Ideas are Free: How the Idea Revolution is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations

Rating:
Summary: Great Book For Getting Useful Employee Ideas
Review: "Ideas Are Free: How The Idea Revolution Is Liberating People And Transforming Organizations" by Robinson and Schroeder is written for entrepreneurs and managers who want to encourage their employees to contribute ideas and insight to increase profitability and organizational efficiency.

The authors argue that managing employee ideas is a crucial area for companies in today's rapidly changing business world. Companies which utilize employee ideas gain competitive advantages in efficiency, product development, understanding customers, and improving the company's culture.

Yet, today, when asked, many company managers say they take a "family" approach and use an "informal" method of managing employee ideas.

Robinson and Schroeder write: "Tellingly, however, these same managers are not as casual about other things. Take travel expenses, for example. Would these managers leave a big barrel of cash in the corner and tell employees who are travelling to take whatever they need, spend it wisely, and put back whatever they don't use? No need for receipts or a report, because they just get in the way, and 'we're just one big happy family?' ... No organization manages its money this way, because it would soon be out of business. It has to ensure that what is supposed to be happening is actually happening. And, of course, managers who claim-in the absence of any measurement or control mechanism-that large numbers of ideas in their organizations are naturally flowing to welcoming supervisors and being quickly implemented, are deluding themselves."

Robinson and Schroeder tell us that many companies which want to encourage employee ideas do so badly, often discouraging employee idea contribution, but creating employee resentment, internal company sabotage, and manager resentment to the ideas.

Robinson and Schroeder explain why traditional reward schemes for idea contribution often fail, but do succeed in generating animosity. For example, we learn that an employee of a large wireless company discovered an annual $26 million billing error due to a significant number of international phone calls that the company failed to record properly. The employee dutifully placed his idea for a simple fix in the company suggestion box.

Robinson and Schroeder write: "Under the rules of the company's idea system, once the idea was implemented, the suggester would be owed 50 percent of the first year's revenue from it-in this case some $13 million. At the time we visited the company, top management had been 'evaluating' the idea for several years. The idea system manager was furious. The CEO would rather continue losing $26 million per year, he told us, than risk the embarrassment that might ensue from having to pay such a large reward. The sheer size of the oversight would make any manager reluctant to admit that it had happened on his or her watch. A $13 million reward ... would have come to the attention of his board. ...Think of the negative publicity: Not only had management failed to bill customers to the tune of $26 million per year, but it had to pay millions more to discover its blunder. It is easy to see why the CEO wanted the idea buried."

Robinson and Schroeder argue that employees want to see their ideas used, so that traditional reward schemes for idea generation aren't even necessary. But, the authors argue that an effective idea system must have several key components, such as quickness in evaluating ideas and providing feedback. Further, the best success is achieved when the company is able to focus employee ideas in key areas.

Robinson and Schroeder write: "When managers learn how to aim ideas at specific targets, they gain a powerful weapon. ... When ideas are needed on a specific topic, the most straightforward thing to do is to ask for them. ... The challenge is to identify the right issue, and to define it in a way that is meaningful to employees."

Perhaps surprisingly, Robinson and Schroeder argue that going after small ideas is often the most productive, because not only are small ideas the best source of big ideas, but small ideas are often situation-specific which means they often remain proprietary to the company adopting them. And, adopting even small changes can lead to new understanding to help the business or can lead to unanticipated, positive results.

For example, "Ideas Are Free" tells us about a machinist who noticed that it took considerable time to change the oil barrels which were used to hold cooling oil which was sprayed on parts as they were machined. He suggested installing an overhead system of pipes to pipe in the oil from a large tank.

After adopting the change, the company noticed several results. First, the forklift operator whose job was to replace the barrels of oil could be redeployed to a more profitable job. Second, floor space was freed up. Third, oil could now be purchased in bulk, reducing its cost. Fourth, machine downtime was reduced. Fifth, oil spills were reduced, and because each oil spill required certain governmental paperwork, the cost in processing this paperwork was greatly reduced. Sixth, the new hoses that sprayed the oil had gauges showing how much oil was consumed. Despite recycling much of the cooling oil, they noticed that considerable oil was still lost. They discovered that the loss was due to the oil that remained on the metal shavings spewed away as the parts were machined. After a bit of engineering, the company also found a way to recycle more of this oil, further reducing its oil costs.

