in many of the companies that have formal employee suggestion programs don't see the programs as critical contributors to their bottom line.  Most managers have experience with only the suggestion box type of system, which are ineffective – and the mere suggestion of a suggestion program carries with it that stigma which must be overcome.  The stigma is that suggestion programs do not have any impact and are fact often poked fun at. 

The reason many suggestion programs are ineffective are that the actions many managers take are counterintuitive to what they should be doing to achieving an effective idea management system.  There is a clear difference between a suggestion program which is like a black hole where ideas go to die and an employee idea management system which actively manages the ideas in your company.

When leaders feel they can trust their employees to make decisions about their own ideas, the question then becomes how to design a system that operationalizes this trust.  Most leaders assume that they can achieve this themselves by simply layering an evaluation process on top of existing organizational layers and practices.  Let’s explore why this is a problem by exploring some of the pitfalls of a typical suggestion program.

Pitfall Number 1:  How a typical suggestion program collects ideas:

Ideas that are collected are often limited by the ideas that employees come up based on their own limited perspective based on their role within the company.  There is little incentive to push the scope beyond that or to challenge the status quo.  The process is limited to solutions and does not accept problems.  In addition, a suggestion program does not focus employees in on your company’s strategic goals.  What does “we want you to give us your ideas” even mean?  I’m confused and so are your employees.

Pitfall Number 2:  How a typical suggestion program evaluates ideas:

A typical suggestion program is slow and bureaucratic because of how ideas are evaluated.  A manager is often assigned to monitor, evaluate and track ideas in addition to their regular work.  Ideas then get low priority and a slow response time.  In short, implementation becomes a lot of extra work on very few people in the company.   Secondly, oftentimes ideas are not vetted by colleagues who understand the underlying problems and consider alternate solutions.  They may have little understanding of context of the idea and feel little urgency about the underlying problem, especially if it doesn’t directly affect them or their department.  Lastly, the pressure and risk of approving an idea means rejecting the idea is safer than accepting it.  This creates a strong bias towards rejecting ideas.  If the evaluator approves the idea, they accept some responsibility if it fails.  By rejecting it and doing nothing – it will not make anything worse.

Pitfall Number 3:  How a typical suggestion program holds people accountable:

A typical suggestion program does not integrate into the DNA of your company and how your employees work on a daily basis, so front-line employees are not empowered to take initiative. There is no feedback loop built in so there is little accountability for management follow-through.

The reality of the situation is that without a simple and focused idea system to actively manage your ideas, they can become a distraction.  When ideas are handled in an ad hoc manner, it is confusing to your employees, your vendors and your customers. 

Idea Share Tip of the Month!

Management should not become a judge of ideas.  It is too easy for them to brush them under the carpet, be too busy to evaluate them, play favoritism or take credit for ideas brought to them.

Sign up for the Idea Share Tip of the Week! at Frame of Mind Consulting

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.  Would you like to drive connectivity and ownership throughout your company?  Contact Page at (860) 559-7942 to set up your complimentary consultation during which you will receive some invaluable tips that you can apply to your business right away!

To Breathe or Not To Breathe? That is the question!

Breathe

Of course you know the answer.  If you don’t breathe you die.  We can live without food for weeks. We can live without water for several days but we can only live without air for about 6 minutes. Then the brain cells start to die.  If you are in a profession where you depend on your voice to sell a  product, ideas and benefits then a quick survey of your skills of breathing need to be assessed.

One of the ways I check breathing in my presentations and Speeches is to have audience members stand with the back of their legs against their chairs. Go ahead, stand up now and feel that chair behind your legs. That’s because when you breath gets thin you will want to sit down immediately, we don’t want any fainting! Your breath is your life and your vitality yet most people never think about breath as a reflection of their health. Here’s the test! While standing you will exhale all that “used air.” Let it make a noise as it escapes through the little round hole as you blow out the carbon dioxide. Then open your mouth and breathe in the oxygen filled air and let it make a noise across your vocal folds. Silently count as the air rushes in. When you can no longer breathe in, sit down and release your air.

 If you are breathing well your count would be 20 or more counts during the inhale. The average person has a count between 7 and 10. If you were in this range than remember to go outside every day and breathe outdoor air. Indoor air contains other peoples used air, pollutants including: paint and plastic fumes, chemicals, smoke, animal and people odors, cooking odors and 100 other substances that you can think of if you want to. IF your breath is on the weaker side practice diaphragmatic breathing

Almost anyone can learn to breathe with diaphragm muscle support. It does take practice. When you breathe deeply, you breathe automatically through your nose.  A good way to start developing the diaphragm, the largest muscle in the body, is to lie on the floor and pile books on your diaphragm.  Close your mouth and breathe deeply through your nose.  Watch carefully as the books rise and fall.  Continue until you feel the diaphragm pulling and strengthening.  When you are outside walking, keep your mouth closed as you inhale nasally on a count of – one, two, three then exhale on a count of one, two, and three. Remember when you are presenting information to others if you are nervous or tense breathe! Now doesn’t this help you breathe more easily?

Carolyn Finch                                                                  carolyn@carolynfinch.com 

Communication LifeStyle Expert™ Speaker                               WWW.carolynfinch.com

Conventions-Conferences-Corporate and Community functions           203 725 3133

                     Isn't it time to change your communication so you can change your life?

FIVE USEFUL TOOLS

Last month I assured you that a complaining customer is actually a gift, in part because you cannot correct a problem until you know that one exists.

There is another reason for you to welcome the complaining customer: The fact that your customer chooses to engage with you is evidence of their loyalty to your company. Whether or not you are able to solve the customer’s initial complaint, your conversation with them is your opportunity to strengthen the bond they share with you.

When you or your staff lack the training to manage a customer complaint, you might shy away from it, or mishandle it, either of which results in a less than positive outcome. So here are five useful tools for you. 

1. Greet the complainer in a warm and professional manner, putting aside any bias about the validity of the complaint.

Until your staff learn proper techniques, they are at risk of reverting to childhood default mechanisms, which involve self-defense, or denying responsibility, or turning blame back on the customer.  That’s when they are most at risk of uttering pathetic responses like, “That wasn’t’ my fault,” or, “It’s always been done that way,“ or, “Nobody else has had a problem with it.” These are not relationship building mindsets. The best way to nurture the relationship~~and your bottom line, for that matter~~is by responding to the concerns with respect and an open mind.

2. Practice active listening techniques.

3. Explain your next action step and time line.

4. Thank the customer for bringing this to your attention!
 

Whether you agree with them or not, they have let you know that they care enough about your company to go to the trouble of contacting you. Nurture that!

5. Follow through.
 

The follow through is as important as the expression of gratitude. If you fail to keep your word, you have effectively sabotaged your entire effort.

We have been discussing a complaint made by a fairly dispassionate customer, as opposed to an irate customer.  That scenario will be discussed in a future post.

In the meantime~~~Happy weekend to all!

Jeannie Newman is the founder and president of JZN Associates. She has a wealth of experience in staff training and customer retention across several industries,
in both the for profit and non-profit arenas. Find her at JZNAssociates.com.