Idea Factory Goes DHS-Wide
Over at Wired Workplace, Brittany Ballenstedt reports that the Department of Homeland Security is expanding the IdeaFactory, a program piloted in the Transportation Security Administration to allow employees to submit and discuss suggestions for improving the agency, to cover all the DHS components. Larry Orluskie, a DHS spokesman, told Brittany that:
I like the idea that it's Web 2.0; it's interactive....It's not like some agencies that have an e-mail concept, where you send an e-mail or complete a form template on a Web page with your idea. IdeaFactory is interactive - you put in the idea and people vote on it and submit comments. It can even spin around and morph into another idea.
I agree that email inboxes can be a depressing place to send suggestions, especially if someone isn't monitoring them particularly closely, and a response is not guaranteed. But I think there has to be some genuine investment to make sure that the conversations IdeaFactory is meant to foster actually happen: you don't want queries to just sit out there.
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This probably deems a little more research.
John Yeressian Posted Sunday, November 1, 2009 6:18 PMWhat I have not heard discussed is protection/non-atribution for employees submitting suggestions. I can think of few bigger career killers than suggesting an alternative to the boss' misguided and probably unworkable pet program/project.
Lane Narrows Posted Monday, November 2, 2009 9:36 AMYears ago before my agency became part of the DHS melange, we had quality circles which consisted of members from various disciplines selected to find solutions to controversial problems. I was in the first circle in my region. Meanwhile, management had just instituted a sweeping procedural change. During our first meeting we asked the director why he hadn't submitted that idea to a circle. "Because I knew you wouldn't like it." Call it what you will and dress it up with IT, the nature of management hasn't changed.
Ted Bean Posted Monday, November 2, 2009 1:43 PM