In-House Counsel

Fund an internal idea initiative for innovation

By Rees Morrison

If you want to spur new practices in your law department and break out of the mold of accustomed behavior, you might want to adopt an idea from MIT Sloan Mgt. Rev., Vol. 49, Winter 2008 at 48. In this article on how to boost innovation, the authors describe a company that sets aside some money to invest in good ideas from employees. A committee collects the ideas, reviews them, and decides which ones to fund.

Likewise, albeit on a smaller scale, a law department might collect ideas for how to improve its operations, and selectively fund them. Implicitly, the department is praising its members for thinking how to improve (See my posts of Nov. 16, 2005 on Kaizen; and July 5, 2006 on the Horndal effect.).

Full post as published by Law Department Management on January 21, 2008 (boomark / email).