The Idea-Driven Organization: Unlocking the Power in Bottom-Up Ideas

Alan G. Robinson · Dean M. Schroeder

Apr 2020 · Berrett-Koehler Publishers

About this ebook

“Examples from all over the world make it fun to read . . . convincingly demonstrate[s] the power of incorporating frontline thinking into your organization.” —Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Triggers
 
Too many organizations overlook, or even suppress, their single most powerful source of growth and innovation—and it’s right under their noses. The frontline employees who interact directly with your customers, make your products, and provide your services have unparalleled insights into where problems exist and what improvements and new offerings would have the most impact.
 
In this follow-up to their bestseller Ideas Are Free, Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder show how to align every part of an organization around generating and implementing employee ideas and offer dozens of examples of what a tremendous competitive advantage this can offer—not just for revenue but for worker retention. Their advice enables leaders to build organizations capable of implementing twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per employee per year.
 
Citing organizations from around the world, they explain what’s needed to put together a management team that embraces grassroots ideas and describe the strategies, policies, and practices that enable them. They detail exactly how high-performing idea processes work and how to design one for your organization.
 
There’s pressure today to do more with less. But cutting wages and benefits and pushing people to work harder with fewer resources can go only so far. Ironically, the best solution resides with the very people who’ve been bearing the brunt of these measures. With this book, you can unleash a constant stream of great ideas that will strengthen every facet of your organization.

About the author

Alan G. Robinson is professor of operations and information management at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Robinson has advised more than 300 companies in twenty-five countries, including the Federal Reserve Bank, General Electric, Kraft, the government of Singapore, IKEA, the US Navy, the Washington Post, and Heineken..

Dean M. Schroeder is the Herbert and Agnes Schulz Professor of Management at Valparaiso University and has taught at the University of Massachusetts, St. Petersburg Technical University in Russia, and ALBA in Greece.