|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Ideas are Free: How the Idea Revolution is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sales rank 418,162
Customers rating (based on 17 reviews)
|
|
|
|
|
A worker in one of Europe's largest wireless communication companies showed his manager how to repair an error that was costing the company $30 million per year. A secretary at Grapevine Canyon Ranch proposed a simple change to pull the company's website to the top of search engines. These are just two of many examples in Ideas are Free that highlight the single best resource in a company - those frontline employees who can see those telling little details that escape managers. Based on extensive research with hundreds of companies around the world and in every major field, this practical book shows how to draw the most useful ideas from frontline employees and, in the process, significantly improve the atmosphere - and success quotient - of any organization. Ideas are Free is the definitive book on getting - and applying - business-transforming ideas from frontline employees, and will be required reading for Alan Robinson's televised course on PBS - The Business Channel.
|
|
|
| Publisher | Berrett-Koehler Publishers | | Release date | 02/2004 | | Availability | | | Edition | Hardcover |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
How to Encourage Bright Ideas: Companies run on ideas, but how do you get people to generate them? Think you're adept at making the most of your employees' brainpower? (@ Fortune)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
How wrong is it to (just) think big ?!
"I have been given the chance to upgrade my experience form this great book by in person day-long meeting with authors of this book.
Alan's and Dean's story reveals how important the "small improving ideas" are in our lives. If you meet somebody with block-buster hunger, buy him a copy of this book."
Go and get those ideas!
While this book is a few years old the advice it gives is priceless. It amazes me that more companies do not make use of a suggestion program. Following the recommendations the authors put forward it would be relatively easy and cost effective to introduce such a program. The book is clearly written by individuals who are well versed in the subject with a great deal of experience.
The book includes examples of successful suggestions programs implemented at various companies, the ways in which management encourages and rewards ideas, and many actual improvement suggestions ranging from the obvious & easy to the ingenious & complex. One I found to be particularly interesting was from a large nursery that had issues when it rained with the manure in the soil becoming an irritant for the workers. One such worker suggested putting a tarp over the piles of soil when it rained. This was considered a "moral boosting" suggestion, but as it turned out the wet soil was actually causing them to have almost 60% lower plant yields due to the inconsistent way the soil dried. After implementing the tarp suggestion the company saved a lot of time and money. The book also includes recommended tactics to counteract some of the cultural barriers that are often encountered when trying to begin such a program. I found the "Gorilla Tactics - actions you can take today without the boss's permission" at the end of each chapter quite intriguing.
I only have one criticism of this book; it's a bit wordy.
 The outflow of ideas may spur an inflow of revenue for your org
One of the fundamental principles in the field of psychiatry is that most humans are driven by a fear of loss rather than the perceived reward of gain, which means new opportunities and novel ideas are often avoided in favor of the status quo. Unfortunately, this construct of the human mindset is a recipe for financial decline when it's rampant within a commercial organization. In the book "Ideas Are Free," authors Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder challenge managers and executives to mine their own organizations for both small and large nuggets of knowledge. Soundview likes this book because it recommends a bottom-up, contrarian strategy to glean the best ideas and learnings from the individuals who have the best understanding of the respective business - namely the front-line employees rather than executives. The book also showcases the best-of-breed idea generation tactics from more than 300 companies across dozens of industries to help the reader see how it's done. Simply put, too many companies look outside the organization for the next big idea, when a little introspection might go a long way toward producing significant results.
Totally Changed My Way of Thinking
This book was recommended to me by several people at a recent ESOP conference. Feeling that employee input was one of the best ways to build an ownership culture, I purchased the book. I was only 3/4 of the way through it when I found that we had another employee working on an ideas program, planning to give 10% of savings as employee bonuses. I quickly passed the book on to him. As it did with me, it totally changed his way of thinking; he scrapped his initial plan and will be proposing a completely different program that rewards all employees who submit ideas, without the reward being based on the savings.
In "Ideas are Free," the authors synopsize idea programs at several high-performing companies worldwide. They also point out the pitfalls of trying to develop and manage rewards based on savings, instead recommending making idea generation and implementation a part of everyone's job. Finally, they help walk you through how to implement a program at your workplace (although I haven't been able to read that part yet, because my co-worker still has my book! -- He has ordered his own, so I hope to have it back soon.).
I highly recommend this book. It is non-technical and easy to read.
Great Book on Idea Programs
Since my company has an idea program which I believe could be improved, I've read this book. It's short and to the point. It addresses the importance of small ideas for the improvement of the company and the engagement of its employees. It accompanies most of the points with real case stories which make the point even more compelling. Also very important is the chapter related to rewards and the counter-intuitive effects.
|
|
| | |
|
