Have more breakthrough ideas

Have more breakthrough ideas

The greatest source of

competitive advantage

is creativity.

Black Belt1.5 million

euros

Green Belt Project1 million in Savings

Idea System8 million savings

2 types of new ideas

Improvements

Innovations

Most creative acts are

not planned for,

or even anticipated

Most great ideas come from

front line staff individuals,

not management

Study of projects in Japan

Facts:• More then ½ award winning projects initiated by

individuals, not anticipated by management• Novelty and impact of these projects far exceeded

those initiated by management• Award winning projects were individual initiated• Not especially novel ones were management

initiated

Creating an idea system

Go after

SMALL ideas

Small ideas

• Would you prefer to implement 1 big idea or 10 small ideas?

• Easier to implement:– Less resistance– Easier to do– Lower risk– Better for learning

• Stay proprietary and create sustainable competitive advantage

Share yourgood ideas

How to share new ideas?

• Who needs to know this buttons?• Ideas of the week/month newsletter• Ideas corner on intranet• Ideas searchable database• My great idea workshop• Push and pull strategies (push- newsletter,

ideas corner, pull database, workshops)

Don’t reward or incent

idea creation!!!

Quantity and quality

of ideas

Money paid for individual ideas

Not so easily quantifiable ideas

Easily quantifiable

ideas

Make ideas part of everyone’s job

Idea Goals

• For Employees measure:– Quantity and quality of ideas– Number of ideas, number of ideas implemented

• For Managers measure:– How well they promote ideas– How many get implemented from their teams

**there is no such thing as a bad idea

Measure how many ideas get

implemented

The idea board

Increase share of wallet Increase efficiency Innovate Growth

Actions

These are the goal categories of what we want to achieve

Increase share of wallet Increase efficiency Innovate Growth

Actions

PROBLEMS GO HEREInput can be complaints, inefficiencies, new ways of doing things, from your team or from

suggestions from others

Problems are

half of the

solutions

Hold weekly 30 minute idea meetings

Decide about what to work on

Increase share of wallet Increase efficiency Innovate Growth

Actions

ACTIONS GO HERE

Actions Owner Date

Increase share of wallet Increase efficiency Innovate Growth

Actions

PROBLEMS GO HEREInput can be complaints, inefficiencies, new ways of doing things, from your team or from

suggestions from others

ACTIONS GO HERE

Actions Owner Date

Good idea process

• Drive down decision making and implementation to the lowest possible levels

• Pass constraints down as well• Resource support functions for the volume

and type of ideas that come in, make supporting ideas part of the job

• Only pass up completed work

Only report

implemented actions!!

Be

Process-Oriented

Not

Results-Oriented

Avoid Cost- Benefit Analysis

How far can CBA see?

CBA

• Can be good priority/ decision making tool– appropriate when outcomes are well known or

when prior experience with similar situations• Tends to see the costs more readily then the

benefits– Estimates CBA sees as little as 20% of benefits

• Increases the cost of decision making, filters out small ideas

Aspects easy toquantify

Aspects hard toquantify

Non-quantifiableaspects

Unknownaspects

BenefitsCosts

Ask for specific problems to be solved

Focus Employees on Ideas You Want

• Articulate and legitimize • Focusing people on particular topics leads to

more ideas• Expose employees to new experiences to

broaden their perspectives– Improve their powers of observation– Hone their idea generating skills– Give them problem-sensitizing questions

Change creates the need for further change

How to increase creativity

6 elements of creativity

Self-initiated activity

How can we promote self-initiated activity?

Unofficial activity

How can we promote unofficial activity?

Serendipity

Fortunate Accidents Sagacity Creativity+ =

How can we promote serendipity?

Diverse Stimuli

How can we promote diverse stimuli?

Within-company communication

How can we promote within company communication?

Strong Alignment

How can we promote strong alignment?

Questions?

Thank you!