To help employees become better at generating ideas, Robinson and Schroeder suggest adopting "Idea Activators" such as 1) Employee Job Rotation; 2) Adopting the Customer's Perspective; 3) Ongoing Learning; and 4) Reading Groups.

I highly recommend "Ideas Are Free: How The Idea Revolution Is Liberating People And Transforming Organizations" to all managers and entrepreneurs who wish to tap into the benefits of employee ideas.

Peter Hupalo, Author of "Thinking Like An Entrepreneur."


Rating:
Summary: A Great BOOK and a Great INTERVIEW
Review: "Ideas Are Free" is about how to gather lot of ideas and then putting them to good use. People by nature are problem solvers, in fact, every person is paid for that very purpose, yet millions upon millions of dollars are wasted each year because ideas are suppressed rather than encouraged.

Dean Schroeder and Alan Robinson say that we are at the beginning of an idea revolution, led by proactive managers, who have learned how to listen systematically to their employees and taken action on their ideas. These ideas when implemented, save huge amounts of time, energy, and money. And more importantly, when people see their ideas being implemented, performance improves, efficiency and profits go up, and turnover goes down.

I interviewed Dean Schroeder on The Inside Success Show and learned so much. He has an approach to business that is very proactive and should be followed by all who want to succeed.

Here are some other things I learned from them:

** How Dean Schroeder started out thinking he had to come up with all of the ideas
** Who is best suited to provide ideas and how to get them
** Why idea reward systems don't work
** What system should replace the suggestion box
** Where you should start making changes - even if the rest of management doesn't agree

If you have a business, even if you're the only employee, and you want to dramatically increase your profits, then I highly recommend this book to you.

Randy (Dr. Proactive) Gilbert, host of "TheInsideSuccessShow.com" and best-selling author of "Success Bound"

Rating:
Summary: Insightful!
Review: Authors Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder articulate a plain, obvious truth that hierarchical executives and managers may sometimes ignore: often the best ideas come not from the top, but from the little guy working in the cubicle or out on the assembly line. Their book predicts an 'idea revolution,' where companies realize that their employees' ideas are among their companies' most valuable resources. The book reviews the basics of how to set up an idea-generating system, how to reward employees effectively and how to keep managerial egos out of the way. The authors discuss several case studies that demonstrate the power of a good idea. A new idea? No. One is reminded of Andre Gide, who said, "Everything has already been said, but because nobody was listening, we keep having to start all over again at the beginning." We recommend this book to any manager, executive or business owner who seeks powerful organizational improvements based on individual insight, creativity and innovation. Go ask a customer service clerk how to make things better.

Rating:
Summary: Empower your employees to do the right thing
Review: Empowering employees to do the right thing is a key idea in my Principled Profit philosophy.

This principle can improve every aspect of a business, as Robinson and Schroeder demonstrate.

In an empowered organization, employee ideas--especially those from front-line workers--are a currency with the capability to slash costs, boost morale and productivity, and in some cases yield enormous actual-dollar profitability.

But too many organizations go about idea collection all wrong. Either they have no systematized method of collecting, analyzing, and acting on ideas--rapidly implementing the good ones--or they saddle their idea system with an unworkable and counterproductive monetary reward system that results in the opposite of what's intended.

Still, companies that encourage--even demand--ideas from their employees reap many benefits. Interestingly, most of the big improvements come from very small ideas--that piggyback and replicate into a powerful snowball of change For instance, one idea from one employee might save a few thousand dollars a year in a single location, but multiply by 10,000 locations and the savings are enormous. Too, the little incremental changes are often site-specific and harder for competitors to spot, leading to long-term competitive advantage.

From massive corporations like Toyota to single-locations such as a guest ranch in Arizona, companies with good idea capture systems enjoy higher morale, higher productivity, lower costs--and a fresh climate where going to work is actually fun.

And after reading this book, any company ought to be able to put such a system into place.

Rating:
Summary: Free ideas provide huge benefits
Review: How did Toyota rise from being an obscure automaker to being "Number Three" in "The Big Three?" How did Toyota come to dominate the J.D. Powers Consumer Satisfaction Survey? And why is it Toyota has not laid off a single worker since 1950? Ideas. Toyota uses hundreds more ideas per worker than do its American counterparts.

