How volume fuels innovation
Linus Pauling, the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes, was once asked how he generated so many breakthrough ideas. His answer was disarmingly simple: “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”
How ideas begin
Our global panel reveals that organizations cultivating learning, development, and support are also the ones igniting creativity.
Employees who feel their employer:
- Provides opportunities to develop skills are 7.7x more likely to say their workplace brings out their best ideas.
- Offers avenues to master important skills are 10x more likely also say their workplace brings out their best ideas.
- Ensures tools, resources, and support are available are 5.8x more likely to feel inspired to contribute their best ideas.
And when employees believe, “My ideas are taken seriously,” they’re not just happier – they’re transformational:
- 11.5x more likely to be highly engaged
- 7.4x more likely to be highly committed
- 5.2x more likely to give high effort
- 10.7x more likely to be highly inspired at work
Academia supports this. As one study puts it:
“A climate for innovation emerges when employees experience norms and practices that reward flexibility and idea expression. By empowering employees and encouraging learning, organizations stimulate them to take charge, adapt, and build on their ability to achieve the mission.”xi
Translation? Support creativity, and you’ll unleash it.
Turning insight into innovation
At BI WORLDWIDE, we’ve seen that innovation isn’t accidental; it’s behavioral. Our three-phase model helps organizations build repeatable systems for idea generation:
1. Know the challenge and gain insight into how each person can contribute.
2. Feel ownership and curiosity to explore potential solutions through collaboration and investigation.
3. Do what drives measurable impact by participating fully: share, refine, and implement ideas.
When organizations move through these stages with purpose, innovation becomes a habit, not a hope.
Ideas in action: Free Cash Flow Challenge
A great example comes from our partnership with a global medical device company, whose leadership embraced the power of many ideas.
In 2020, their chairman and CEO said he was pleased by the free cash flow generated. They had set a target to improve free cash flow conversion in three years and achieved it in just one year.
“I’m particularly pleased by our free cash flow generation. We set a target to improve free cash flow conversion to 80% over a 2–3-year period, and we achieved it in just one year! We delivered free cash flow of $5.9 billion in FY19, growing at a rate of 62%. This reflects the focus of our entire organization and includes the impact of initiatives such as the Free Cash Flow Challenge.”
Steven Mars, Solution Owner for Financial Solutions at BI WORLDWIDE, explains:
“The Free Cash Flow Challenge and Ideas solutions both activate the power of people — your employees. One drives operational efficiency, cost optimization, and revenue growth. The other empowers employees to surface innovative, bottom-up savings, and revenue ideas. Together, they unlock measurable financial impact and foster a culture of ownership, innovation, and recognition.”
At its core, the model rewards employees for actions, behaviors, and achievements that generate specific results aligned with company goals.
Why it matters
The formula for innovation isn’t mysterious; it’s measurable.
Organizations that provide opportunities to learn, empower employees to experiment, and take their ideas seriously don’t just get more ideas. They get better ideas and more engaged people behind them.
Want more innovation? Start by inspiring more ideas.
Key takeaways:
- Innovation thrives where learning and empowerment intersect.
- Employees whose ideas are taken seriously show 10x higher engagement and inspiration.
- A structured model like Know, Feel, Do builds innovation momentum.
- The Free Cash Flow Challenge shows measurable business impact, not just tenure.
- The “Linus Pauling Effect” proves that the path to one brilliant idea begins with a hundred small ones.
Hear from our expert
Steven Mars, Solution Owner, Financial Solutions