ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book would not have come about without the help of a great many people.

First, we thank the many people in the organizations we studied who gave generously of their time and shared information openly with us. A few of them deserve special mention: at American Airlines, John Ford (business analyst) and Steven Groffman (senior financial analyst); at BIC Corporation, Linda Kwong (director, corporate communications), Philip Preston (employee involvement specialist), Charlie Tichy (employee involvement coordinator), and Ray Winter (former president and COO); Martin Edelston, CEO of Boardroom; at Dana, Gary Corrigan (vice president of corporate communications), Joe Magliochetti (the late CEO and chairman), and Ed Schultz (retired CEO of Dana Commercial Credit); at DUBAL, Shawqi Sajwani (manager, Environment, Health & Safety) and CEO John Boardman; at Good Shepherd Services, Mary Ann Kehoe (managing director), Tom Lohuis (nursing home director), and Matt Gehri (business director); Eve Searle, CEO of Grapevine Canyon Ranch; Leslie Fishbein, president of Kacey Fine Furniture; at LaSalle Bank, JoAnne Tesmond (vice president and IdeaCenter coordinator) and Harrison Tempest (retired chairman); at Milliken, Tom Malone (president), Roger Milliken (CEO and chairman), and Craig Long (vice president, Milliken University and Quality); at Monrovia, Kim Marquardt (benefits manager) and Lupe Contreras (training manager); at Winnebago, Bruce Hertzke (CEO and chairman), Charles Tweeten (suggestion process administrator), and Cathy Stensland (suggestion process facilitator); and Don Wainwright, CEO and chairman of Wainwright Industries.

We also thank the many front-line employees—who do the work and come up with the ideas that are the subject of this book—for sharing their stories with us.

We owe a lot to our home institutions, the University of Massachusetts and Valparaiso University, which gave us the leeway and support needed to write this book. At the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, the staff was outstanding and made our work infinitely easier. Our heartfelt thanks go to Rebecca Jerome, Diane Kelley, Donna MacCartney, Courtney Spalding-Mayer, Mary Parker, Peter Sax, Nicole Tominsky, and Linda Vassalo. We are particularly grateful to Tom O’Brien, dean of the Isenberg School of Management, for his unwavering support and interest. Five of our former students also deserve mention: Louise Oestberg, Madhav Shriram, and Linda Randall, who were invaluable in setting up research visits to companies in Sweden, India, and the Soviet Union, respectively; and Jennifer Boulais and Kelly Druzisky, who helped with some of the research at Good Shepherd Services.

Valparaiso University provided funding support through the Herbert and Agnes Schulz Professorship. Erin Brown, MBA coordinator, was infinitely patient with her director and provided considerable moral support. MBA students Dru Bergman, Brad Scott, Susan Scroggins, Andrew Steele, and Doug Tougaw provided invaluable research assistance with Good Shepherd.

We are grateful to Isaac Getz, coauthor with Alan of Vos Idées Changent Tout (Paris: Éditions d’Organization, 2003) for kindly allowing us to use one of the stories from this French research project in Ideas Are Free.

Perhaps the hardest part of our journey was the writing of the manuscript, which went through many drafts as we struggled to articulate what our data were telling us. Gwen and J. Alan Robinson helped us immeasurably in this process, always asking probing questions and challenging us to simplify and clarify our ideas.

We would never have been able to produce this book without the invaluable advice of our editor Steve Piersanti and the rest of the incomparable staff at Berrett-Koehler.

Most important, we cannot begin to express what we owe our families, who lived every minute of the journey with us and cheerfully endured our lengthy and numerous absences. To our children Phoebe, Margot, Lexie, Liz, and Tori and particularly to our wives Margaret and Kate, we can only say: We could not have done it without you.

Alan Robinson Dean Schroeder

Amherst, MA Valparaiso, IN

January 2004 January 2004