For those creative individuals that are submitting new cost cutting or product ideas, the incentive may not be strictly financial. That may be a portion of it, but the overall thrill of creating something may be from getting an opportunity to participate in bringing the idea or product to fruition. Money and schwag are great but can be a fleeting experience. I contend that people will get a greater sense of satisfaction, will last longer and spread further through the organization if you reward them with the ability to contribute to the project. If you haven’t done so already, poll your organization to see what they consider to be the best rewards. You’ll probably find that it’s more money and more time off. However, there is an alternative – not everybody is in it for strictly monetary rewards. There are many who want to participate in creating something new and exciting so give people the opportunity to say “I built that” and you may be surprised at how engaged your most creative people become.

Last night I was watching, yet again, The Pixar Story from ’97. I’ve seen this a number of times and each time I usually get something new out of it. This time wasn’t any different – I picked up on something Jobs said about creating spaces to foster ‘unintended collaboration” for the staff and artists at Pixar. The interesting thing here was that although everyone has an office there were also massive open areas to meet. I also picked up on the phrase ‘…offices are like blank canvases…’ In my opinion the environment you work in, that you create in, and that you are supposedly generating your best work in, should be areas that are comfortable and make you NOT want to go home. If your office isn’t comfortable, if it doesn’t reflect your perspective or your point of view, then you’re going to be out of sync. Research has shown that offices and meeting rooms with higher ceilings tend to create loftier ideas. Lower ceilings promote more constrained thinking. I’ll go so far as to say that if everyone’s office looks the same then everyone will be generating the same ideas. Great if you’re a CPA firm or a law office. Bad if you’re creating new products or trying to change the world. Give people some freedom to create an area that reflects their personality.

Or… Allow your employees the latitude to become experts on their own.

For those rare and truly passionate people who’s outside interests and daily jobs mesh – giving them latitude to grow and be recognized as team, corporate and then industry experts grows you and your business as well. It creates a positive feedback loop and if you help these people through honest commentary, attending conferences and eventually having them speak at those conferences, the amount of credibility flowing back to the organization will be phenomenal. Not to mention the expertise that these individuals develop and bring back with them. Expertise is what helps organizations separate themselves from their competition and should be developed as a strategic imperative. When you marry an employee’s passion with objectives of the company – you’ve got a killer situation – but only if you listen and allow it to develop.

How do you recognize these individuals? Talking to them is a great place to start. Reading their blogs, is another. Watching them in meetings, how they contribute, which meetings they tend to participate more in – all are signs of what their interests are.

How else can you help build experts? If you’ve got the space then let them host an event on the campus. Demonstrate your support by sponsoring an event or even go so far as to help these individuals put on an event. Keep it small if this is their first one and and allow them to prove themselves. As long as it all ties back in some way to the corporate strategy and objectives. All of this leads back to thought leadership and it’s the social currency that’s driving a lot of individual contributors who want to stand out. Do this for one person and soon you may have several stepping up. Once that begins to happen you may see a lot more resumes, and business, coming your way.