If the blog postings seem a little light this week, it’s because I have been on the road a lot. This is conference season, and there are lots of interesting events to go to. Last week, it was Las Vegas for the annual user group meeting for Vurv Technology. This week, it was Phoenix for the Human Capital Institute National Human Capital Summit. Next week, it is New York for the Workforce Management Talent Management Conference and annual Optimas Awards.

I’ll occasionally include in this blog some of the best ideas that I pick up at these events, and the best this week comes from William Taylor, the founding editor of Fast Company and author of Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win.

Taylor said that good managers in today’s world must enlist everyone in the business to drive change and move things ahead. Ideas aren’t the province of the CEO or top managers, he argued, but can come from anywhere and anybody. Managers must foster that kind of thinking and push everyone to think of how to do things better.

He also said that there must be a mind-set flip. Managers must stop thinking of themselves as problem solvers and instead become solution finders, using the entire workforce to help come up with the solution. His parting words: You can’t always outspend the competition, but you can outthink them. So, keep it fun and draw on the brainpower of your entire workforce to make it happen.