I recently came across a Wall Street Journal article about the growing number of companies that are turning to their employees for new and innovative ideas. The article cites research that states that the average employee's ideas are implemented just once every six years. In a world where companies prize product feedback, I find this statistic surprising. Couldn't some of the most transformational business ideas come from the people within the organization itself?

The bank I use for my personal finances loves to get customer feedback – or so you would think. Every few months, they call me, presumably along with their other retail customers, to ask what I think about the bank's services and products and what improvements I'd like to see.

So for the past three years, I've told them the same four things that I believe would offer meaningful improvements for customers as well as for the bank – some improvements which are already in place at their local competitors. At the end of each conversation they thank me and tell me what great ideas I had. And then nothing happens.

I used to be flattered by their interest in my thoughts. Early on, I believed it was meant sincerely. But now it's become something of a nuisance. My suggestions never seem to find a path into the bank's labyrinth of decision making.

I recently did a webinar with Roy Wildeman, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, on how you can minimize risk in product innovation by addressing gaps in your new product development processes. If you make it to the end of the post, you'll see how I make the connection to square dancing.

Tips for Managing Ideas like Other Company Assets

You wouldn't let an employee leave the company with their laptop or PDA, so why allow them to go without having collected critical IP – ideas they conceived while employed thinking about how to make your company's products better.

Here are five tips for better management of your idea assets:

If you're losing staff during this economic downturn, you're not just losing productivity; you're losing intellectual property that could be used to help your company excel during the recovery.

Employee Attrition = Lost IP