What All Innovators Have in Common

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The passing of Steve Jobs left many of us wondering what it takes to be so creative and successful. It is a long and arduous road, to be sure, but a new book gives fresh insight into what qualities are shared by innovate leaders and disruptive businesses. The authors of The Innovator’s DNA have found five principle ‘discovery tools’ used by our time’s leaders: “These skills include associating, observing, questioning, experimenting and networking. It’s a skill set they believe can be developed by anyone.”

What’s the Big Idea?

These five skills are discussed through specific techniques that can be used to develop innovation. ‘Question Storming’, for example, is a method of asking question about a problem before concentrating on a solution. Another trick, called ‘the five whys’ requires that, when confronted with a problem, you ask ‘why’ five times to discover different causal chains. And to have an innovative company, say the authors, you must have an innovative leader. That means someone who is hands-on and believes that innovation is everyone’s job, like Jobs.

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