Suggestion v. Frustration

There is an abundance of of published information regarding guidelines for and benefits of an employee suggestion program. A few informative articles can be found at the Community for Human Resource Management, Chart Your Course International, and About.com.

There is a very simple context that is overlooked in most discussions about how to establish a successful employee suggestion program. Suggestions are much easier to implement if they are viewed as a solution to a frustration. A frustration in the context of business can be defined as an undesirable pattern of events that can be eliminated by installing or improving a system. It is preferable to have employees list frustrations rather than suggestions because simply listing a suggestion may not be getting to the heart of what their problem is. Simply listing a suggestion does not reveal the true core of the problem and eliminates an opportunity to provide a systematic solution in a larger context. As an example a suggestion to

‘Buy better coffee’

does not reveal the source of an individual’s concern about the situation and limits the company’s choices to find a solution. A frustration listed as

‘I get queasy when I drink the coffee in the morning’

leaves the door wide open for the company to investigate the situation and identify all of the possible solutions. This would lead to an investigation of the entire process and equipment used to make the coffee, etc. to determine if the coffee itself is indeed to problem, or if something else is causing the undesirable result.

Committed to Innovation

Bryan Yager in his article Time Management is NOT the Problem at cmoe.com suggests that a lack of focus ('strategic targets') is what keeps people from accomplishing what they want, not a lack of time.

Although strategic focus is certainly required there is another equally important aspect of commitment. We cannot try to fully address everything that comes into our lives and expect the most important things to get the attention they deserve.

For individuals with clear strategic focus this may mean giving up time with friends or 'relaxing' to hone a skill or complete a project. Or it may mean giving up time doing something they are passionate about to spend more time with friends and family. It all depends on where their focus is.

The same idea can be applied to business. Assuming there are a finite amount of resources available, any business truly committed to innovation must make a sacrifice of some sort in another area. At a bear minimum someone in the business is going to have to spend a little less time working 'in' the business and a little more time working 'on' the business. A larger sacrifice may mean parting ways with certain clients or projects to leave more time for innovation.

Most businesses will find success by committing a small amount of time each day to innovation and making it a priority. One successful strategy is to make sure you spend one hour a day, first thing in the morning, on developing and applying your strategic vision to your business. Let the normal barrage of calls, emails, and paperwork that pull at your attention take a back seat until your innovation time for the day is done. Over time the incremental changes you can bring about will have a huge impact on your business.

The bottom line goes back to the old saying - 'If you try to be all things to everyone you will be nothing to anyone.'

4 Quick Ways to Get Your Business Documentation Rolling

Good business documentation, including policy and procedure manuals, are a cornerstone of efficiency and innovation. There are various processes for systematic creation of policies and procedures. Regardless of the process used the most difficult step is the initial gathering of operational information. In this article, I suggest four time-friendly steps to begin building your business documentation.

Even a business starting with a detailed business plan does not often have detailed process documentation. Most businesses start small without any form of documentation (such as in the case of many businesses and organizations that begin with a few key individuals holding most of the knowledge). We have to realize that the businesses that do not currently have documentation for their policies, procedures and other operational knowledge probably have a pretty big job ahead of themselves in collecting and documenting it. That said, time is always a commodity in high demand and short supply so any approach should seek to minimize the time involved and maximize the efficiency of the time used. The following steps are offered with these considerations in mind.

1. Dedicate 10 minutes of every day to documentation

Having employees spend ten minutes every day in this process is a great idea for a couple of reasons. First, most people do not have fun doing documentation. By making it a short period of time, you reduce the likelihood of making the process tedious. Secondly, it is difficult for most individuals to sit and write down their knowledge, keeping the time short reduces the risks of "writer's block" and encourages writers to put down the easy stuff on the tip of their mind without bogging down with details.

2. Use "brain dumping"

When you're just getting started with documentation, it's very easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of information that needs to be transferred from your head to paper, especially if you try to be organized with it. Instead of requiring structured, complete information to start with, encourage employees to pick a topic and use their time to "dump" everything they can think of. The information can be structured and revised later - it is most important to first get the information out there and available to other members of the organization for review and comment.

3. Use reviews to generate questions and fill in holes

Assign periods of review for every document by individuals other than the original authors. Another individual will often find holes, identify assumptions, generate questions and make suggestions on a topic that the author may have overlooked due to their familiarity with a topic. This review also helps acquaint more members with more information about the organization, giving everyone better perspective on its functions and goals.

4. Include related resources

If there are articles, manuals, websites, pictures, other operational documents, etc. that help explain or clarify the subject matter, include references to them in any documentation. More relevant information may help authors or reviewers determine additional subject matter to be included or simply provide greater insight into a process without reinventing the wheel.