Message-ID: <663748.1075844952435.JavaMail.evans@thyme>
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 10:50:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: sarabeth.smith@enron.com
To: stanley.horton@enron.com
Subject: Innovative Ideas
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X-From: Sarabeth Smith
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Stan,
It was a pleasure to read your Innovation communication and hear that you 
welcome innovative ideas to be shared directly with you.  The creative and 
innovative environment shared with my fellow employees in GPG is one of the 
primary reasons I enjoy working at Enron.  

The experience of working for cutting edge thinkers like Jane Wilson and 
Steve Barth in EES and Dave Schafer, Mike McGowan and John Goodpasture in GPG 
has been very rewarding because these individuals gave me responsibility 
along with the room to create and innovate and then implement the ideas 
generated.

Currently, in Business Consulting, Mike McGowan, has given me the opportunity 
to be supported by our Associate, Kristen Hand, from the Analyst/Associate 
Program, which has seeded creativity and innovation even further.

In response to your request for ideas, I consider your invitation to share 
ideas with you to be more than just an invitation.  I consider it to be a 
challenge by you to the employees to find innovative ideas to send to you.   
Since I pride myself on being one of the innovators in GPG, I would not want 
you to think that a lack of ideas coming your way is any indication of a lack 
of innovative thinking on the 41st floor or elsewhere in GPG.  

A suggestion:  It might be helpful if you gave employees an area of interest 
that you would like to hear creative ideas for.  For instance, ideas could 
possibly be sent to you for:
outside-of-the-box thinking on new business opportunities
better ways of getting ideas to percolate within the organization
improvements to the GPG Intranet site
how to make GPG the best place to work within Enron
subjects that the employees would like to hear more information about
to name just a few.

Observation:  Innovation is a little like popcorn popping.  Only a few will 
kernels will pop until the conditions are just right.  It seems as though, 
some kernels have to start popping in order to encourage the others to pop.

Several months ago, eThink brought a trainer in for several 2 hour sessions 
that were not well attended by GPG employees and were not offered in Omaha.  
At this training we learned that creative thinking is enhanced when both 
sides of the brain are used, so we ate "Think" energy bars, wore tube socks 
(studies show that more ideas come when you are wearing tube socks) and had 
lots of colorful and fun items on the tables.  What if GPG held innovation 
breaks occasionally with energy bars, colored markers, chart paper, colorful 
and fun items, etc.. to generate any and all thoughts on a particular 
subject?  These sessions would accomplish multiple goals of teaching about 
how to use tools to tap into the creative side of one's thinking, lightening 
up the work environment to let innovative ideas begin to flow and generating 
many ideas on the subject of your choice.

Thank you for the opportunity to share these ideas with you.
Sarabeth Smith