Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen wrote a fabulous piece a couple years ago in Harvard Business Review called "The Innovator's DNA". They did a six year study of 25 innovative entrepreneurs and surveyed more than 3,000 executives and 500 individuals who had started innovative companies. Evidently, innovators like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Larry Page use five discovery skills to create new ideas.
1) Associating: the ability to successfully connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas from different fields. Pierre Omidyar started Ebay because: i) he was fascinated with creating more efficient markets; ii) his fiancee had a desire to locate hard to find collectible Pez dispensers; iii) local classified ads weren't very helpful for locating the Pez dispensers. (This quality supports the argument for exploring a wide variety of interests: botany, history, philosophy, art, poetry, etc.)
2) Questioning: Questioning the unquestionable is really important. True innovators get a real kick out of disrupting the status quo by asking Why? Why not? and What if?
3) Observing: Often the surprises that lead to new business ideas come from watching other people work and live their normal lives. You see something and ask "Why do they do that? That doesn't make sense."
4) Experimenting: As Edison said, "I haven't failed, I've simply found 10,000 ways that do not work." One of the most powerful experiments innovators can engage in is living and working overseas. "In fact, if managers try out even one international assignment before becoming CEO, their companies deliver stronger financial results than companies run by CEOs without such experience.
5) Networking: Innovative entrepreneurs go out of their way to meet people with different kinds of ideas and perspectives to extend their own knowledge domains.
What if you don't see yourself as particularly innovative? Don't worry, innovative thinking can be developed.
a) Try spending 15 to 30 minutes each day writing down 10 new questions that challenge the status quo in your company or industry.
b) Try to sharpen your observational skills.
c) Start to approach life with a hypothesis testing mindset. Attend seminars outside your area of expertise, read books that identify emerging trends.
d) To improve your networking skills, contact the five most creative people you know and ask them to share what they do to stimulate their creative thinking. Hold regular idea lunches at which you can meet new people from diverse functions, companies, and industries. Get them to tell you about their innovative ideas and ask for feedback on yours.
Innovative entrepreneurship is not a genetic predisposition, it is a an active endeavor.
Happy Innovating!!!
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