A practical guide to give direction to both leaders and practitioners on setting up an Idea Management System in the workplace.
Even though the book assumes a basic grounding in the philosophy of lean it is not solely intended for use by those familiar with lean. All workplaces from every business sector can benefit from applied creativity and employee driven innovation. Hence the glossary in the appendix provides details of the lean terms discussed throughout the book and this should help readers new to the world of lean. It is hoped that this text will become a dog-eared and highlighted manual on the desks of employees in organisations from all sectors. Idea Management Systems have massive potential regardless if you work in a manufacturing plant, a hospital, or indeed any office or workplace.
It is recommended that readers begin by reading through section one which gives a good grounding and overview of Idea Management including the potential of the concept and discusses some surprising aspects of this technique.
The book can then be read in any order. For those wishing to get straight into action section two details the support infrastructure and provides a suggested roadmap. It must be stated that there is no one best way to implement the system and you may or may not decide to use all of the recommended steps and tools. Cut the cloth to suit the table as it were, and adjust to align with your own unique culture.
Section three works though some of the accessories that make for a physically conducive creative environment. It also details some recommendations for intentionally striving to nurture a creative and innovative culture.
Section four describes twenty resources for breaking us out of habitual thinking patterns. This is an especially useful gift to employees both as a profit generating set of tools and as a suite of personal life skills. Section five gives an outline of the structure for running an accelerated idea workshop. This is a useful consideration if you need an intense focus on a burning issue or at the launch of the system to demonstrate the potential.
Finally in section six it’s the “rubber meets the road” stage where nine real life case studies of Idea Management Systems from the manufacturing and hospital domains are explored in a question and answer format. If there was ever compulsory reading, this chapter is.
There is no substitute for real life lessons. Four industry guru’s in Idea Management share a snapshot of their expertise in the concluding chapter.
The book appendix contains an audit for rating the effectiveness of the Idea Management System.
A list of 30 ways to improve personal creativity is also enclosed. A useful macro audit for determining the current state of play of the organisations creativity and innovation performance is squeezed into the appendix also.
This is a useful tool to give a business a baseline at the outset of their journey and to demonstrate the gap opportunity to be closed.
Lean Healthcare Book (release date Dec. 2010)
This book will
explore Lean Healthcare with emphasis on Deming’s System of Profound
Knowledge and The Science of Improvement. This pioneering book aims to
provide the foremost incisive research into alloying these two potent
improvement philosophies to advance the accomplishments already seen in Lean
Healthcare. Historical roadblocks in Lean Healthcare have been
sustainability issues and appreciation of a system. This work will get to
the hub of these challenges.