KQ Article
Developing Your Innovator's DNA
Three steps to optimizing your skills at innovation
Dec 30, 2011
Years ago, entrepreneur and humorist Arnold Glasow concluded that “improvement begins with I.” We couldn’t agree more when it comes to becoming an innovative leader.
Our book, The Innovator’s DNA (co-authored with Clayton Christensen), distills the results of our research on how the most innovative leaders at the most innovative companies in the world develop disruptive ideas. Our interviews with more than 100 high-profile innovators (like Jeff Bezos at Amazon) and surveys of more than 5,000 executives and entrepreneurs uncovered five powerful discovery skills. Specifically, we found that innovators:
- Question the status quo
- Observe like anthropologists
- Network for new ideas
- Experiment by trying out new things, taking things apart, and testing out prototypes
- Engage in associational thinking by connecting the unconnected
In short, innovators consistently act differently to think differently.
We suggest three steps for adopting this Innovator’s DNA. Combined, these steps can help you build the relevant innovation skills required to make a stronger impact both within and beyond your financial institution.
Step 1: assess your discovery skills
To get a snapshot of how strong your discovery skills are, take a moment to rate the ten items on the next page. Remember to answer based on your actual behaviors, not what you would like to do.
You can also visit InnovatorsDNA. com to complete a more comprehensive 70-item online self-assessment, or complete a 360-assessment for a more refined, specific sense of your discovery skill strengths.
Step 2: identify a compelling innovation challenge
After assessing your discovery skill strengths, the next step is finding a specific, current innovation challenge or opportunity to practice your discovery skills.
This challenge might range from creating a new product or service, reducing employee turnover, or coming up with new processes that reduce costs by 5% in your business unit. With your innovation challenge clearly in mind, develop a plan to practice some of the discovery skills as you search for creative solutions.
Step 3: put your discovery skills to work
To conquer your innovation challenge, practice your questioning skills first, since innovation often starts with a compelling question. For example, take five minutes for the next 25 days to write down as many questions as you can about your innovation challenge. After strengthening your capacity to question, identify your strongest skill among observing, networking and experimenting, and apply it to your innovation challenge.
_____ Frequently, my ideas or perspectives diverge radically from others’ perspectives. 1. _____ 2. I regularly ask questions that challenge the status quo. _____ 3. New ideas often come to me when I am directly observing how people interact with products and services. _____ 4. I often find solutions to problems by drawing on solutions or ideas developed in other industries, fields, or disciplines. _____ 5. I frequently experiment to create new ways of doing things. _____ 6. I regularly talk with a diverse set of people (e.g., from different business functions, organizations, industries, geographies, etc.) to find and refine new ideas. _____ 7. I attend conferences (on my areas of expertise as well as unrelated areas) to meet new people and understand what issues are facing them. _____ 8. I actively seek to identify emerging trends by reading books, articles, magazines, blogs, and so on. _____ 9. I frequently ask “what if” questions that provoke exploration of new possibilities and frontiers. _____ 10. I regularly observe the activities of customers, suppliers, or other organizations to get new ideas.
_________
Total your numbers from these ten items to assess your discovery skills.
45 or above: Very high
40 – 44: High
35 – 39: Moderate
29 – 34: Moderate to low
28 or below: Low
Finally, engage in frequent brainstorming sessions (alone and in groups) to practice associational thinking. By putting your discovery skills to work on a specific innovation project, persistent practice not only develops mastery, it delivers results. The disruptive innovators in our research did precisely that, either consciously or unconsciously. They practiced skills relentlessly, on almost anyone or anything they interacted with, to solve problems they cared about.
The mystery of innovation is far less mysterious when people practice the innovator’s DNA skills so regularly that they become habits. This takes time and self-discipline, so start with realistic expectations and actively allocate time to improve your discovery skills.
Most of all, remember that as a leader at your bank or credit union, your personal development efforts send a serious signal to your team about how high innovation ranks in your priorities — and how important it might become to theirs.
Hal B. Gregersen is a Senior Affiliate Professor of Leadership at INSEAD (based in Paris and Boston) and a Senior Fellow at Innosight (an innovation consulting firm founded on Clayton Christensen’s disruptive ideas). Hal is a frequent keynote conference speaker on leading innovation and strategic change, and regularly delivers executive education courses to leading corporations and universities around the world.
Jeff Dyer is the Horace Beesley Professor of Strategy in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, where he serves as chair of the department of organizational leadership and strategy.
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