Invest twenty seconds to get more solutions and ideas.
Recently, I donated blood through the Red Cross. What happened next is a great example of how you can get more solutions, ideas, and critical thinking from your team members.
Four weeks after donating, I received the following email:
The email told me specifically where my donation went, reminded me of the impact it would have, and invited me to donate again. Wow – what fantastic follow up! I felt good knowing what had happened to my donation.
I saw the same follow up when I ordered flowers for Karin. The florist sent me a message to confirm my purchase, another message when the flowers left the store, and a final message telling me they had delivered the flowers. The real-time clarity and knowledge of exactly what was happening with those roses impressed me.
Why You Don’t Get More Solutions
We’re on a mission to help leaders build courageous cultures where innovation and problem-solving thrive.
As we talk with leaders and teams around the world, we hear two big reasons that employees don’t share more solutions to problems that directly affect customers, profitability, and even employee experience:
- No one asked me.
- Nothing happens when I share.
The first problem is easy to fix: start asking and get the information you need to make the best decisions.
The second problem takes a little more work and intention. When people share ideas and solutions, your response has a huge effect on whether they’ll continue.
If you don’t respond, people will stop sharing.
There’s nothing wrong with them – it’s disheartening to share your feedback, your solutions, and your best thinking only to feel ignored.
“But wait!” you say, “we’re not ignoring the feedback, in fact, we just implemented an employee suggestion that’s saving everyone time and making customers happier.”
Excellent! Do they and their colleagues know how you used their idea? Often, it’s not that you ignored the employee; it’s that they feel ignored because you didn’t respond.
What about these situations?
- Jana makes a great suggestion, but it can’t be implemented right now because of competing strategic priorities.
- Mark submits the same unworkable solution that five other people have also recommended.
- Shantel proposes an idea that, unknown to her, got a trial run last year, but ran into obstacles and was abandoned.
Leaders often fail to respond to team members in these scenarios. As a result, the employees give up and stop sharing because “no one cares and nothing happens.”
7 Ways to Respond and Encourage More Solutions
Think about your healthy response in light of the Red Cross or florist updates. The Red Cross didn’t just send me a generic “your donation made a difference,” rather, they told me the specific hospital where they sent it. Keep your team member informed, connected, and ultimately glad she took the time to submit her idea.
Here are several ways you can respond to employees, build momentum, and encourage your team to continue sharing solutions even when you can’t implement their idea.
- Say “thank you.” Self-explanatory and always relevant. When someone takes the time to think about how things could be better, let them know you appreciate it.
- Share the process. Let them know what comes next and the relevant time frame. If it will take six months before you consider these ideas because of other strategic priorities, say so and explain the other priorities (your employee may surprise you with an idea that achieves those objectives).
- Tell them what happened. If you abandoned the idea, let them know. If you implemented the idea, let them know. If you referred it for testing, let them know.
- Provide more information. For ideas that you abandoned, share the additional information they didn’t know. Was there a budget constraint? An obstacle with another strategic aim? A conflict with another service or the needs of another department? Share this information with your team member. If you have a scattered employee who continually comes up with ideas that aren’t strategically relevant, let them know what would be helpful.
- Invite more solutions. Once you’ve shared why you didn’t implement an idea, encourage them to think through the problem with the additional information you’ve supplied and to let you know when they’ve got another thought about how to solve it. Not everyone will choose to think more deeply, but some will. Rather than people shutting down because they feel ignored, you will engage a powerful team of parallel processors all thinking about the problem from different angles.
- Involve them in trials or implementation. If possible, engage your team member in testing the idea on a small scale. Ask them to test the positive effects, costs, and unforeseen consequences. They experience they gain will inform their next ideas – and they know you took their idea seriously.
- Celebrate solutions. Regularly call attention to and celebrate the contribution of employees who share new ideas and solutions – even when those solutions don’t work. You get more of what you celebrate and encourage. Don’t just celebrate the ideas that work; celebrate the act of sharing thoughtful ideas and solutions. You’ll get more solutions and some of those will work.
Your Turn
You may not have a fully automated system to track your employee’s idea and communicate with them as it moves through the consideration, testing and implementation process (what if you did?), but you can still provide the feedback they need. In that moment, it doesn’t take over twenty seconds to say “thank you” and share next steps. Then another twenty seconds to let them know what happened. You’ll get more solutions when you respond to the ones you already have.
Leave us a comment and share how you respond to great ideas and the ideas you can’t use.
Spot on, David. Sharing a new idea makes me vulnerable. I share this part of me and deliver it like a sweet treat. And while I can’t control how the idea is used, I still have that ownership & pride about delivering the sweet treat. Then when the idea runs downhill, it is out of my control. I was vulnerable and now it has a life of its own. A tough proposition and your post underscores the need to trace ideas – like projects, they have a lifecycle. I wonder, what is the gap? An idea board tracking matrix? Or is that too formal. Or just simple touchpoints between the person who generated the solution & the person who uses the solution. Like giving blood. You know where it went. The lesson here is that the idea is significant. And while this one may not travel far, the next one may save the company.
David, that is so well said and captures the heart of things. In large organizations, a formal system may be appropriate, but every leader can take the twenty seconds to say thank you and twenty more seconds to check in down the road, even if the idea couldn’t be used.
David, It’s interesting that you mention the idea of an idea tracking board. We just had a client come up with that as part of their solution to this problem 😉
Sometimes it is difficult if not impossible to fully comprehend an offered idea from your limited perspective.
One of the unforeseen consequences of inviting an idea generator to participate is that they may see their idea from a perspective that you may either not have or you may have shut down because of past barriers that led to failures.
Allowing a motivated idea generator to participate increases the likelihood they can adjust or adapt their ideas to be more effective.
Spot on Jay! With a little more information and participation, those varied perspectives can add up to massive innovation and transformation.
I have a Stop Light Report. I use ideas the staff has given me as well as changes we are making in the office. For example: If there is an idea/project that is a something we cannot move forward any time soon & maybe not at all, I list it with details in the Red column of the spread sheet. If it is a work in progress on an idea/project, I list it in the Yellow column of the spread sheet. If it is an idea/project that is current & going to be implemented, I list it in the Green column of the spread sheet. If a “Yellow” item is going to be implemented then I will move it to Green column when we are implementing. I update this monthly by adding items or moving items to the correct color (Green go, Yellow on going work, & Red stop). It is posted for all staff to see. This shows where we’ve come with successes and where we are going. I always list the employee who gave the idea or helped implemented it as well. This gives those employees recognition. It shows staff the progress we have made. It’ s a great way to keep the communication open & for all employees to see the progress with their ideas & any set backs we may have as well.
Rhonda, what a great example! Thanks for sharing it with us. There is so much power in demonstrating the follow-through and recognition of ideas.