With innovation and the ability to innovate perceived as the holy grail of business success the recent report, (by INSEAD professor Hal Gregersen, Jeffrey Dyer of Brigham Young University and Clayton Christensen of Harvard entitled Innovator’s DNA, and published in HBR in December 09 makes very interesting reading.

The objective of this six year research study was to identify the skills that set those visionary innovators (e.g. Apple’s Steve Jobs, Amazon’s Jeff Bezoz, eBay’s Pierre Omidyar) apart from the general pool of leaders. And, armed with a better understanding  the inner workings of their minds, could this be applied (by us mere mortals) to increase our own innovative capacity?

From their in depth survey of 25 innovative entrepreneurs and more than 3,000 executives and 500 individuals (selected because they had either started innovative companies or invented new products) five “discovery skills” that distinguish these creative individuals were identified.

Collectively, these skills (Associating, Questioning, Observing, Experimenting, Networking) amount to creative intelligence (distinct to other types of intelligence outlined in Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence).

An aspect of this report that intrigued me: of the listed sample of innovative entrepreneurs in the study there was only one female (Diane Greene  formerly of VMWare);  while there are undoubtedly fewer females in top executive roles is this sample nonetheless not a bit skewed?

Another interesting finding was that the innovative entrepreneurs (who are also CEOs) spend 50% more time on these discovery activities than CEOs with no track record for innovation.

The best news however: While you may not be born with these traits you can certainly make them your own.

Deliberately practicing these skills (outlined below) will develop your creative intelligence:

Questioning: Most executives focus on understanding how to make existing processes-the status quo-work a little better. Innovative entrepreneurs, on the other hand,  are likely to consistently ask questions that upturn everyday assumptions. Asking “Why”, “Why not” and “What if” enables them to consider  alternative perspectives and move towards breakthrough ideas.

Observing: The innovators reviewed consistently observed and considered behavioural details, the everyday activities of their clients, suppliers and other companies to gain insight into new ways of doing things. To quote Scot Cook, Intuit founder:

“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”.

Experimenting: The innovative entrepreneurs reviewed all actively engaged in trying out new ideas; while the form of experimentation varied from physically assembling/disassembling objects to see how they worked, creating prototypes, engaging in new surroundings through living and working in other cultures; all those reviewed strongly advocated the importance of experimenting and learning (from the failures as well as the successes).

Networking: Additionally, those reviewed made a lot of effort to meet with people from different backgrounds with varied ideas and perspectives and opinions; this helped them to extend and reconfigure their own knowledge range.

Associating: Combining diverse experiences and knowledge allows the brain to make new connections and trigger fresh associations. This skill of associating brings together the insights gleaned from the previous actions (Questioning, Observing, Experimenting, Networking); it connects seemingly unrelated outputs, queries, challenges and ideas from different fields to create new ideas. The research concluded that as innovators engage in these actions they further develop their ability to generate fresh ideas and combine ideas in new ways.  

How to enhance your own creative intelligence?

• Start acting like a child again (at least some of the time). Children are already using all those skills of asking questions, talking to anyone, observing intently and trying out new things to figure out their world. By beginning to ask why and why not you can boost the other skills. Try spending 15 minutes a day writing down ten new questions that challenge the everyday assumptions in your organisation or industry.
• Refine your skills of observation by watching (without judging) how others handle situations, note down what you learnt; what surprised you, what was interesting. Get into the habit of talking to different people to get a completely new perspective.
• Try attending seminars or reading up on topics outside your area; ask people you consider creative what they do to stimulate creative thinking. Get into the habit of trying out new ideas and see what comes out of that.

To paraphrase Steve Jobs creativity is all about connecting things; and this study reinforces the fact that our creative intelligence can be developed by deliberately practicing the discovery skills of innovative entrepreneurs.

 

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