|
Opportunities
Encourage culture of idea sharing across organisation
In the struggle companies undertake to succeed in a highly competitive business world, idea sharing can be one way to ensure their survival at the top. Employees across the board can be encouraged to share ideas that may benefit the organisation. Unfortunately this is easier said than done because employees have a predisposition to conserve their ideas. They fear that sharing them will not bring them any significant benefits and prefer to hoard their ideas.
On the flip side even if employees come up with ideas, the management might choose to ignore them or use only a small percentage of these ideas. There are many reasons as to why idea sharing has not become the norm in organisations. One reason could be there are no standard formal procedures for idea-sharing or employees are not adequately rewarded or recognised for the ideas they come up with or that those with the brightest ideas will be lauded and reap the best benefits.
Employees do not want to share ideas because they believe sharing will undermine their value and they will not be able to take sole credit for it. When ideas are discussed others will add their own thoughts to it that soon the original proponent of the idea is forgotten.
To change the views of employees on idea sharing, the management has to build a culture where ideas will allow employees to stand out and the best ideas will be adequately rewarded and allow progress.
The management can start with encouraging employees to come up with ideas at meetings and place greater value on those who have not only come up with ideas but also shared them with others. This will encourage sharing and make workers earnestly campaign for their implementation by getting more voices to lend support and improve on the idea.
The management should make a distinction between those who come up with ideas and those who share them with others or adopt ideas from others. The latter should be given recognition in the form of promotions and raises because their willingness to share or adopt ideas indicates their interest in the company’s progress.
If ideas have to make an impact on the organisation, they will have to be shared across different levels in the hierarchy or among different departments because even if an idea may not seem feasible for one department, it may prove beneficial to another department. Ideas can even be discussed with suppliers, vendors and partners so that there is more value addition.
For idea sharing to be effective it has to have focus, it is difficult to implement random ideas, which can disturb the workflow or the business procedures. Besides all ideas cannot be implemented at short notice especially those that affect a large number of employees. The management too has to be focussed in the methods used to gather ideas. When the ideas have a specific aim, then it becomes easier to pick the best and implement them.
Likewise, employees should be aware of the legal limitations while sharing ideas, they cannot let out trade secrets nor share patent protected concepts with outsiders. Nor can they accept ideas from outsiders if they are unsure of its originality. Employees should be assured that most of their ideas will be accepted by the organisation and more importantly will be implemented.
For the process to become effective and if employees have to generate ideas that can be implemented across the organisation, then it has to be linked to the overall growth of the organisation in which the employees have a stake and can also benefit from like employee stock options.
If idea sharing has to become routine in the workplace, it has to become part of the company’s culture. Further the management can have a dedicated team, which collects ideas from employees and sets up the process to implement them. And most importantly employees have to be adequately compensated for the viable and workable ideas they bring in.
faqs@cnkonline.com
HEMA GOPALAKRISHNAN
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Opportunities
|
