Encouraging employee innovation
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Encouraging employee innovationThe following question was recently posted to the Communicators' Network:
Q: "Does anyone have any experiences to share on encouraging employee innovation?"
A: "Last year we ran a very successful innovation challenge to launch a business innovation team," replied Paul Middleton from Westminster City Council.
"Our campaign cost UK£10,000 and generated 249 great ideas. Our finance department expects these ideas to save the organization close to UK£2 million. Here are some tips for making this kind of campaign work:
- Have highly visible backing from the top (as with any major campaign).
- Encourage staff at all levels to consider how they can improve both the whole business and their own area.
- Map which departments are taking part so you can focus your resources on those that aren't getting involved.
- Ask staff to vote on the winning idea and promise to implement it. (At Westminster, we're going to implement more than 100 of the ideas that came up.)
- Report back on how each and every single idea is being taken forward or why it can't be.
- The whole exercise sends out a tremendously positive message about what sort of organization you want to be."
taken from ...
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5:42 AM
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