Poor Mayor of Oaklawn, Illinois, Dave Heilmann. Back in September 2007, Oaklawn created a memorable and quirky public service stop sign campaign, adding comical slogans the likes of “…and smell the roses,” and “means that you aren’t moving” to the bottom of STOP signs. The City of Oaklawn created the unique signage to in an effort to increase jaded motorists’ attention and inspire them to pause, if for nothing else, to read the phrases. The signs were the idea of the City President, and local residents were encouraged to submit their own ideas. Found throughout the city, the signs garnished attention with the press.

This week, dry personality and humor intolerant IDOT (the Illinois Department of Transporation) squelched the creative slogan stop signs. IDOT suggested the signs violated the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (the instructional bible for all things transportation safety-related).

Kudos to Mayor Heilmann for attempting to come up with a unique and eye-catching way of slowing speeders. It’s too bad that Oak Lawn has yet to publish statistics on whether the signs reduced accidents or stop sign running. We can’t wait to see these numbers.

In the meantime, we are awarding IDOT (the Illinois Department of Transportation) with Everything Attitude’s Worst Attitude of the Week Award. Life is short, so lighten up, IDOT. Humor creates positive human connection and saves us all from terminal professionalism. Ahh the price of uniformity!

When federal or local government regulations supress creativity, they decrease public awareness, empathy, responsiveness, and potential accountability. We need to fight censors and the mechanization of culture that surpressses creativity. Hang in there, Mayor Heilmann. Find the opportunities in your adversities. And find comfort in your biggest fans (those who are supporting you and Oaklawn’s ingenuity):

- John Howell and Cisco Cotto
- My Crazy Hobby Blog
- Illinois Reason Blog
- My Hero of the Day
- Southtown Star

This week as I was traveling, I picked up an issue of Fast Company to read on the plane ride. I came across an article titled “The Power of the Prize.” It caught my attention because I love contests - as evidenced by my upcoming “2008 Best Attitude of the Year” Contest.

The article outlined new research that suggests that companies can use contests to help spur business innovation and R&D. Most of the examples in the article were about “externally broadcast contests” – contests that tapped into customers and asked them to help create unexpected, workable business solutions. Alan Lewis, who runs internal and external developer contests at eBay, is quoted in the article as saying “…the top things (you get from external contests) are going to be higher quality than what you’d get if you say to employees, ‘You’re responsible for five innovative ideas a quarter.”

Hogwash. While I agree that contests can be great ways to create positive customer experiences and help generate unexpected ideas, I don’t agree that the best innovation lies outside your company. If it does you are failing to effectively lead your team. And I’m not alone. “I’m Not Actually A Geek” blog agrees with me in this post suggesting ways that companies could better maximize innovation from the inside-out.

It isn’t easy. You have to roll up your sleeves and apply a little elbow grease to inspire internal innovation among your employees. But if you kick in your team’s attitude, you can inspire exceptional innovation. Your team will have your back. And internal contests can be used for team building, employee morale, and sparking creativity. There are many companies out there doing it…

- Pelican Products, a firm specializing in watertight protective cases, held an internal contest by which factory workers win points and earn prizes for maintaining certain levels of productivity, enforcing safety procedures and meeting other criteria. The company made sure that the prizes were items that the employees actually wanted to win! Quite the concept! The result? Decrease in both its workers compensation and employee turnover.

- Even large corporations are getting involved with their employees. On April 17, McDonald’s hosted its Voice of McDonald’s II, an employee singing contest. While singing may be appear in the average McDonald’s worker job description, the contest does something very unique. It celebrates the employee and puts them out for the world to see! Who doesn’t want to be celebrated?

The key takeaways? Host a contest for your employees! Some ideas? Ask employees to create a commercial and the winner gets a promotion. Or the top salesperson wins dinner and a stay at a local hotel. Use your creativity and your employees will be committed to your companies success, and more likely to deliver remarkable innovation.