Ask your vendors to help you design new production processes. Netscape Navigator attained widespread use not just because it was free, but because any programmer anywhere in the world could tell Netscape how to make it better. Provide feedback links on every piece of work in progress, whether plans, strategies, proposals, or products. Trust what you hear. Though the people in the field may lack the broad perspective of a leader, they usually know more about the real-world effect of plans and designs.
People love to do what they re good at, and they love solving problems.
You might as well take advantage of that fact. Petzinger is founder and chief executive of LaunchCyte, a small-business incubator in Pittsburgh focusing on convergence of the life sciences and information sciences. Previously, he spent 22 years as a writer and editor for the Wall Street Journal.