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HOW TO GET IDEAS FROM YOUR FRONT-LINE PEOPLE

HOW TO GET IDEAS FROM YOUR FRONT-LINE PEOPLE. Dr. Alan G. Robinson Isenberg School of Management University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 Email: agr@som.umass.edu Tel: (413) 545-5640 University of Toledo February 3, 2009. THE PROBLEM.

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HOW TO GET IDEAS FROM YOUR FRONT-LINE PEOPLE

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  1. HOW TO GET IDEAS FROM YOUR FRONT-LINE PEOPLE Dr. Alan G. RobinsonIsenberg School of Management University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 Email: agr@som.umass.edu Tel: (413) 545-5640 University of Toledo February 3, 2009

  2. THE PROBLEM Front-line workers see a great many problems and opportunities that their managers don’t. Today, most managers either don’t realize the full power of employee ideas or have never learned how to tap them effectively. To be truly excellent, lean, innovative or good at execution, you have to be able to capture and implement large numbers of employee ideas.

  3. THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

  4. EXAMPLES OF GOOD IDEA SYSTEMS Boardroom Inc.104 ideas per person per year Wainwright Industries 87 ideas per person per year 90 percent implemented Clarion Hotels – Sweden 50 ideas per employee per year Autoliv 123 ideas per employee per year MillikenCorporation115 ideas per employee per year Toyota 100 ideas per employee per year

  5. WHY IS CREATIVITY IMPORTANT? The greatest source of competitive advantage is not reallycostorquality, butcreativity. JohnMicklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge Business editors of the Economist

  6. YOUR GOAL Learn how to set up and run a good idea system, to enable your employees to act all on the problems and opportunities they see. Goal: 12 implemented ideas per employee per year by end of first year.

  7. HOW TO RUN A GOOD IDEA SYSTEM

  8. POINT 1: GO AFTER SMALL IDEAS • It is impossible to improve performance past a certain point without getting the little things right. • Small ideas are much easiertoimplement than big ideas: • Much less resistance • Easier to do • Lower risk • Betterfor learning • If you could choose between 1 big idea and 10 small ideas to do the same thing, which would you choose? • Unlike major innovations, most small ideas stay proprietary and create sustainable competitiveadvantage.

  9. POINT 1: SMALL IDEAS(Continued) • Small ideas are the best source of big ideas. If you don’t go after small ideas, you won’t get many big ones either: • What other ideas does this one suggest? • Where else might this idea be used? • Are there any patterns in the ideas that have come in?

  10. BEFORE PRESENTING POINT 2: LET’S THINK ABOUT... What Makes Employees Step Forward With Ideas? Team exercise. Think about: • Ideas that you yourself have stepped forward with; • Ideas that someone you know has stepped forward with. What made you, or the people involved, step forward?

  11. Quantity & quality of ideas Money paid for individual ideas POINT 2: STAY AWAY FROM TRYING TO REWARD INDIVIDUAL IDEAS

  12. THE MOST POPULAR REWARD SCHEME DOESN’T WORK • Quantifying the effects of ideas istime-consumingandnon-value-addingwork. It createsunnecessarybureaucracy. • Rewards cause employees to focus on obviouscost-saving ideas. It is difficult or impossible to quantify the effect of most ideas. Easily quantifiable ideas g • Plus many more problems...

  13. POINT 3: MAKE IDEAS PART OF EVERYONE’S JOB • Document ideas and track them. • Require or expect ideas from your front-line employees: Evaluatethemon the quantity and quality of their ideas. • Teach your supervisors the value of ideas and their own four roles: encouraging, mentoring, championing and lookingforlargerimplications of ideas. Evaluate them on how well they promote ideas. • Important principle: There is no such thing as a bad idea.

  14. AT ONE LARGE COMPANY…. Ideas Per Person 15 Division

  15. AT ANOTHER Ideas Per Person Department

  16. MONEY & RESOURCEFULNESS OFFSET EACH OTHER Problems and Opportunities Raw Ideas

  17. POINT 5: FOCUS YOUR PEOPLE ON THE KINDS OF IDEAS YOU NEED • Translate strategicgoals into front-line goals that your people can affect with their ideas, and that give them freshperspective on their work. • Be process-oriented rather than results-oriented. • Beware of heavy-handedCBA – you will drastically limit the quantity and quality of ideas that come in.

  18. SOME THINGS TO KNOW • How to set up and lead a good idea system • How to get managers and employees truly involved in the idea process • What a good idea process looks like • How to help your people come up with more and better ideas • How your idea process integrates with other improvement methods, such as Six Sigma and Kaizen Blitzes • How to navigate the issue of rewards • How to focus your people on the kinds of ideas you need

  19. HOW FAR CAN CBA SEE? Benefits Costs Aspects hard to quantify Non-quantifiable aspects Unknown aspects Aspects easy to quantify

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