Comstock's magazine 1217 - December 2017 | Page 58

n STRATEGY
I
n the early 1970s, a team of scientists rounded up 117 to develop skills like coding, software development and
pairs of twins and gave them a suite of tests designed video game design.
to assess aptitude for creativity with directives like,
“I tell kids, don’t think about ‘what could I invent?’” she
“Brainstorm all the different things you can do with says, instead directing them to ask questions and seek prob-
a brick.”
lems. One of her mentees recently whipped up an idea for an
The results were stunning. Twins that shared app that lets people at different locations watch Netf lix to-
identical DNA had massive differences in their cre- gether at the same time. “This app helped solve a problem:
ative abilities — specifically, genetics explained only When families have someone overseas in the military, how
30 percent of creativity. Compare that to a trait like intel- do they stay in touch? Or how do you stay close to someone
ligence (at least in the traditional, narrow sense of testable in a long distance relationship? Always look for problems in
IQ), where up to 85 percent can be explained by our genes.
the world,” she says.
So, is the ability to innovate something that we’re born
This works in larger corporations, too. Kim Box is the
with, like height, or is it something that we can cultivate with president and CEO of Gatekeeper Innovation, which is a
practice, education and tweaks to our behavior? “I honestly start-up that produces devices to lock prescription pill
think that it’s around 50/50,” says
bottles, but she formerly led a di-
Alona Jennings, co-founder of
vision of Hewlett-Packard that
Sacramento´s Operation Inno-
had 15,000 employees and
vate, a nonprofit organization
a $1 billion budget. Even
that mentors low-income
working for the corporate
youth. “Some of us are born
behemoth, she asked tough
with it, and those who are
questions. When tasked
born with it have a responsi-
with slashing the costs and
bility to help foster innovation
boosting the efficiency of
in others.”
HP’s call center, which ser-
That was also the conclu-
viced 120 countries and was
sion reached by Jeff Dyer, Hal
the largest of its kind on the
Gregersen and Clayton M.
planet, “I asked my team, if
Christensen — researchers
you were to design this call
who collected data from 5,000
center from scratch, what
— Alona Jennings, co-founder, Operation Innovate
executives in 75 countries,
would it look like?” she says.
hoping to find the common
“We called it the Zero Base
characteristics of innovators. “A
Building.” That led her team
critical insight from our research is
to surprising new places, such as
that one’s ability to generate innovative ideas is not merely “load balancing,” where a customer service team in Europe,
a function of the mind, but also a function of behaviors,” for example, would pick up the slack from calls in the U.S.,
explain the authors. “If we change our behaviors, we can leveraging the changes in time zones. “This sounds obvious
improve our creative impact.”
now, but it required a ton of training and re-thinking,” Box
After poring through the data, they found that innova- says.
tors tend to do five things better than the rest of us: question,
observe, network, experiment and associate.
OBSERVE (CONSTANTLY)
Essentially, instead of passively hoping that an idea will Observations fuel ideas. “Good innovators spend a lifetime
strike us or assuming that we’re just not the “creative type,” listening and learning, so that when the right puzzle piece
we can actively focus on these five habits, and help grow presents itself, they can snap it into place,” says Louis Stew-
them in others:
art, Sacramento’s Chief Innovation Officer (and member of
Comstock's editorial board). “Listening is key. It speeds up
QUESTION (EVERYTHING)
your connectivity if you can soak up those little morsels.”
Innovators challenge the status quo — that’s the origin of
And what we observe also matters. That’s why Stewart
new solutions. Jennings encourages a questioning mindset exposes himself to a wide range of media. “I consume ev-
in the kids she mentors through Code For Hood, a program erything, from podcasts to the news to watching shows on
of Operation Innovate that runs workshops and hackathons Netf lix, as you never know where the spark will come from.”
"Some of us are born
with it, and those who
are born with it have a
responsibility to foster
innovation in others."
58
comstocksmag.com | December 2017