How do innovators think?

Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and A.G. Lafley

What makes visionary entrepreneurs such as Apple’s Steve Jobs, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and P&G’s A.G. Lafley tick? In a question-and-answer session with Harvard Business Review contributing editor Bronwyn Fryer, professors Jeff Dyer of Brigham Young University and Hal Gregersen of the international business school INSEAD, explain how the “Innovators’ DNA” works.

Fryer: You conducted a six-year study surveying 3,000 creative executives and conducting an additional 500 individual interviews. During this study you found five “discovery skills” that distinguish them. What are these skills?

Dyer: The first skill is what we call “associating.” It allows creative people to make connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas. The second skill is “questioning”—an ability to ask “what if,” “why” and “why not” questions that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture. The third is the ability to closely observe details, particularly of people’s behavior. Another skill is the ability to experiment. And finally, they are really good at networking with smart people who have little in common with them, but from whom they can learn.

Which of these skills do you think is the most important?

Dyer: Overall, associating is the key skill because new ideas aren’t created without connecting problems or ideas in ways they haven’t been before. The other behaviors are inputs that trigger associating.

Gregersen: You might summarize all of the skills we’ve noted in one word: “inquisitiveness.” I spent 20 years studying great global leaders, and that was the big common denominator.

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Reinforcement for that 10,000 hour rule and the Power of Deliberate Practice (from Coach Wooden, Gladwell, Colvin, and Levitt & Dubner)

I first learned of the 10,000 hour rule — it takes 10,000 hours to get really good at/to truly master any skill –from reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  Then I learned more about how to spend the 10,000 hours in “deliberate practice” from Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin.

Here’s more.  In Superfreakonomics, Levitt and Dubner refer back to the “father” of the 10,000 hour rule, K. Anders Ericsson.  And yesterday, at a lunch gathering, I presented my synopsis of Wooden on Leadership, by the great, legendary, best-ever-coach John Wooden.  Though he does not refer to the concept directly, he provided the true “deliberate practice” model, with each session of his practices planned to the minute…

So — here are a few reminders from each of these authors, with brief comment a time or two:

From Wooden:
Have a definite practice plan – and follow it.
The coach must never forget that he is, first of all, a teacher.  He must come (be present), see (diagnose), and conquer (correct).  He must continuously be exploring for ways to improve himself in order that he may improve others and welcome every person and everything that may be helpful to him.
You must have patience and expect more mistakes, but drill and drill to reduce them to a minimum.

From Gladwell:
The people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else.  They work much, much harder.

In my synopsis of Outliers, I added these reflections:
• centerpiece to this book is the 10,000 hour rule… — with much intentional practice!
• “Practicing:  that is, purposefully and single-mindedly playing their instruments with the intent to get better”
• Some “observations:
1.              It really does take a lot of hard, hard work – the 10,000 hour rule really is close to an actual rule!
2.              Hard work requires much intentional practice.
3.              Success is the result of “accumulative advantage.”

From Colvin:
There is absolutely no evidence of a ‘fast track’ for high achievers.
Deliberate practice is above all an effort of focus and concentration.  This is what makes it “deliberate,” as distinct from the mindless playing of scales or hitting of tennis balls that most people engage in.  Continually seeking exactly those elements of performance that are unsatisfactory and then trying one’s hardest to make them better places enormous strains on anyone’s mental abilities.

From Levitt and Dubner:
If you don’t love what you’re doing, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good at it.
“Deliberate practice has three key components: setting specific goals; obtaining immediate feedback; and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.”  (K. Anders Ericsson)

(I wrote this in a blog post about Ken Robinson’s The Element:  How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything a while back:
So — here is the question that we each need to ask: What do I care deeply enough about that I am willing to put in significant time, over the long haul, to get better at it? Even if the time I put in is not necessarily fun.

So, we’re always back to this challenge — where are you investing your 10,000 hours?

First Friday Book Synopsis Update – The Tyranny of E-mail and Trade Off, Coming in January

We closed 2009 with over 90 people gathered for the December First Friday Book Synopsis.  My colleague, Karl Krayer, was out of town, and guest presenter LIn O’Neill helped us get the key concepts from the book Busting Loose from the Business Game by Robert Scheinfeld.  (Thanks Lin).  I had a lot of fun with Superfreakonomics.

Here’s a great quote from the Busting Loose book:
The popular saying “thinking outside the box” refers to inking in creative and innovative ways.  I’m fond of calling what you’re about to discover “dynamiting the box.”

Thanks to all who helped us have a “record year” in attendance and interest at the First Friday Book Synopsis.

In January, we meet on the SECOND Friday of the month, January 8 (the first Friday, January 1, might have caused a few family/parade/football conflicts).

We will present synopses of The Tyranny of E-Mail:  The Four-Thousand Year Journey to Your Inbox by John Freeman, and Trade Off:  Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t by Kevin Mancy (foreword by Jim Collins).

We hope to see you there.