Posts

Showing posts from August, 2009

HOW TO STIMULATE IDEAS

In earlier posts I did mention the importance of using your own employees as a valuable source of new ideas. They can for instance come up with ideas for new offerings based upon changed customer needs, and also ideas how to speed up internal processes. How can you stimulate ideas? 1. In order to create an environment where ideas will flourish, the management needs to build and gain trust.. 2. They will only bring their ideas forward when they have the feeling and the experience that their ideas are taken seriously. 3. Never ‘punish ‘people for their ideas, even if they are not appropriate. 4. Give credit for ideas. The most important form of credit is verbal recognition of the valuable contribution. 5. Give support to get the ideas implemented. Support can be sponsorship and/or money and/or resources. 6. Do not force people to give more ideas. If the environment is positive and enthusiastic, people will automatically come up with ideas. 7. Always give feedback. 8. Be honest. 9. Contro

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO CHANGE AND/OR INNOVATE

It was Anthony Robbins who said that people would only change through pleasure or through pain. Pain is the strongest trigger of these two. This is the case at the personal as well as on the organizational level. An organization is a collection of human beings who share a common purpose. An organization is nothing without its people. So, what triggers an organization to change is the same as what triggers you and me. The only thing, which causes real change in an organization, is the change of the people (leaders and employees). Currently there is a lot of pain in organizations. This pain causes stress and stress is a signal that you have to change something in the way you are working/managing etcetera. You might be surprised that I think this is good, this is a moment that you should cherish as it helps you to use these obstacles to really grow you and your organization to the next level. To get started it is very useful to describe the pain and your feelings associated with it. The d

A CREATIVE WAY TO ENGAGE YOUR OWN EMPLOYEES: “INCROWDSOURCING”

More and more organizations are looking outside for solutions to some of the challenges that they are facing. That is an excellent way of getting in touch with experts, who are the frontrunners in their particular subject. According to Wikipedia crowdsourcing is: a neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call. For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task, refine or carry out the steps of an algorithm, or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data. This methodology could also be used internally. This “incrowdsourcing” is perfectly suited to engage employees who are daily in touch with customers, but who are traditionally not involved in the marketing and sales processes. There are many ‘forgotten’ groups in organizations who know quite well what the customer needs, but