This idea can be accepted, but consultants are slammed left and right here. What gives?

I don't know of anyone who does this systematically but I always tried to interview new hires about 2-4 weeks into their experience, probing "what do we do around here that doesn't make much sense to you and that you might see how we could improve?" They've been around long enough to have some ideas, but not so long that they've been completely co-opted by the existing systems. It seems like such a practice is an appropriate bookend to the exit interview commitment many organizations have.

From my own experience, people do not care about great ideas, they just want to gain something from them. And since new ideas don't usually speak by themselves, you often need to wait until somebody else has benefited from them in order to get them across.

The question is therefore not to hunt for ideas, but how can you create a place for them to develop, impact and turn into something totally unexpected. Great ideas are screaming everywhere to get out. All you need is to turn your thinking upside down to let them in.

I think Google gets this, but I'm no insider...

This is the first time i heard about this!!! :S