New Horizons Magazine (EIA) - "How the Little Mermaid Saved Ideas Management"

new horizons logo

New Horizons is a quarterly newsletter from the Employee Involvement Association (EIA), an international organization serving professional managers and administrators by providing quality educational programs, publications, and networking opportunities.

Imaginatik is an Associate Member of the association and had the following article published in the newletter.

How the Little Mermaid Saved Ideas Management

By Mark Turrell, CEO, Imaginatik

The first suggestion box in the world appeared in 1891 at a Scottish shipyard, followed closely by NCR in the US. Aged they may be, but I’m sure that these famous boxes, if they were around today, suffered the same fate as most suggestion systems today – not enough ideas, poor or non-existent review process, and few ideas implemented for real in the business.

The classic problem in ideas management is maintaining interest and excitement once the initial honeymoon period has passed. Most projects start with an influx of ideas as people discover an outlet for the creative “corporate” juices. Indeed there are often hundreds of ideas that already exist. However fatigue soon sets in as people run out of novel ideas, or become disenchanted through poor feedback and implementation. The net result is a half-dead ideas system, trickle fed with twenty ideas a month.

When we started our analysis of ideas management systems, we found that many shared the same fate. Suggestion systems die. It’s a fact of life. And often it takes another year before the organization will let you try again.

During our research, a member of the research team drew on Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” for inspiration. The odd thing was that he had to buy the video straight away, otherwise he’d have to wait until Disney re-released the film. That gave us the insight into the “event” method of running ideas management, an insight that has proved extremely successful in helping companies increase the number and quality of ideas they collect and manage.

An event is a short period of time, between two and six weeks, during which you collect and assess ideas. An event is focused on a topic, such as a business strategy or major project. There is a business sponsor and a review team and it is their job to encourage contributions, and select the best ideas for implementation.

The event approach has a number of benefits over the ‘perpetual’ method of idea collection:

Executive attention – executives lose interest in projects if there are delays in getting results
Top quality review team – the best people are more willing to give their time if the time commitment is limited
No procrastination – people have to contribute their ideas quickly or else they will miss their window of opportunity
Focus on implementation – the hand-over period at the end is critical

Events typically increase the number of ideas between four- and ten-fold. It gives focus to ideas management, making it a tactical tool to help managers execute business strategy. It provides a focal point for people’s creativity, giving employees the opportunity to contribute to important projects.

Many companies want to blend the ongoing availability of ideas management with tactical support for major projects. This can be an excellent solution, making sure people always have the possibility of contributing their ideas. It’s a bit like watching the old videos but still buying the new ones as they come out. The best of both worlds.

Mark Turrell is the CEO of Imaginatik, a software company developing ideas management software. Mark has done research and consulting in knowledge and innovation management for ten years.