In the later years of my career, one mission has stayed with me: getting rid of the suggestion box.
I love ideas. I love it when people spot something that could be better and speak up. But a suggestion is often a proposed solution to a problem we haven’t yet taken the time to understand.
A proposed solution can be a starting point. Understanding the problem, testing assumptions, connecting the work to organizational goals, and implementing a change—that’s where the real effort begins.
A suggestion box can separate the idea from that effort. One person submits a suggestion; someone else is expected to investigate it, prioritize it, and make it happen. If nothing happens—or nobody explains why—the person who offered the idea can feel ignored: “I told them what needed to change, and no one listened.”
That’s frustrating for everyone involved.
But my bigger concern is what the suggestion box can reveal about an organization: silos.
If people need a box to contribute an idea, do they have a meaningful invitation into the conversation? Do they know how problems are raised, how priorities are set, and how decisions are made? Is there a clear path for them to help turn an observation into an improvement?
At one company I worked with, we brought business, technology, and delivery support into the team responsible for a core business process. Let’s call it credit.
Together, the team built a shared backlog of friction: process problems, capacity constraints, customer challenges, and technology issues. Bringing the right people to the table helped work move more quickly, particularly system changes and some process improvements.
It was a useful first step. But it wasn’t the whole picture. Some challenges still weren’t reaching the table.
The next step we envisioned was a way to connect the people experiencing those challenges with the people who could help investigate and address them.
Imagine short, regular, facilitated conversations where teams arrive ready to reflect on the work:
Where did we fall short for a customer? What errors occurred? What fell through the cracks? And what do we need to understand about why?
The purpose wouldn’t be to jump straight to solutions. It would be to uncover patterns and identify problems worth investigating—with time built into people’s roles to contribute to that investigation.
In a larger organization, that conversation would connect across locations and functions. An issue raised at one branch could be compared with experiences at others. Frontline and back-office perspectives could come together to help establish whether a challenge was local or systemic.
Those findings would inform analysis and prioritization by the core delivery team. The work and its status would be visible, so people could see what was moving forward, understand the decisions, and ask questions about the priorities.
That was the direction we wanted to take: from a backlog owned by one team to a connected conversation across the people doing the work.
Every idea wouldn’t become a project. But people would have a way to contribute beyond submitting a suggestion and hoping someone acted on it.
Anonymous feedback channels can still serve an important purpose. My concern is relying on a suggestion box as the main route to improvement.
Building a better route takes more than adding another meeting. It means looking at how information, decisions, and responsibility move through the organization.
Are you collecting suggestions—or giving people a way to help turn them into meaningful change?
What gets in the way in your organization? I’d love to hear your perspective by email or when you share this article on LinkedIn.