Culture of Innovation
Speaking from my own experience, employees I’ve worked with pretty much kept to themselves. If there were any suggestion boxes, they were the the the traditional variety in which employees could pass on their thoughts anonymously. Most of the time, they were minor gripes and didn’t really contribute much to the company.
I was different. I made many suggestions, thinking I might be able to make a difference. I soon discovered that I would receive no feedback. None of my suggestions were implemented. Only a couple of times was I successful in seeing –something– come out of my many notes to management.
The first one was to talk them out of buying a propane forklift, by using their own words against them (this was a plant that built circuit boards; these things were supposedly sensitive to pollutants, like fumes). The other was when I was in a quality circle. I advanced the idea (complete with diagrams) of modifying a motherboard so certain parts could be ‘stuffed’ into the board without worrying about them being put in backwards.
But I was very frustrated that out of the many ideas I proposed, I received absolutely no feedback. If you are interested enough, I’ll post a couple of what I thought were my best ideas. BTW, this company no longer exists… But I’d still rather not mention the name.
My current place of work is a little different. They have told us they are much more receptive to suggestions. The prospect of bonuses for the best suggestions have been dangled before us. Many have been posted. However, most of the people out on the floor are still deeply cynical. I’m wondering what it will take to change this. I’d appreciate any ideas.
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The cynicism that you are experiencing in your new company is not unusual. You yourself have had limited success in getting management to recognize your suggestions in your last company. Generally this is because when we make a suggestion to someone more senior it can be perceived by them as a criticism of their abilities, or could perhaps identify their own lack of knowledge which they don’t wish to admit. It takes a brave company to open themselves up to suggestions and challenges from their staff – but it is the brave that win in the end. The only way you are going to change people’s ideas about putting forward suggestions is to try it and see if it makes a difference. If the company is true to its commitment it will follow through and investigate your ideas and your colleagues will start to recognize this. In time they will start making the contributions too. Be aware of how you present your suggestions; consider egos and the impact on the business and its people – your manager included. If you handle it sensitively, there should be no reason that any manager worth his/her salt will ignore a good idea. Good luck and here’s hoping there are loads of bonuses ahead.
The issues underlying the cynicism deserve attention. I suggest you e-mail me to explore further.
I was just visiting the shayegan-innovation site (from which the above graphic was taken). I wondered what they meant by, “…individual psychometric profiling has been effectively used to assist individuals with their personal knowledge development.”
Hi Dragon – at the rate that new posts are being added your question re psych testing may get lost as it would be one of the older posts now. I am not sure if the comment updates are pulling through to the front page properly which is how people are able to go back to older posts which have been commented on, so you may need to ask this question as a new post and link it. If you have no joy by the weekend I will respond. Just a bit stretched for time to compose the explanation today. In the meantime, if you have not already done it – do the enneagram (link on the main TMTD website or google for it) – it’s free and it may answer a bit of your question about the self understanding
Thanks, Bronwyn. I’ve taken a look at some of the earlier notes on this. Coincidently, I had recently been browsing at the bookstore through various books, some of which had to do with rewarding employees. I had wondered if the MBTI, for example, would help a manager in that respect, assuming he knew how his employees scored.
BTW, as I read this, it occurred to me that even if a person is an INFP, he could be a socialized E or J. That is something a person can overlook. The term “socialized” seems to confuse some people.
Yusuf, I’ve decided to give it a little more time since the suggestion thing with my new company is still a bit new. I will be monitoring the situation to see what develops. Still They have gotten a number of suggestions and ideas, especially since a bonus has been offered for best idea for month/quarter. I’m hoping that employees still on the sideline will be encouraged if they can actually see things happening.
The older company I was with could certainly have used some kind ‘medicine’. I had the idea in the back of my mind (probably wrong, but who knows?) that the VPs were just riding the Titanic to the bottom so to speak.
Hi Dragon
You wanted more information on psychometric profiling and personal knowledge development. This is not my area of expertise, but I do use it a lot with my work as I manage teams of people, so I’ll give it a bash. Psychometric profiling gives you an opportunity to understand the drivers of a person – what are their buttons and how to get the best (and worst) out of a person. Essentially psychometric profiling tells you more about yourself in a format that helps you to understand how you relate to the world around you vs. how others relate to the same world. It gives you an awareness of your strengths and weaknesses so that you can adapt your behaviour more appropriately to your circumstances and environment. So for example – my drivers are not really about recognition, I like challenges, so I tend to be happy to just put my head down and find a solution. I don’t really care whether people think I’m doing a good job or not – I don’t need encouragement to motivate me as my drivers are different. But when I started managing people I took it forgranted that they worked like that too, but in time I realised that people were not motivated to put in the commitment that I had expected from them. Once I realised that their drivers were different, and that recognition and encouragement of their hard work and efforts were needed throughout the process, I was able to get the level of support I needed again. It meant I had to learn how to be more aware of people around me and how I interacted with them.
Regarding the MBTI – you have hit the nail on the head. I work with teams of people so knowing their MBTI profile means that I can manage them as individuals. I know for example that I will get two very different results from two equally capable people with the same set of instructions if their profiles are different (now if they understood this they would adapt the way they interpret the instructions to meet their MBTI “mind processing� function). So very detailed technical specs full of facts and figures for a system may work for one person, whereas a set of pictures and diagrams may work better for another because they are more visual.
There are some people that are more “touchy feely�, so taking the time to build that kind of relationship with one person can give you much higher staff satisfaction and support and so people go the extra mile. Others could not be bothered with that and any social niceties when you chat to them are a waste of their time. Etc etc etc. This is the value of profiling when you work with teams. It also helps you to balance your team so that you get the right dynamics. A bunch of ENTJs on the same team are a nightmare to work with as each want to shout the loudest and be the leader. Knowing you have that mix allows you to either balance it out if you can, or manage it more effectively as you can change the way you manage your team. (Sometimes it really is a case of he who shouts loudest, so I make sure that is me)
Having learnt to shout the loudest is why a lot people assume that I am an “E�, when in fact I am an “I�. This is an example of what you were saying about being “socialized� – ie it does not sit comfortably, but I can wear that hat if I need to, because I have recognized that at times it is more appropriate and even important (goes back to self knowledge and development). So when an introvert has something to say, if you want their respect, listen when they shout – what ever they choose to shout about they feel strongly about and it is important to them.
I hope that helps. When you do your own profiling, remember to read the other profiles and characteristics to give you more of an understanding of the people around you and how best to relate to them.
I was wondering how many of you currently are in a company where management not only tries to impart a “sense of urgencey” in production, but also the same sense of urgency in innovation? My intuition tells me that most companies are doing the innovation thing, “because it’s the thing to do”, not because the perceive it to be necessary to its financial health, if not survival.