By Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder (Berrett-Koehler, April 2004)

Scottish shipbuilder William Denny put up the world's first industrial suggestion box in 1886, and thousands of companies have since followed suit. Most of us know what happens to the slips of paper inside them--and that's the shame (although the story in the book about the Pentagon commanding officer forcing a subordinate to eat his suggestion is priceless). As the authors write, "Every day, millions of working people see problems and opportunities that their managers do not. With little chance to do anything about them, they are forced to watch helplessly as their organizations waste money, disappoint and lose customers, and miss opportunity after opportunity." The book presents an outline for establishing an idea-generation program in virtually any workplace.

BACKSTORY "We both found the concept of seeking employee ideas compelling--it was clear how this would lead to high employee involvement and superior performance," the authors write. But "the vast majority of companies we were familiar with were far better at suppressing ideas than promoting them."

TAKEAWAY The book makes the compelling case that wasting ideas results in diminished performance and employees who aren't fully engaged with their work. To remedy this, the authors offer hundreds of examples of proven ways to generate ideas, concentrating on even the lowest-level employee's role in developing the process. They also spice up the book with guerrilla tactics that "managers can use without the boss's permission," such as making a discussion of ideas the first agenda item in your weekly staff meeting.

WHAT WE LIKED The employee suggestions that succeeded in companies large and small should encourage eager managers to press their cases. For example, a worker in one of Europe's largest wireless companies discovered a billing error that was costing the company $30 million a year. Chapters can easily be read as stand-alones and discussed each week in departmental meetings.

WHAT WE DIDN'T Readers who have found their company's management less than open to new ideas may find the suggestions for setting up idea-generation initiatives too Pollyannaish.

WHAT TO SAY TO SOUND LIKE YOU'VE READ IT Do ask and do tell. If you're sick of your ideas being ignored, this empowering book is a refreshingly simple examination of how corporate creativity can happen.