the
innovative LEDGER
An e-Newsletter from The Innovative Edge™ Inc.
Vol.
8, No. 11 - November 2008
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A Few New Ideas
By Jeff Govendo
Among
the myriad post-election “advice” articles aimed at Barack
Obama was one in the Boston Globe urging him to tap into his legion
of online supporters for a continual supply of ideas for solving the
mountain of problems his new administration will be inheriting upon
taking office.
"I
call upon president-elect Obama to create a community of committed
Americans to discuss the solutions to the problems that face us,"
intoned columnist Scott Kirsner. "I call on him to designate
a US Community Manager, with a small staff, to moderate and harvest
those discussions to solve the country’s problems."
A
national suggestion box.
The
concept of collecting ideas from supporters or, in the business world,
customers and employees, is certainly not new. There is, as noted,
the old-fashioned suggestion box. More contemporarily, websites for
both private concerns as well as public agencies have sections in
which visitors can submit their ideas for new products, improved service
or greater efficiencies. Automobile companies run focus groups to
get ideas for new vehicles or accessories. Restaurants ask their diners
for menu suggestions. Schools look to their parent organizations for
ways to upgrade educational services (at least, some do).
I’ll
bet many of you have submitted ideas to politicians, public organizations
or company websites on more than one occasion.
Ever
wonder what happens to them?
A
Gartner Group report from 2001 indicated that up to 95% of companies
invite some type of customer feedback, but only 5% ever act upon ideas
submitted. A recent article by QuestBack Boston, a developer of
enterprise customer feedback tools, suggests the main reason for this
is that companies don’t know how to manage or make sense of the
information they receive. I have absolutely no doubt this is true.
Yet,
I wonder if this tells the entire story. In Kirsner’s article,
he poses this observation and question: "He (Obama) is clearly
intelligent. But does he have the humility to gather those solutions
from the popular groundswell that elected him?"
An
interesting question. What does humility have to do with making the
best use of other people’s ideas? For chief executives and managers,
everything. Certainly, we look to our leaders to establish a vision,
to set the strategic direction of an organization. And of course,
we expect them to have some good ideas on how to achieve that vision.
But,
recognizing that there are many other potentially valuable perspectives
out there among those of good will and vested interest is the true
essence of innovative leadership. Many of the world’s most
successful companies are those who not only have instituted systems
for collecting ideas from key stakeholders, but whose leaders embrace
the sheer potential of all that brainpower.
And
yes, it takes humility – recognizing that yours may not be the
only way or the best way to achieve an objective – to be truly
accessible to the diversity of ideas and opinions that are available.
As
QuestBack has noted, organizing and managing all of them is a challenge.
But as a leader, managing one’s own ego is an even more basic
issue. The ability to put it aside in order to be open to the ideas
of others is a sign of strength, not weakness.
And
fortunately for most business leaders, they don’t have to contend
with Congress.
