Accept Software Resource Library

Employee ?Brain Drain? Hits Company Coffers, Pt. 2

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:

1. Don't think of it as a point-in-time activity. Your employees are always thinking, so they need an “always on” environment for sharing their ideas with others.
2. Plan to DO something with employee ideas. Even a simple communication back that an idea has been reviewed will keep employees motivated to continue sharing. Updates throughout an idea review cycle are even better.
3. Facilitate collaboration across departments and regions. Innovative thinking grows exponentially when employees are exposed to different ways of looking at a problem.
4. Let your employees do the screening. There are lots of ideas out there – business and product owners won't be able to review them all. Let employees evaluate each other's ideas to make the process more efficient.
5. Remember that timing is a critical factor. Sometimes the right idea for today was conceived months or even years earlier. Perhaps by an employee who's no longer with the company.

See the Forest for the Trees

Innovative ideas are being exchanged by employees daily in meetings, over email and at lunch. Often good ideas never make it beyond the “email string.” When you have a bird's eye view of the ideas employees are talking about, you can begin to see the trends and spot the opportunities that can make a real difference in your products - opportunities that might otherwise appear as just another tree.