How Crowdsourcing Can Improve Internal Communication and Teamwork

The full and original article was published on Chief Executive

From a leadership perspective, CEOs need to rely on the knowledge and experience of their internal personnel. But it’s also equally crucial for employees to not only understand what is happening inside their companies, but also why it’s happening. Crowdsourcing with your employees can provide a successful way to achieve both goals.

Lesson Learned

In the past, the management team often held strategic offsite meetings to define annual objectives, before cascading those objectives down to the workforce. But there was an inherent problem with this approach; namely, that management had no way of knowing if the right people with the right questions and concerns were really speaking up at those companywide gatherings.

Surveys can be helpful, but crowdsourcing software allowed us to garner direct feedback from all affected employees and partners. This method makes all participants feel relevant to the strategy because they can see their best ideas turned into defining objectives for the company. But the real trick to internal crowdsourcing is to go back to the employees after the objectives have been established, and ask everyone about the best ways to implement the plan. In this way, the entire group affected by the initiative will be heard.

Capturing the raw truth

Input is anonymous and their ideas stand on their own merit, rather than depending on someone’s lofty title or popularity in the organization. Everyone has access to the system, where the best ideas rise to the top. In this way, change is not just about a lonely leader onstage pitching his or her heart out to everyone, or a management team guessing how to roll out an important initiative. It’s about real teamwork, with everyone running in the same direction.

Through the use of internal crowdsourcing, we now have a surefire way to flatten the organization, bubble up actionable initiatives, and make everyone relevant to the future of the company. After all, change needs real champions, and the best champions are usually the ones who will be implementing the change.