Comments
clrmoney
11/14/2016 12:36:17 PM
User Rank Platinum
AT&T Crowdsourcing
AT&T has many employess for crowdsourcing and with over 130,000 registered is great to make is useful and valuable to customers.
dcawrey
11/14/2016 12:49:43 PM
User Rank Platinum
Social
Great idea - more companies should be doing this.
I think the genesis of things like this really come from social media. Because of its rise, people now realize they have a larger voice than maybe they originally thought.
afwriter
11/14/2016 4:42:23 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Social
I echo this exactly. Too often businesses run the opposite way where a few higher ups makes descisions without knowing how things are being run at the ground level. Getting ideas from employees will allow the company to see what is working and what isn't at every level of the busines.
faryl
11/30/2016 12:32:21 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Social
I like that it gives the employees opportunities to share bigger picture ideas than just "if we switch to mugs, we'll save $x on paper cups" type ones.
Not that there's anything wrong with those, it's just that the opportunity to pitch an idea for a new intiative to the top execs is way way better :-)
faryl
11/30/2016 12:29:03 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Social
Well said - I agree!
I'm much happier at a job where I feel like my voice is heard. I'm guessing I'm not alone in feeling that way.
elizabethv
5/26/2017 3:54:23 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Social
@fairyl - I love working in a job where my voice is heard. My employer now has a suggestion box where employees and students (it's a school) can give suggestions. Once a week the President of the Student Council reads the suggestions and the ideas for the suggestion are tossed around between all students and employees.
elizabethv
5/26/2017 3:42:16 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Social
@dcawrey - with social media, sometimes I think people have an idea that their voice is larger than it really is, or should be. Not that everyone shouldn't be able to have their voice heard, but some seem to forget that not everyone has the same opinion, and there isn't necessarily anything wrong with that.
Poll: What is your opinion of AT&Ts TIP approach?
>Great for a big company, but limited use for smaller firms.
>Just the right thing in the current evolving business landscape.
>Overrated. Employees should stick to their knitting.
>Nothing wrong with it, but it's unlikely to consistently produce winners.
Please comment below...
afwriter
11/14/2016 4:46:44 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Poll: What is your opinion of AT&Ts TIP approach?
Just the right thing. It doesn't matter how big the firm is they could always use fresh ideas.
Re: Poll: What is your opinion of AT&Ts TIP approach?
INterested to know how the ideas split across different innovation horizons - from tweaking the CORE business, to entering NEW MARKETS to TRANSFORMATION. I expect the vast majority are the first category.
JohnBarnes
11/20/2016 9:51:03 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Poll: What is your opinion of AT&Ts TIP approach?
Ideation is an evolutionary process (the point of the late great Gregory Bateson's argument in MIND AND NATURE: A NECESSARY UNITY). Of course it is unlikely that any one employee idea will be valuable; the great majority of mutations in a species make no difference and when you take out the ones that make no difference, the majority of the remainder are fatal. So what? That's what the selection process is about, and your selection process appears to be smart and effective. If the selection process runs right, then all you need is enough going into the hopper on the input side -- and you appear to have that.
JohnBarnes
11/20/2016 9:54:25 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Poll: What is your opinion of AT&Ts TIP approach?
The biggest reason this might not work as well in a small firm is that a smaller population tends to have a higher fraction of shared information, because in a smaller firm there's apt to be less to know about (fewer markets, customers, products, etc.) and employees wear more hats (and thus have to know about more things). When the mutual information in a system is larger, the information value of any one message tends to be lower (I just learned that in my data science class!) So a smaller company in a tighter niche might be more of an echo chamber, but that doesn't mean the process has no value; it just means you have to find a way to get more novel input into it.
faryl
11/30/2016 12:43:05 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Poll: What is your opinion of AT&Ts TIP approach?
>Just the right thing in the current evolving business landscape.
I think it works great for smaller companies where there is less room for advancement, and also where small changes may yield big improvements
It's great for bigger companies too - it's a win for the companies (free ideas that have employee support) and it gives employees an opportunity to meaningfully (and measureably) contribute.
Adi
11/14/2016 1:00:01 PM
User Rank Author
Open door, Idea box
It's not a new concept, in that companies have often encouraged employees to contribute ideas -- it's the old "my door is always open" line really. But I've always wondered how often that line is meant honestly. More often than not, I suspect it's what is expected, so trotted out dutifully. But really, managers are swamped and busy and don't really want direct reports bothering them.
