Creating a Culture of Innovation- Communicator or Leader's Job?

I read a blog today http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/i-know-im-doing-this-wrong/ in the Small Business section of The NY Times about an Executive who knows he is part of the problem for the lack of innovation and ingenuity in his company especially coming from his front line employees.

In the blog, the executive states "I don’t recall many instances of their suggesting improvements to the way we work. It seems that change only flows from the top down in this company."

Maybe I have been lucky, naive or it's the industries I've worked in- PR, Research Training and Technology, but I have never encountered a colleague, a direct report or a manager who wasn't trying to improve the business. Have you ever encountered a colleague that wasn't improving their job or the performance of the business?

In the blog, the executive cites an example of an employee who told the executive that he couldn’t sleep and was thinking about a solution to a particular pain point in their business process.  The executive "thanked him for his efforts and then showed him what we already had in place — a more sophisticated and useful solution to the problem."

How should a communicator tackle this? Or should they at all? I'd love to hear your thoughts.






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