Internal Communication: Brainstorming and idea-sharing

In a company, no matter the size, the process of idea-sharing is very important. It is so as it not only provides additional thoughts and points of view which always can be beneficial when evaluating or reshaping the company’s strategy, it can also contribute to valuable insights into the company, the market or the consumers’ perceptions of the company. Furthermore, sometimes what from top seems flawless, could show defects other places. For instance a marketing strategy could be thoroughly planned but fail in the implementation phase. The reasons for failure could be countless – simple human error or some unpredicted trait in consumer behavior or a new competitor. And you never know who is going to notice the problem as the first and as some marketing specialists say, in today’s world it is not the big that survives, it is the fast. Reacting to the changing environment is a requirement for survival.

Not to forget, if there are process errors in the company it is the employees who are going to notice them first. Process errors equal infectivity which equals losses. Such process errors could be found in production, in communication, in marketing, in customer service and they should be fixed as if not fixed they will not only affect productivity but will likely lead to employee frustration.

Therefore listening is an important managerial function. However, most companies, especially bigger ones, experience some difficulties collecting such input as the number of employees or the busy work schedule does not allow enough discussion. Imagine a room full of people who all want to share their thoughts. Some of those thoughts will of course not be worth the time but unfortunately in an open discussion environment they cannot be stopped.

Therefore an alternative is necessary. Environment where everybody freely can share their thought and discussion can be carried out. Before that was a challenge for many but today technologies offer us the tool to do it the right way. Using a platform as an intranet or a social network gives the opportunity to allow for enhanced employee involvement in the decision making, for better communication among employees and for idea-sharing which can be the driver of changes in the company.

The pluses here are that the added freedom and informality of a social network for example will help employees give their inputs with less self-censure and carry out discussions in the form of brainstorming without wasting working hours on that – it could be done even from home and it only takes seconds. Furthermore, such discussions do higher employee motivation as employees feel that they matter and they for real are a part of the company. Last but not least, with only a fast skim management could pick up important ideas and even more importantly, trends among employees. It does not need to be mentioned that displeased employees are dangerous if nothing is done to correct the issues.

Minuses? There are none. It is cheap; employees are happy because they have the possibility to talk and be heard; and management is happy because time-waste levels go down, employee motivation goes up and is monitored, important ideas and trends are picked up on time. So do it.

DIDI