We are often asked whether innovation is an inherent skill or if it can be learnt. Our experience, working with hundreds of business leaders, clearly leads us to the conclusion that innovation is very much a learnable skill. Whilst some people are naturally more innovative than others, the skills of innovation can be learnt by anyone who wants to improve their performance in this key area. People prove this in our workshops all the time.
This view has recently been endorsed by a six-year study carried out by no less than Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University. They interviewed 3,000 executives and 500 entrepreneurs and concluded that succesful innovators use five “discovery skills” that can be cultivated by us all. Together, these skills make up what they call the innovator’s DNA. And the good news is, if you’re not born with it, you can learn it. The skills are: associating, questioning, observing, experimenting, and networking.
These skills link neatly with the types of thinking we train people to use in our innovation programmes:
Associating: forming unusual connections between apparently remote concepts to come up with new solutions.
Questioning: challenging the status quo, overcoming company mind-sets, asking “why?”
Observing: using all our five (or even six!) senses to understand and to re-interprete situations.
Experimenting: asking “what if?”, pretending something might be possible, using imagination.
Networking: working in small groups, mixing with people different from the norm.
So, if you are planning to improve innovation performance in your company next year, the best way forward is to train your people in the key skills for the job. Get in touch and let us show you how our innovation programmes can help you transform your business.
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