“There's a higher level of performance that we usually talk ourselves out of.” -- Kevin McManus, the Systems Guy

“Blocking out the unnecessary puts the goal within reach.” -- Successories Poster

“The most important measures are both unknown and unknowable.” -- W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis

Is Your Idea Pool Polluted?

Organizations typically have more things to work on than they have time (and in some cases money) to work on them. Even with this system constraint, they often make the problem worse by using suggestion boxes, forms, or employee meetings to collect even more ideas. While this is often done with good intention and in the spirit of employee involvement, it also often results in a very polluted idea pool. As the 'water' in the pool gets more and more polluted, fewer and fewer people want to 'swim' in it. Ideas stagnate, continuous improvement slows, and innovation becomes almost nonexistent.

It should be the goal of any organization to regularly collect improvement ideas from its stakeholders. Similar goals should also be made however to (1) actively support the further processing of ideas, (2) to teach these stakeholders about the system that is used to process their suggestions, (3) teach them how the organization determines what needs to be worked on first, and (4) actively involve them in the idea conversion effort. Failing to adhere to any of these four goals will compromise the effectiveness of your idea conversion process very quickly, and drag down the morale of your people and your credibility as managers as well.

The following diagram shows a typical process flow for converting ideas into improvements. Note in particular the six questions that are shown on the diagram. These questions should serve as planning tools as you build your own infrastructure for converting ideas into lasting improvements.

What Controls the Idea Conversion Rate?

In the above diagram, the idea funnel and the project flow rate determine the idea conversion rate. The idea funnel is a function of resource limitations - time and money. The project flow rate is a function of (1) the total time for projects that is built into your associates' jobs, (2) the project development skill level of each person with time in their jobs for projects, and (3) the desire to improve that each project person has. As with the funnel, performance shortfalls in any, or all, of these areas will slow your project flow rate.

What Should We Do?

The first step you should take involves accepting that such an idea conversion process already exists and better understanding how it works. Once you have done that, you can begin to redesign this process to better meet your improvement needs. In general, I believe that all employees should be trained in the skills that are needed for project development AND that time should be built into their jobs for such work. The reality is that even middle managers and supervisors rarely have this type of time built into their jobs OR possess the skills that are needed for effective project development. Project work is often left to engineers and the information systems people, while we sit back and wonder why change is not happening as quickly as we feel it should.

It is also key that you decide what tools you are going to use to prioritize and pick your improvement projects. For example, the Kepner Tregoe decision matrix works quite well for this purpose. I also suggest that you combine all of your idea collection processes and project development efforts into one comprehensive idea conversion process for your organization. I suggest this in recognition of the fact that your resources are limited and it is way too easy to spread them too thin. I have witnessed the downside of an ineffective idea conversion process all too often.

Don't let your idea pool become polluted, and if it already is, consider some of the above thoughts to help make it more desirable for your people to go 'back into the water.' Keep improving!

Would You Like to Learn More?

From the links provided below, you can continue to explore some other ideas for improving your idea conversion process. You can also use these links to learn even more about Great Systems! and the types of systems improvements I can help you make:

	Systems Change: The Key to Getting Better Results
	Do You Need Great Systems!
	Types of Systems I Can Help You Improve
	Planning Power System
	Great Systems! home page

“The only thing I know is that I do not know it all.” -- Socrates