You've heard it said so many times that it's almost a cliché at this point, but it's still true. Your employees are your biggest and best asset. It doesn't matter what business you're in. Whether you make something, resell something someone else made, or provide a service, without good employees who believe in you and your company, you are exactly nowhere.
In addition to being the life blood of your company, your people are also the greatest source of ideas and inspiration you've got. If you're not utilizing them in this capacity, you are losing out. More often than not, when a member of management asks the rank and file to brainstorm an idea, they've already got a pretty good idea of what they're after, and won't really deviate too far from the vision in their mind. What they're really looking for is buy in for the ideas they have, and the bit about asking the employees for their ideas is mostly an academic exercise so you can say you did it.
That's a fundamentally wrong headed approach. If you want your business to prosper in the long run, everyone has to be fully engaged. Everyone has to have a real, tangible stake in the success of the operation. Further, genius takes many forms, and management is often rather poorly suited to come up with anything more than evolutionary ideas. Don't get me wrong, evolutionary ideas are fine, and they definitely have their place, but your truly revolutionary ideas will, in practice, come from the people “in the trenches” of your company, not the ones at the top. Here's how you can unleash, then tap into the enormous wellspring of creativity you've already got under your roof:
Gamify The Process
Design a real-time, living “game” around a new idea. Create character “classes” for your employees, who then become “living avatars” playing the game while they're at work, all day, every day. Some might be Guardian Angels, who specialize in building on, defending, or refining someone else's idea. Others might specialize in being “Devils” (Devils Advocates), whose primary mission is to stress test ideas as they're created. Still others might be “Moorlocks” who design the underlying architecture that could potentially make the idea work, and others might take the role of “Mad Scientists” who come up with all manner of crazy schemes, some of which will never have a prayer of seeing the light of day, while others are so brilliant you almost can't bear to look at them straight on.
It doesn't matter how you organize the game, or even that you tie specific employees too firmly to specific roles. What matters is that you create a structure in which the game can be played, and offer up real, meaningful rewards to those who excel at one of the many tasks involved in bringing an idea from broad concept to possible future product offering.
Note here that this should not be seen as a one-off. This isn't a “one and done” type of operation, but a permanent addition to your company's culture. The game, once set in motion, should be persistent and ongoing. Initially, especially if game theory has never been utilized in your company before, you'll probably receive some skepticism. That will last until the first rewards are handed out, and people start to see some of the actual ideas that are born of the process. At that point, it'll catch on like wildfire and you'll find yourself at the head of one of the most rampantly creative, innovative firms in your area.
Empowerment
Nothing except game theory unleashes the creative potential in a person like empowerment. If you want a process improved, don't design it yourself, and don't pay some outside corporation to do it for you. Tell the people currently performing the process in question what you need, and what sorts of improvement you want to see, then turn them loose. Let them self organize and come up with their own ideas. Put a member of management in to steer the process, but only lightly. It's their show. The manager's just there to clear the road and smooth out the process. Then, reward them for coming up with the solution and let them implement it all on their own. Consider it management training for your front line employees. You will be amazed.
If you implemented both of these in your company tomorrow, and give both time to take root, you will be utterly astnished at what your employees can do. Give them the chance to blow your mind.
