In my job as a professor at McMaster University, I had the opportunity to travel to Japan and find out more about how Japanese companies manage innovation. Among other things, I discovered they all had great expertise in engaging their employees in problem solving. They taught their employees to think differently about organizational problems. A mind shift was created for employees to see problems as golden eggs, as opportunities to innovate. This would start by being discontented with the company’s products, services, and processes and wanting to make them better.

For example, each work team posted a sheet of paper at their workstation, enabling teammates to list problems, corresponding solutions, and evidence that the solution had been implemented. All three steps had to be completed to be considered a suggestion, and all suggestions were accepted. Their accomplishments were celebrated using non-monetary rewards, such as attending a personal development seminar. This was a deliberate structure to encourage people to initiate new problems and solve them. Unfortunately, this secret was difficult to spread to many Western companies whose suggestion systems were based totally on rewarding individuals for big money-saving ideas, shutting down collaboration, involvement, and enjoyment.