In a recent blog post on Medium, JFF Associate Director Alison Schmitt and JFFLabs Director Laura Roberts suggested that corporate executives might be better able to find solutions to the difficult challenges they and the country are facing these days if they took a fresh approach to problem-solving.

Instead of turning to the leaders of their own companies or other organizations, Schmitt and Roberts suggested that corporate executives might want to seek the advice of their employees.

“What would it mean if you considered that the people who work for you might have more insight than the people you work for or work with?” They asked, “You’ll be surprised at the business value you can unlock. To access this insight, you need to find new, expansive ways to empower frontline and entry-level workers to speak up—and hear what they have to say.”

To illustrate their point, they went on to describe the results of a research project JFF conducted in partnership with Turning Basin Labs in an effort to learn “what having a ‘voice’ means to workers who have not traditionally been involved in decision making and what issues are most important to them.”