Need New Ideas for Your Shop? Here’s How to Get Your Employees to Deliver

Launch “Project Lightbulb” in your business

Do you have an employee suggestion box, but there’s never anything in it? Bob Nelson, author of 1001 Ways To Energize Employees, suggests adding some urgency to this timeless, idea-generating device by keeping it open only for a short period. Perhaps one or two weeks at a time, once or twice a year. Call these periods “Project Lightbulb,” and create a team that will decide definitively (within seven days after the box “closes”) whether and how to implement the ideas. Boost participation by offering rewards to those whose brainstorms are used.