SO, DID YOU SHARE THE 900 IDEAS WITH THE COMPANY?
We did, but we went further than that. This year our annual convention was in San Diego. We launched an on-line network called NextWork — what’s next and what works. Think of it as kind of Facebook for grownups where we are sharing ideas, sharing best practices, helping each other on a 24/7 basis. We’ve set up chat rooms where people can go in and explore different categories together. It allows people to have a voice when they normally wouldn’t have one, when they do not know who to talk to, when they may not know how to get their ideas heard in a larger community. We’re seeing a lot of younger people, a lot of people with less experience, now being coached by people who have more experience. So we’ve taken that very simple idea of reciprocity — just ask for help and you never know where help comes from — and we are building it into the very culture of our company using technology and social networking to keep it alive 24/7.