Category: Ideas-to-Action Insights

Overview:
These Ideas-to-Action Insights translate the core concepts from the Ideas to Action book and real applications into practical leadership guidance leaders can apply immediately. The focus is simple: how to activate employee-powered innovation without slowing execution or creating avoidable complexity.

What you’ll learn from these Ideas-to-Action Insights:

How to move from collecting ideas to turning ideas into measurable results
Leadership behaviors that support fast, practical problem-solving
Why speed and simplicity matter at the front line
Common leadership mistakes that quietly stall employee-powered innovation
How to use the Ideas-to-Action Process to produce real outcomes without bureaucracy

Start with the posts that explain the Ideas-to-Action Process and the leadership moves that make it work.

Finding the Right Lever: How an Appliance Company Simplified Complexity to Solve a Big Problem

When declining customer satisfaction and rising costs plagued a national appliance repair company, their leadership team embraced simplicity to stop the bleeding. Discover how they used “precision planning” to find the right leverage point for tapping the employee-powered innovation to achieve rapid results.

Untangle Your Change Initiatives: The Power of Embracing Simplicity

Are complex change initiatives overwhelming your teams and stalling progress? Discover the power of “Embrace Simplicity,” a core Ideas to Action principle for achieving faster results and boosting engagement through focused, practical methods.

Breaking Through the Psychological Impasse to Change

Why do 70% of change initiatives fail? Discover the “Psychological Impasse to Change”—a hidden cycle of skepticism, overload, and cynicism—and learn how to break through it.

The Illusion of Engagement: Why Asking for Ideas Isn’t Enough

Are your employee engagement programs delivering real results, or just creating an illusion of progress? This cautionary tale reveals the common pitfalls of “engagement for engagement’s sake.”

What Family Dinner Taught Me About Employee Engagement

Does your organization really value every voice? A surprising lesson from my family dinner table reveals a powerful principle for employee-powered innovation.

Overwhelmed by Transformation? Start Small, Start Now, Start with Your People

Feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of a major change? Learn how clearing the clutter at my newly acquired lakefront cabin—both literally and metaphorically—reinforced a powerful leadership lesson about starting where the energy is, and empowering effective action.

More is More: An Undefeated Season and the Power of Starting Where the Energy Is

What does an undefeated college football team have to do with employee-powered innovation? Discover the surprising connection and a powerful leadership lesson from Coach McPhee.

Don’t Start with Complexity: The Simple Secret to Employee-Powered Innovation

Want to unlock continuous improvement and ignite innovation? Forget complex systems as the starting point. Discover the power of “Starting Where the Energy Is,” a surprisingly simple principle for tapping into your employees’ existing knowledge and passion.

A Leader’s Leap of Faith: Why Steve Preston Believes in the Power of Employee Ideas

In a world increasingly focused on automation and top-down control, where frontline workers are increasingly devalued, former SBA Administrator and current Goodwill CEO Steve Preston champions a different approach: effectively empowering frontline employees. Discover why he believes a “leap of faith” in your workforce is essential for success.

The Lake, the Leap, and the Lesson: Why Trusting Potential Matters

During the pandemic, I faced a leap-of-faith decision: buying a lake property sight unseen. This personal experience reminded me of a powerful lesson about leadership outlined in my book, Ideas to Action. Discover the connection between a ramshackle cabin and employee-powered innovation.