Blue Collar Urban Legends

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Business (Blue Collar Innovation)

The snopes.com website is the authoritative source for urban legends and debunking those internet rumors that go around. Here, they have a collection of factory type urban legends about people at the lowest level of an organization who make amazing suggestions for the company, the “why didn't I think of that?” variety.

This is fun reading, but it's also a good reminder to think about getting full participation from your employees. That doesn't necessarily mean a formal “suggestion program”, but rather getting out there (as an engineer or manager) and listening to your employees. How many of your problems could be fixed by listening to the expert who's out there every day as opposed to a high-priced Six Sigma black belt who will study the problem for months on end?

There's much untapped potential in our organizations, let's figure out how to bring it out.

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Mark Graban

Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker who has worked in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. His latest book is Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More. He is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, as well as The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. He also published the anthology Practicing Lean that benefits the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, where Mark is a board member. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.

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