After 16 months in the making, Barrett held its first Ideation Session in Morristown, NJ.
The 2-day session featured our own facilitators Mark Hartnagel, Greg Hendershot and John Skebo with assistance from Andrew Kingery of Whitestone consulting. The group consisted of 45 attendees from various areas in the Company. They did a fantastic job of bringing new ideas to the meeting and then building on them to create a surge of potential innovations.
The Idea Lab Team will now work on putting these initiatives through the process of evaluation established by the Team in conjunction with the Barrett Entrepreneurial and Innovation Atmosphere improvement team (BEIA). The Ideation group’s first order of business was to agree on common language that would drive us in the right direction.
They defined Innovation as “something new that brings value to our customers (internal & external).”
This effort works hand-in-hand with the Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Team we have at Barrett. Many of these ideas will be internal improvements and the CPI Team is best equipped to get those analyzed and put into action.
The Ideation attendees were introduced to the concept of using the Baseball diamond to track the progress of ideas. Step one is for the idea to be “Pitched”. They then move around the bases that represent increasingly extensive phases of an investigation. We cross home plate and score when an idea is “Scaled Up”, meaning put into action across all of Barrett Industries. We also score when we have several singles, just like in baseball. “Singles” are ideas that are put into action without the need for extensive investigation or piloting because they’re so good, it’s obvious that they should be done.
The Idea Lab was developed to increase the level of innovation within the Company.
Our future success depends on our ability to innovate and we must focus on innovation now. The general concept of the Lab is to open the door to new ideas and provide a support mechanism to get them investigated. Then we systematically implement the best ones throughout the organization. We welcome every idea and encourage everyone to think about how we can become the supplier and contractor of choice. Our goal is to maintain the leadership position in our businesses, and this is one step in the right direction. Out of each 100 ideas, there will be five good ones and one that can be a game changer for Barrett. Every idea is recognized and rewarded. If you have an idea that you believe will benefit Barrett, please submit your ideas by email to Ideas@BarrettIndustries.com, by phone to (888) 350-IDEA (4332), or right here on the Barrett Employees “Let’s Talk” page! You can also use a paper form that any supervisor can provide to you.
Join our next cultural shift and move Innovation into “high gear” by submitting your idea today!