The Process Of Innovation

August 23, 2011

Interview with Hal Gregersen, co-author of the book The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators

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Mike Carruthers:
One way to discover how great innovators create their ideas is to ask them.

Hal Gregersen:
So we met with people like Jeff Bezos at Amazon and asked how did he get this great idea that turned into a company called Amazon.
 

Hal Gregerson, co-author of the book The Innovator's DNA, also talked with over 5 thousand other innovators as well as Jeff Bezos and found…

The innovators DNA is 5 skills; it’s they question, they question in ways that provoke the status quo. They observe like anthropologists, they watch the world really carefully. They network for ideas, they talk to people who are really different than they are. They’re experimental in their approach to life, love to turn out things, try on things, test things. And at the end of the day they think differently, which is, it’s association thinking, lateral thinking; they connect the unconnected to create something surprising.

It is true that some people are more inclined to be creative and innovative, however…

When anybody does these things, literally, if we do things that I just described I will have a much higher probability of generating a new product, a new service, a new approach to doing things.

And you don’t have to be a genius to think like this, in fact Hal equates it to the ways of a 4 year old.

Look at a 4 year old, they ask lots of questions, they’re very observational, they try about anything, they talk to just about anybody and they’re always surprising people with connecting the unconnected. 

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here