Our record on using the brains of the people in our organisations is woefully poor.
Percy Barnevik, former chairman of ABB says, "Organisations ensure people only use 5
to 10% of their abilities at work. Outside of work, the same people engage the other
90 to 95%." By contrast, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, says that
encouraging ideas was one of his top three tasks, (the other two were, selecting the
right people and allocating capital resources). One of Welch's typical approaches was to
ask his managers not only what their ideas were, but who they shared them with, and
who adopted them.