Review: Ideas Are Free

Copyright © 2004 by Don Blohowiak
Don@LeadWell.com www.LeadWell.com

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 the book 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 that is, quite unfortunately, intentionally held-back by employees.

The Good Stuff

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.

Old is New Again

Back in '92, I suggested in my book MAVERICKS! that managers should be asking questions such as, "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.

Buy the book here.

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Copyright © 2005, Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute

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