Listening to "Voice of your people"

"Voice of customer" is a very common term in the Six Sigma world.
It explains the importance of paying close attention to customers explicit and implicit needs.
But rarely we think about listening to the voice of the people. Most employees in an organization express their views and opinions about their workplace. Many employees have ideas for improving the workplace too. Given a chance these employees will talk about their ideas and in the right environment will even figure out ways to implement them.
However, if managers do not pay attention to these employees, over time they will stop communicating. The managers job is to prevent this from happening as some bright ideas may never see the light of the day. Any idea that brings improvement is a good idea and good managers must capitalize on them.
Listening to the voice of your people is as important as listening to your customers.