Of
equal importance to expertise, however, are the more attitudinal
characteristics of the individuals being considered—their “softer” skills and
qualities—their attitudes, the way they think, and how they work with
others. This may also apply when you are
recruiting qualitative research subjects.
Here are a few characteristics to consider:
People who act not only
to achieve results, but also to learn from them.
My
high school algebra teacher used to tell us that it was not enough to get the
right answer; we needed to learn how and why we got the right answer. The logic of the formula was even more
important to learn than getting the right answer. Now I am beginning to understand my teacher’s
admonitions. Much later in life I
encountered Peter Drucker’s counsel that the primary source of innovation for a
company is its own unexpected success. “No
other area offers richer opportunities for successful innovation. In no other area are innovative opportunities
less risky and their pursuit less arduous.
Yet the unexpected success is almost totally neglected; worse,
managements tend actively to reject it.”
We
can look at success in one of two ways: either as something for which we are
proud and can take credit, or as a teacher offering us something from which we
can learn. How often we take successful results to be the goal more than the
guide to our future contributions.
People who view success as a teacher rather than a trophy provide a very
positive catalysis to any innovation effort to which they contribute.
People who have the
ability to use all their senses for gathering intelligence.
When
it comes to innovation – especially the “fuzzy front end” of innovation efforts
– awareness and knowledge of the leading indicators frequently come more
through qualitative rather than quantitative forms. New insights that identify the first awakenings
of a trend before it is generally recognized as
trend, come from creative connection-making with what initially seems
like a lot of irrelevant information.
Once an insight begins to form, however, information that is “relevant”
starts to emerge from the “irrelevant,” like text can emerge from context.
People
who have the ability to make creative connections between seemingly irrelevant
pieces of diverse information act like great artists who tap all their senses
and seem to be able to make ideas come alive.
People who are more
practiced at interpreting than predicting.
Several
months ago Forbes’ ASAP ran a column based on an intriguing though curious
analogy. The article gave a
tongue-in-cheek explanation for why Silicon Valley continually outperforms
Route 128 (Boston/MIT area). The article
compared how the East Coast experiences relatively predictable seasonal changes
every year, whereas the West Coast experiences little seasonal change, but
instead lives with largely unpredictable natural events (e.g., earthquakes,
wildfires and mudslides).
As
a result, the author boldly suggested that people on the West Coast have learned
a management and planning orientation that is not based on prediction, like
their counterparts on the East Coast. It
is based on “resilience” – an ability to quickly recover and use unforeseen
events as catalysts for seizing and exploiting opportunity. Although the analogy is a stretch, the point
is an intriguing one, especially when considering what qualities to seek in a
teammate for an innovation effort. The
ability to recover, reorient, interpret and reinterpret as new information
becomes available may be more valuable today than the analytical ability to
predict with precision what will happen.
Aside
from an individual’s technical proficiencies and experiences, the most useful
quality of an innovation team member may be their attitude toward change. After four people told me recently to read
the book, Who Moved My Cheese, by
Spencer Johnson, M.D., I picked up a copy.
It is a great little parable of four characters, each of whom responds
quite differently to the reality of their storehouse of cheese being
“removed.” There’s Sniff, who smells the
wind before looking for more cheese.
Scurry, who runs up and down the maze looking for clues to the next
store of cheese. Hem, who denies that
things have changed and waits for the cheese to return. And Haw, who overcomes
his denial to face the new reality and learns to love the question for “new
cheese.” Perhaps the teams we create for
our innovation efforts need the right mix of Sniff, Scurry, Haw and yes, even a
little Hem.
This article was originally published in Innovating Perspectives in September 2000. For this and other back issues of our newsletter,
please visit our website at
innovationsthatwork.com or call (415) 387-1270.
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