Don't Digitize the Suggestion Box -- Improve a Better Way with Kaizen and KaiNexus

Lean Blog Audio

The blog post

Digital transformation is about rethinking and reinventing with digital tools. For over 13 years, KaiNexus has moved beyond the outdated suggestion box model.

Traditional suggestion boxes, whether paper or digital, often fail (or usually fail!–ideas get locked away, reviewed by a select few, and lead to frustration.

We believe in dynamic platforms that foster real-time communication and collaboration.

Don't digitize the old, broken way of doing things!

Mark Graban:
Don't digitize the old broken process. Whether that's a suggestion box or anything else, digital transformation is about rethinking reinventing the way we do things with digital tools. From the beginning, more than 13 years ago, KaiNexus has never been an electronic suggestion box because suggestion boxes don't work, whether it's in paper form or an online digital form. Why is that? Suggestion boxes in the paper model have a locked box.

Ideas sit. Some special person with a key opens up box maybe once a month, maybe once a quarter. Some far off team talks about those suggestions without coming back to talk to the person who filled out that suggestion box slip. People give up on suggestion boxes, and it's understandable. So we don't want an electronic or a digital version of that.

What we do want is a digital process with proven, continuous improvement methods. We often refer to this as Kaizen, engaging people in opportunity identification, not just jumping to solutions but bringing forward a problem so we can talk about it locally and then escalate it to management by exception. Don't digitize the old, broken way of doing things.

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