Does your company have an employee ideas program? Are you getting any? And more importantly, are you getting ideas that are showing a return on time and investment? Unfortunately, too often organizations start ideas programs with good intentions, only to see participation and idea volumes fall off a cliff. This results in resentment and frustration.

Unless your leadership team is committed to a drastic change in approach, your best bet may be to simply cancel the program as quietly as possible and walk away. By failing to operate the program in good faith, you could be doing more harm than good (essentially saying, “we really don’t want input from our employees”).

The concept of innovation has long been thought of as coming up with the best new and market-shattering idea first. However, plenty of companies have found success not as the creator of the next best idea, but being the first to implement. Knowing when and how to implement your team's best ideas can often mean the difference between success and missing the boat.

Most companies depend on the conveniences of technology to help increase productivity, communicate and stay ahead of industry trends. But, being a truly successful organization in the digital era means more than just having top of the line laptops, smart phones and the fastest internet speeds. Read more to see what tools your team is missing to be truly successful.