Many organizations are sitting on an untapped mother lode of sustainable competitive advantage and don’t know it. We’re talking about a massive amount of energy and imagination, informed by deep industry knowledge. It has the potential to help companies keep their business models fresh and vital. It’s already paid for, but rarely deployed.

Where is this rich vein of untapped value? Right at hand, begging to be used: it’s the business’ own people. Many studies show employees want to make a difference. They are eager to use their talents, domain knowledge, and energy to help grow their organizations. Too often, however, this potential is buried by management practices that stifle employee enthusiasm. Peter Drucker put it well, “So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.” Most companies don’t know how to ask employees to think about making the business stronger, don’t have the processes to channel this energy, and don’t know how to recognize and reward it. But just like Adam Smith’s pin factory workers, today’s employees have what Clay Shirky calls “cognitive surplus,” time and mental space not tied directly to their day-to-day work lives. This uncommitted employee energy and imagination is available to the organizations, if only they knew how to harness it.