Igniting Innovators DNA to Flourish in 2013

At ImagineNation™ we acknowledge that innovation is the result of a COLLISION between different perspectives and thought patterns. In our programs we initiate intentional and constructive collisions that disrupt the status quo and cultivate peoples ‘provocative competence’. This enables people to develop, manifest and maximize the ‘creative intelligence’ required to be innovative.

People learn how to challenge and question existing perspectives and thought patterns in deeply disruptive and provocative ways.

Research reveals that all successful innovators take responsibility for facilitating the innovation process, they don’t delegate it, and they do it themselves! They intentionally stimulate, activate and generate new perspectives and thought patterns that lead to the discovery of innovative ideas and solutions. Authors Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal B. Gregersen, Clayton Christensen, in their recent article “The Innovators DNA” in HBR, outlines the results of their six year study to uncover the origins of creative – and often disruptive – business strategies in particularly innovative companies. Their research led them to identify five “discovery skills” that distinguish the most creative executives:

. Associating
. Questioning
. Observing
. Experimenting
. Networking

They found that innovative entrepreneurs (who are also CEO’s) spend 50% more time on these discovery activities than do CEO’s with no track record for innovation.

Underlying these five critical skill sets are the Innovation Be-ing States or Mindsets that drive the Behaviours that result in the development of these skills.

Associating; is the ability to successfully connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from different fields.

• To develop this skill we need to cultivate an open mind and adopt divergent thinking processes; which is able to view questions, problems and ideas from the ‘outside’ or from the ‘whole’.
• To understand and deconstruct issues by taking a whole systems perspective, considering global competition, instability and uncertainty, product and market analysis, cost /benefit analysis to expose and/or make the connections.

Questioning; is the willingness and ability to constantly ask questions that challenge the common wisdom, status quo and operating assumptions. It requires us to imagine and synthesize opposites and embrace constraints.

• To develop this skill set we need to cultivate an open heart, be detached and curious, seek possibilities and pay deep attention.
• To learn how be present and deeply attend to one another, to listen and ask questions at the generative level. To challenge the status quo by inquiring and constructively debating to achieve high levels or meta thinking to generate imaginative and creative ideas and unexpected solutions.

Observing; is the ability to pay deep attention by scrutinizing common phenomena to gain insights about new ways of doing things.

• To develop this skill set we need to be able to perceive and sense the operating patterns from the whole system perspective.
• To zoom in to the detail and tactical aspects as well as to zoom up to the conceptual and strategic aspects of the question, problem or idea.
• To work with, and not against, what could be wanting to emerge from the whole.

Experimenting; is the ability to actively try our new ideas by creating prototypes and launching pilots. It requires us to construct interactive experiences and to try and provoke unorthodox responses to see what insights emerge.

• To develop this skills set we need to create the openings, or ‘right hand turns’ and inflection points that transform questions, problems and ideas into innovative opportunities.
• To accept that failure is a natural part of doing business, allowing people to fail small, fast and cheaply to create the safe space for mitigating risk.
• To be courageous by creating new opportunities for learning and change through experimentation and prototyping by be-ing adaptive, persistent and resilient.

Networking; is the willingness to devote time and energy to finding and testing ideas through a network of diverse individuals. Going out of their way to meet people with different ideas and perspectives to extend their own knowledge domains.

• To develop this skill we need to cultivate an open will, be detached and listen for the possibility in every encounter.
• To constantly interact with others to create, notice and act upon chance opportunities and make successful decisions by using intuition and gut feelings.
• To be willing to be intentionally disruptive & deviant, to dispute the status quo, to shift perceptions & create openings as to ‘what could be’.
• To generatively debate, not to ‘win’, or be ‘right’, but to create unconventional and unexpected ideas and solutions.

At ImagineNation™ www.imaginenation.co.il, we have over thirty years of experience in corporate consulting and learning projects with some of Israel’s and Australasia’s top 100 companies. We have integrated and evolved our successes and learning’s to create our own innovative approach and methodologies to bring these mindsets, behavior and skills ‘to life’. We can enable you to learn, practice, practice, practice and apply these skills to be more successful and innovative in 2013. We call them, the “Art of Provocative Competence”; an innovative and entrepreneurial way of thinking, doing and be-ing that engages harnesses and maximizes the imagination, creativity and potential for innovation from your most costly and valuable resource, your people. We have three learning streams:

1. Coach for Innovators Certified Programâ„¢ https://www.imaginenation.co.il/coach-for-innovators/
2. The Start-Up Gameâ„¢ https://www.imaginenation.co.il/the-start-up-game/
3. Team Innovation Labs.

Finally, be courageous and put your own unique “ding in the universe” in 2103 by:

• Seeking the connections to seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from different fields.
• Constantly asking questions to challenge and disrupt the status quo, conventional wisdom and operating assumptions.
• Experimenting with new ideas and taking more risks.
• Testing ideas through networking and debating with deviant and diverse others to extend your knowledge domain.
• Embracing and crystallizing a powerful vision for innovation and change!

image credit: reorbit.com

Janet Sernack is the Founder & CEO ImagineNation. She is an ICf certified executive coach and experiential learning specialist with expertise in adaptive leadership and team effectiveness. Janet facilitates a weekly business network in Zichron Yaakov, Israel, for English speaking business owners and entrepreneurs.