cost of ignoring ideas

[Dawn DePasquale, Ph.D.]

Hi all, does anyone have anything on the cost or impact of ignoring employee ideas? It may link to engagement/performance/innovation.
thanks all!
Dawn

[seymour hersh]

Hi Dawn,

If i look at the cost of not ignoring ideas , my first thought goes to 3M, and the employee idea process they started, separated from the tradition hierarchy. Out of this process came sticky notes.... Thus if 3M ignored this , they would have lost millions........

Seymour Hersh

[Dawn DePasquale, Ph.D.]

Hi Seymour...great example!! I'll do some research. Thanks for responding! Dawn

[Ed Bernacki]

Hi
I would go easy with the 3M Post It concept. I have used it but the whole story is not a positive example of 3M innovation. I believe he bootlegged the project and continued to work on it after being told to stop. Funding was cut. I also believe that he was stuck with boxes of Post It Notes that could not sell. To get rid of them, he gave them to PAs and secretaries who found uses for them that Art Fry did not think of.......When one asked for more Post It notes, he became curious about how she used them. This is a good story of a maverick who ignored the system, not of a great company harnessing the ideas of staff. The story I used is below.

You do ask a brilliant question. How do you value an idea that is not used? I will think about this.

ed bernacki

the Post It® Note story
Dr. Spencer Silver discovers a repositionable adhesive while working in
3M’s Corporate Research Lab. Silver presents his adhesive to other scientists,
trying to discover a problem that the glue can solve.
While singing in his church choir, Art Fry tires of losing his place in the
hymnal. He dreams of a bookmark that’s lightly adhesive. Then he
remembers Silver’s adhesive, and his dream begins to become real.