Jeffrey Patchen needed to figure out a way to help The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis weather the current economic downturn.
Volumes and volumes have been written and recorded on how to keep a business organization upright in turbulent times. So whose idea did Patchen implement? Jack Welch? Bill Gates?
Think closer to Steven Spielberg.
Patchen, the president and CEO of the museum, which generated $25 million in revenue in 2008, implemented an idea he learned from the film school at UCLA. He calls it “pitchfest.”
“The idea is that employees can pitch new ideas about how we can drive attendance and new revenue to the museum,” he says. “So through a series of surveys and electronic requests for information, employees are submitting ideas for doing this.”
It is only one avenue through which Patchen generates ideas, but it has helped keep the museum financially stable as organizations around the country wade through economic quicksand.
Smart Business spoke with Patchen about how you can get everyone at your business involved in weathering the storm.
Get everyone thinking. You have to be as honest and as transparent as possible when communicating during tough times. You need to involve those who are responsible along with you for the changes that might be necessary and living with those changes. But you also need to be as upbeat and positive as possible. One of the best messages you can give is that together we’ll weather this and get through it, and at some point, the economy is going to come back.
The current economic environment is great motivation to get people to come up with new ideas to improve the state of the organization. With our pitchfest program, after the ideas are solicited and gathered, the top group of five to 10 will pitch their ideas to the executive team. The most viable ideas from that group will be implemented, and there will be rewards and recognition for those people who came up with the most viable ideas.
Building a culture that values creativity and ideas from employees is a challenge, but it’s very important at the same time. It’s one of the most important challenges of being a leader in any organization, and (so is) having an executive team that is also willing to recognize and encourage that. The most difficult part of that is getting employees to realize that not every good idea can be implemented due to resource limitations. But on the other hand, thanking employees for their great ideas and keeping the idea on file for a time is a way to recognize their contribution.
Pitchfest is a way to get employees involved in how we can do business differently, do business more efficiently, drive more attendance to the museum and drive more earned revenue to the museum so that reductions in expenses, including things like layoffs, are absolutely minimized.
