Ideas Are Free

by ROBINSON, ALAN G.SCHROEDER, DEAN M.

• ISBN13: 9781576752821
• ISBN10: 1576752828
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-13
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Summary

Front-line employees see a great many problems and opportunities that their managers don't. Most organizations do very poorly at tapping employee ideas. As a result, every day, all over the world, millions of working people are forced to watch helplessly as their organizations waste money, disappoint and lose customers, and miss opportunity after opportunity that to the employees are all too apparent. Ideas Are Free shows how to get many useful ideas from front-line employees and, in the process, significantly change basic assumptions about how an organization should be managed.

Author Biography

Alan G. Robinson is an award-winning author, an educator, and a consultant Dean M. Schroeder spent ten years in industry before going into academia. He is the founder of two companies

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
The Idea Revolution	1	(28)
What's in an Idea?	3	(3)
How Ideas Drive a Culture of High Performance	6	(3)
The Need for Managerial Humility	9	(1)
Why Organizations Never Run Out of Improvement Opportunities	10	(2)
Overview of the Book's Main Points	12	(15)
Conclusion	27	(2)
The Power of Small Ideas	29	(30)
Excellence Depends on Small Ideas	30	(8)
Small Ideas and Rapid Organizational Learning	38	(4)
Sustainable Competitive Advantage	42	(4)
How Small Ideas Lead to Big Ones	46	(8)
The True Currency of Managing Ideas	54	(3)
Key Points	57	(2)
The Pitfalls of Rewards	59	(34)
Some Inconvenient Evidence	61	(2)
Why Do People Step Forward with Ideas?	63	(3)
The Invisible Costs of Rewards	66	(18)
Reward Systems That Work	84	(5)
Key Points	89	(4)
Making Ideas Everyone's Job	93	(26)
``It's Not Your Job to Think''	94	(2)
Making Ideas Part of Employees' Work	96	(3)
Making Ideas Part of the Work of Supervisors	99	(5)
Making Ideas Part of the Work of Middle Managers	104	(3)
Making Ideas Part of the Work of Senior Leaders	107	(4)
Making Ideas Part of the Organization's Work	111	(4)
Key Points	115	(4)
Putting the Process in Place	119	(30)
Characteristic 1: Ideas Are Encouraged and Welcomed	121	(3)
Characteristic 2: Submitting Ideas Is Simple	124	(3)
Characteristic 3: Evaluation of Ideas Is Quick and Effective	127	(3)
Characteristic 4: Feedback Is Timely, Constructive, and Informative	130	(1)
Characteristic 5: Implementation Is Rapid and Smooth	131	(4)
Characteristic 6: Ideas Are Reviewed for Additional Potential	135	(2)
Characteristic 7: People Are Recognized, and Success Is Celebrated	137	(4)
Characteristic 8: Idea System Performance Is Measured, Reviewed, and Improved	141	(3)
Key Points	144	(5)
Focusing on What Matters Most	149	(20)
Choosing What to Focus On	157	(5)
Making Focus a Way of Life	162	(4)
Key Points	166	(3)
Getting More and Better Ideas	169	(28)
How People Come Up with Ideas	170	(3)
Idea Activators	173	(7)
How to Broaden Employees' Perspectives	180	(6)
Improving Alertness to Problems and Opportunities	186	(7)
Key Points	193	(4)
Liberation and Transformation	197	(22)
Ideas and Attitudes	198	(3)
Ideas and Respect, Trust, and Involvement	201	(3)
Ideas and Interpersonal Relations	204	(1)
How Ideas Counter Learned Helplessness	205	(3)
Ideas and a High-Performance Culture	208	(9)
Parting Thoughts	217	(1)
Key Points	218	(1)
Notes	219	(4)
Index	223	(8)
About the Authors	231