. Biohazards in the Suggestion Box by Tom Terez TO: All Employees FROM: The CEO RE: Suggestion Box As we work to turn our company into a true world-class organization, we need to leverage the know-how and creativity of all employees. Beginning next week, you will find suggestion boxes located in all major work areas. Please take one of the accompanying suggestion cards, document your improvement idea per the printed instructions, and place the card inside the box. Thank you in advance for helping us work smarter. Three weeks and zero suggestions later... TO: All Employees FROM: The CEO RE: "Big Prizes for Big Ideas" To encourage greater participation, we are launching the "Big Prizes for Big Ideas" program. At the end of each week, one of the submitted suggestion cards will be randomly selected, and the winner will receive a free gift from the "Big Prizes for Big Ideas" gift catalog. This is a wonderful chance to win a canned ham, a desk fan, a large wooden block that appears to be a paperweight, and many other exciting prizes. Remember, there's no such thing as a dumb idea. One week and 100 suggestions later... TO: All Employees FROM: The CEO RE: Suggestion Quality Apparently, there IS such a thing as a dumb idea. While we have received many worthwhile suggestions through our Big Prizes for Big Ideas (BPBI) initiative, or at least some worthwhile suggestions, many haven't been up to par. It won't be possible to have a three-day workweek. Nor will we institute a "CEO for a day" program. To improve the quality of the submitted ideas, I have established a BPBI Steering Committee. This group will make recommendations on how to increase the effectiveness of the BPBI program. One month and zero suggestions later... TO: The CEO FROM: The Chair of the BPBI Committee RE: Improvements to the Suggestion Program As you know, the past four weeks have seen a drop-off in the number of submitted suggestions. We have chartered a subcommittee to analyze the situation and determine the types of extrinsic rewards that would be most appealing to our workforce; they will be submitting a recommendation report within six weeks. In addition, there is a strong consensus among committee members that employees must be held accountable for the number and quality of their suggestions. Each employee should be expected to submit at least one high-quality suggestion per quarter. This expectation should be clearly explained in a memo from you, and enforced through employee reviews and evaluations. Two weeks and 50 suggestions later, after the CEO has announced the one-idea-per-quarter quota... TO: All Employees FROM: The Custodian RE: "Suggestions" As the employee who maintains the cleanliness of our work environment, I am writing to suggest that people refrain from depositing trash and various unidentified substances into the suggestion boxes. Having to use a biohazard suit is especially unpleasant for me. One week and five unidentified substances later... TO: All Employees FROM: The CEO RE: Electronic Submissions To ensure that we have a 21st-century suggestion system that makes full use of the latest technology, all suggestion boxes will be removed Friday. Beginning Monday, you will submit your quarterly idea by clicking on the "Submit or Else" button at our intranet site. We've received many interesting anonymous submissions. Thanks to intranet technology, we will now be able to determine their source. Submitted on the last day of the suggestion box... TO: The CEO FROM: An Anonymous Employee RE: Employee Suggestions I'm supposed to provide one suggestion per quarter, right? Let me do a year's worth and submit four ideas on this one card. (1) Stop the bribes (canned hams) and the forced accountability. (2) Let employees get together to develop better approaches. To do this, we need time away from the task treadmill. (3) Nurture a sense of ownership among employees. Open the books. Involve us in goal-setting. Treat us as equals, not as equipment. (4) Give the custodian a substantial raise. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tom Terez (TomTerez.com) is an international consultant and frequent speaker on organizational performance (BetterWorkplaceNow.com) and personal excellence (InnerBest.com) Copyright 2003 Crain Communications, Inc. Copyright © 2008 Tom Terez Workplace Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. P.O. Box 21444, Columbus, Ohio USA 43221-0444. Tel. 614-488-9721. Online Contact Form Home | Ideas and Insights | Improvement Tools | White Papers | Reprint Center | Talks, Workshops, Consulting | E-Letters | Contact | For Clients Visit our other sites:...TomTerez.com...InnerBest.com BetterWorkplaceNow.com, Better Workplace Now, TomTerez.com, InnerBest.com, and Inner Best are trademarks of Tom Terez Workplace Solutions, Inc.