While Toyota is a stunning example of how one company gets and uses employee ideas, this book isn't about Toyota. It's about liberating people and transforming organizations through ideas. Not necessarily big ideas, but ideas that come from every person in the organization and add up to big things.

The typical organization is an idea desert. This well-researched book shows you, through case histories and clear explanations, how any organization can transform that desert into a lush land that produces bumper crops.

One key is tapping into the vast resource of employees who are closest to the work. Managers have a perspective that is excellent for addressing the larger picture. But to have that perspective, managers are necessarily removed from being close to the work. Thus, they simply are not in a position to see how to improve the work.

Another important concept that many managers fail to put to use is that of massively parallel eyes, ears, and brains. Joseph Antonini taught us that ignoring these inputs is very dangerous--he nearly ruined K-Mart by assuming his ideas were the only ones that really mattered.

We have to remember that employees are often leaders and thinkers outside of work. They rear children, hold leadership positions in their churches, hold leadership positions in their trade or professional organizations, conduct neighborhood watches, pay mortgages, coach softball teams, teach children how to ride bikes, care for their aged parents, plan vacation trips, plan and prepare meals for guests, conduct hundreds of financial transactions each year, safely navigate their way around strange neighborhoods or even cities they have never been to before, conduct research at their library and online, send their spouses or children off to war and support them across vast oceans, and.... You get the point. And this is a point that Ideas Are Free brings to front and center.

Companies who treat employees as a brain trust have an enormous advantage over companies that treat employees as a cost they'd like to eliminate. This book shows you how to treat employees as a brain trust, based on what other companies have successfully done. It also alerts you to some pitfalls and explains why certain approaches don't work.

The competitive advantage that will most determine the future of any company is brainpower. It's not a matter of hiring bright people. It's a matter of correctly managing the brainpower you already have. And that's why I recommend Ideas Are Free to anyone who is in a management position.

In today's globally competitive environment, you can't afford to operate on the same premise Antonini did.

You need ideas. And, they are free--if you know how to look for them.

Rating:
Summary: A book about ideas that is full of ideas.
Review: I manage people and my greatest frustration is having smart people working for me, the best tools, a great product and still getting beaten in the marketplace by companies with a more creative approach. Leveraging human capital is the difference between a good company (or organization) and a great one. Motivating people to come to work everyday is one thing. I need them to think creatively! Standing in front of their desk screaming "THINK CREATIVELY!" doesn't seem to work very well. The authors address this issue blissfully avoiding Covey-esque motivational platitudes and MBAspeak about 'Synergies' found in most management books. The book is written with a practitioner in mind and avoids 'data' and teaches with real life examples. A lot of them! A great read for any leader trying to unleash potential in their organization or even looking for ideas themselves.

Rating:
Summary: OLD THEMES, SOME NEW IDEAS AND TACTICS
Review: Rewind to 1992. It's the dawn of the so-called Information & Knowledge Age. Back then, I wrote a book on the need to liberate and effectively channel the creativity of all employees in an organization. The rationale: To create higher performing organizations in a time of intense global competition. With pressing needs for superior innovation. And improved productivity. Amid ever-leaner budgets. (Sound familiar?)

Flash forward a dozen years to today and IDEAS ARE FREE (a title echoing Phil Crosby's classic QUALITY IS FREE).

This new book makes clear today that my impassioned plea from a decade ago failed to eradicate idea-stifling organizational cultures. Way too many work places, it seems, still quell expressions of innovative thinking by both frontline employees and middle managers.

So the case for turning on the innovation spigot needs to be made again with renewed vigor. In answering that call, Professors Robinson & Schroeder offer some worthwhile and occasionally surprising and compelling contributions to this topic that is as relevant now as ever.

IDEAS ARE FREE presents an articulate case that organizations -- and individual managers -- need to unleash the *still* largely untapped brainpower intentionally and quite unfortunately held-back by employees.

Three elements make IDEAS ARE FREE especially worthy of your time and money.

1. The authors aim their advice at regular workaday managers. Sure, they rightfully point out how organizational systems are often "dysfunctional." And they make the case that many corporate practices actually *discourage* creative contributions by individuals even as they try to *incent* those very behaviors. But Robinson & Schroeder don't aim their prescriptions at policy-making top executives only. Many chapters conclude with what the authors term "guerilla tactics" -- clear directives for simple actions that even frontline supervisors can put to work "without the boss's permission."

