Communication and Innovation
The one ingredient essential for a company to become an innovation driven
firm is communications. Consider the old parable:
One day while wondering, I came across three bricklayers. I asked the
first bricklayer what he was doing.
“laying bricks,” he told me.
I asked the second what he was doing.
“Making a brick wall,” he told me.
I asked the third.
“Building a cathedral,” he explained.
In spite of an explosion of communication tools over the past decade,
there are still many firms that communicate to their employees like the
cathedral makers communicated to the first bricklayer. Employees are told
to lay bricks and lay them well. But, without knowing why they are laying
bricks, bricklayers like the first are unable to make much of a creative
contribution to the firm. How can they suggest ideas when they hardly
know what the firm is doing?
Today, far too many firms treat their employees like the cathedral makers
treated the second bricklayer. Employees know their place within their
department. They know they are part of a team building a wall. But they
are unclear as to why they are building a wall or where that wall fits
in the big picture. Although bricklayers like these can contribute creative
ideas, their ideas are largely limited to making better walls. While such
suggestions are useful, it is worth bearing in mind that cathedral walls
are different to house walls.
A precious few firms communicate to their entire workforce the way the
cathedral makers communicated to the third bricklayer. But, those insightful
cathedral makers who do fully communicate their plans and strategy will
be richly rewarded as long as they open their ears to the bricklayers,
concrete pourers, diggers, scaffolding makers and others involved in building
the cathedral.
That's because bricklayers are so much more than bricklayers. They are
multifaceted human beings with experience, knowledge, compassion and pride.
One bricklayer may have travelled Europe and seen many different styles
of cathedrals. He can contribute all kinds of ideas based on what he learned
during his travels. Another may be a keen experimenter, who has ideas
about making the tall, thin walls of the cathedral more stable until the
vaulting can be completed. Another may know a thing or two, about stained
glass windows, which he can share with the window makers.
Why do firms not communicate completely with their people? There are
many reasons. Sometimes it is the result of not developing lines of communication
from the top down. Sometimes issues of strategy and vision are considered
confidential and so not entrusted to anyone beyond top management. Sometimes,
top management is kept informed, but no method is established for top
management to communicate to people under them.
No matter what the reason, those firms that do not communicate to their
employees; those firms that do not ensure their employees know they are
working together to build a cathedral, will never build such good cathedrals
as those firms which do communicate in full.
Although Jenni enterprise idea management service will not create good
internal communications on its own, it can certainly facilitate communications
across the enterprise, particularly regarding innovation. Unlike many
simpler idea management solutions, Jenni allows true enterprise wide submission
of ideas, collaboration of ideas, submission of questions, answering of
questions and more.
Based on an article (by Jeffrey Baumgartner) published in Report103,
2 March 2004 issue
© 2004 Jeffrey Baumgartner
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