This is new technology and web platforms allowing for a previously clumsy process to be made more efficient and more effective, because it's not dependent solely on the vision and initiative of the employee's direct manager. And there's a structured process to get reactions from across the company, and seperate the best ideas. I do wonder though, how sustained enthusiasm is for the "reviewing" function. Are employees who review and support ideas given some sort of incentive for doing so?
Ariella
11/14/2016 3:16:56 PM
User Rank Author
Re: Open door, Idea box
I like the idea but wonder if the winners expect to get more than just recognition. Several years ago I wrote about Betterfific, which extends crowdsourcing for companies to anyone who checks the site or subscribes to its emails. Winners are offered some kind of compensation, cash or other prizes.
faryl
11/30/2016 12:39:52 AM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Open door, Idea box
Especially if they're providing the company with a potential revenue-generating idea or innovative cost-savings opportunities.
Even the federal prison system is designed to reward inmates with Good Time Credit for ideas resulting in significant improvements.
JohnBarnes
11/20/2016 10:01:33 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: Open door, Idea box
Adi,
Excellent point. Also, evaluating and innovating skills aren't necessarily present in the same employee.
What if, like Amazon and Goodreads reviews, or Wikipedia in its good old days, there was a system for upvoting/downvoting evaluators? And maybe even a system for top evaluators to explain how they evaluate, so that other people could pick up some of their tricks?
Many sales operations, including the one where I currently work, have a money/deal incentive -- i.e. scouts like me are rewarded for bringing in deals that are eventually negotiated by a team of three people. On the face of it that's kind of silly -- the goal is to have us bring in a lot of prospects -- but in fact over time we gradually start to learn how to fish where the big fish are, and we and the company both profit. Maybe some kind of incentive so that the evaluator who upvotes an idea that pans out gets a small bonus (with some kind of setback so that the system doesn't reward upvoting everything)?
AT&T Crowdsources Its Crowd
While I was reading this article it had some interesting point I came across like how do they generate the best ideas and empower the work force for the employees. I also thought it will be good for the future for the employees to generate the ideas for the workforce. Can't believe that the AT&T top ten ideas get submitted and participate in like American idol type competition's every few months. I found this article interesting and learnable.
dlr5288
12/31/2016 2:57:50 PM
User Rank Platinum
Re: AT&T Crowdsources Its Crowd
I agree. I thought it was very cool and interesting how they come up with new ideas and what ideas actually get executed.
AT&T Crowdsources Its Crowd
As I read this article I found some really great points and interesting facts. Employees will be more into everything if they think they are being heard by the higher up management. This is great for the future and would be a great help for companies. The employees will help with new, creative ideas to generator for their company.
|
|
Italy's 5G auction could exceed a government target of raising €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) after attracting interest from companies outside the mobile market.
The emerging-markets operator is focusing on the humdrum business of connectivity and keeping quiet about some of its ill-fated 'digitalization' efforts.
Three UK has picked Huawei over existing radio access network suppliers Nokia and Samsung to build its 5G network.
Vendor says that it's its biggest 5G deal to date.
Verizon skates where the puck is going by waiting for standards-based 5G devices to launch its mobile service in 2019.
Orange has been one of the leading proponents of SDN and NFV. In this Telco Transformation radio show, Orange's John Isch provides some perspective on his company's NFV/SDN journey.
10/16/2017
Huawei Network Transformation Seminar
The adoption of virtualization technology and cloud architectures by telecom network operators is now well underway but there is still a long way to go before the transition to an era of Network Functions Cloudification (NFC) is complete.
The Small Cell Forum's CEO Sue Monahan says that small cells will be crucial for indoor 5G coverage, but challenges around business models, siting ...
People, strategy, a strong technology roadmap and new business processes are the key underpinnings of Telstra's digital transformation, COO Robyn ...
Eric Bozich, vice president of products and marketing at CenturyLink, talks about the challenges and opportunities of integrating Level 3 into ...
Epsilon's Mark Daley, director of digital strategy and business development, talks about digital transformation from a wholesale service provider ...
Bill Walker, CenturyLink's director of network architecture, shares his insights on why training isn't enough for IT employees and traditional ...
All Videos
|
On-the-Air Thursdays Digital Audio
Special Huawei Video
Tweet This