2. The book dramatically makes the case that paying for ideas -- as part of an organization's formal suggestion systems -- is fraught with potential negative side-effects. My own corporate experience as an executive championing a newly installed suggestion system bears out the startling reality that this well-intentioned process can turn into a self-destructive minefield. (And, let the record show, I largely missed this dimension in covering suggestion systems back in my '92 work.)

3. Many interesting, well-developed (albeit occasionally dated) anecdotes illustrate the book's sound principles. They help make IDEAS ARE FREE a grounded, engaging, and palatable read.

Back in '92, I suggested in my book MAVERICKS! that, "Managers should be asking questions like: What is the value of a useful new idea? If one good idea leads to another, where could thousands and thousands lead us? What is the cost to the organization for not tapping the endlessly renewable resource of ideas in our employees' heads?"

Getting to the root of the problem, I asked: "Isn't the job of a manager to *recognize and choose* from lots of great ideas generated by fellow work associates?" And answered: "Unfortunately, most managers -- even those who claim they invite suggestions from their people -- subscribe to the time-honored myth that a manager's job is to *have* the ideas."

In 2004, Robinson & Schroeder again plow many of these very same themes (and cite data that also have been around for a long time). Still, this book explores afresh the opportunities that arise from drawing out the best thinking of every employee. And it presents realistic tactics that all managers can deploy to effectively deal with these still-critical issues.

Wherever you sit in the hierarchy, read IDEAS ARE FREE to seize powerful ideas about potential gains for your organization's progress and prosperity.

Don Blohowiak
Lead Well® Institute

Rating:
Summary: Better Insights on Old idea
Review: The theme of employee suggestions is not new. But this book provides answers and strong motivation to try out again. The things that I learned from reading the book are:

1) Why rewards based on value of saving does not work.
2) A series of small ideas adds up to one Big one.
3) Even big ideas needs small ideas to get them working right.
4) Small ideas are not easily copied.
5) A properly implemented idea system improve management - employee relations
6) Successfully implemented ideas system is the key to competitive advantage and sustainable long term performance.

Please read the book for the details. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: weLEAD Book Review from the Editor of leadingtoday.org
Review: This is a book about transformation and the leadership it takes to achieve it. The obvious premise of this book is that "ideas" can transform an average company into a great one, or a struggling organization into a competitive success. The power to achieve this is in simple everyday ideas from the people who really know where the problems exist, the front line workers. Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder have written a book that has its origins in the 1980's. Schroeder had discovered that the "employees of distressed companies could often identify and solve critical problems which management had either missed or ignored". Around the same time, Robinson was studying Japanese organizations and discovering how small ideas could lead to high employee involvement and superior performance. This book is a result of their research that led them into 150 different organizations in seventeen countries representing a diverse variety of industries.



Ideas Are Free is a book that discusses how everyday common-sense ideas can make a powerful difference in any organization! Most American organizational cultures constantly search for the "big" revolutionary ideas that often are quickly duplicated by the competition. But it is the ongoing benefits derived from smaller innovations that can really make a huge difference. These small ideas tend to remain proprietary within the organization that utilizes them. Sadly, most organizations seem to ignore this opportunity and are better at suppressing ideas instead of promoting them!



Ideas Are Free correctly focuses on the fact that the best ideas come from people who do the work and see many things the manager doesn't. Managers are good at squandering the most significant resource that organizations possess: employee ideas. Aside from innovation, another advantage of utilizing the ideas of employees is that the process pushes the decision-making authority back down to the people who do the work where it belongs. A secondary benefit is that managers are reminded every day of how valuable and productive ideas from the "front-line" can be. This should remind the manager to be less arrogant and more humble.



This book is organized into eight chapters. Chapter 1 convinces the reader that small ideas can drive a culture of high performance. It also provides an overview of the books main points. Chapters 2 and 3 deal with the importance of going after small ideas, and examines why most common reward systems fail. Chapter 5 discusses how to create an effective process to deal with many new ideas, and how to make idea generation a part of everyone's job. Chapters 6 and 7 focus on helping employees engender more and better ideas, and how to make a good idea system a truly great one. Chapter 8 shows how a sound ideas system can make a positive change in the organization's culture. Most chapters end with suggested actions that any manager can adopt to promote ideas called "Guerrilla Tactics".



Ideas Are Free is excellent reading and one that can inspire a manager to tap into any organization's greatest untapped natural resource... it's people!