Host an innovation tournament in your legal department to identify and reward good ideas

Here is a mashup of ideas: cash rewards for cost saving ideas and a tournament to honor good ideas. MIT Sloan Mgt. Rev., Vol. 50, Summer 2009 at 17, reviews a book about innovation tournaments. The book explains a method to encourage lots of ideas for how to reduce costs or increase productivity. In your department people would submit suggestions anonymously. You then would let members of your department vote for the few ideas that they support, and praise the winners, perhaps even with cash.

An example is at hand for a legal department A short reference in InsideCounsel, June 2009 at 60, describes the competition one general counsel began to spot $5,000 savers. Peter Wexler, the chief legal officer of Schneider Electric “issued a challenge to the entire global legal team: Figure out how to save the company $5,000 or find a new and innovative way to do something”(See my post of May 21, 2009: boost knowledge transfer with rewards and recognition.).