The DNA of Disruptive Innovators: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators

 Source: www.kompasiana.com

Innovation is immensely pertinent nowadays especially in business field. Innovation is needed by entrepreneurs or executives. Innovative leaders will lead to successful companies. Innovative leaders must have the ability to generate innovative ideas. A research revealed that ability to generate innovative ideas is a function from both the mind and behaviors. There are five discovery skills that lead to innovative ideas; associating, questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting. One of the innovative entrepreneurs is Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs is an innovative entrepreneur that built up Apple Inc. He has ability to think different from typical entrepreneurs. In running Apple, Jobs has done several innovative ideas that are useful and influential for his company. The first idea was creating a computer that does not need a fan. This idea came from questioning how to keep the computer cool without the fan since Jobs found that the noise of fan is very distracting. So, by collaborating with Rod Holt, he produced Apple II – the smallest and quietest personal computer. Second ideas were operating system and mouse. These ideas came from observing. Jobs visited PARC and saw the things that others cannot see such as the use of mouse and object-oriented programming. As the result, he produced a personal computer with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and mouse called Macintosh and NeXT computer. Then, the third idea was desktop publishing which displayed “beautiful typography” on the Macintosh. The idea came from experimenting. When Jobs was dropped out, he took typography calligraphy class. He learned about typography and implemented it on his company. Innovation is related closely with creativity. That is why creativity is needed in doing business.
    

Several researches showed that creativity skills are not simply genetic traits, but they can be developed. A group of researchers studied creative abilities in 117 pairs of identical and fraternal twins aged from 15 to 21. The result displayed that only about 30 percent of the performance of identical twins on a battery of ten creativity tests referred to genetics. Meanwhile, 80 percent to 85 percent of the twins’ performance on general intelligence (IQ) tests could be related to genetics. In sort, we can know that general intelligence is basically a genetic endowment, whereas creativity is not. Six other studies also proved that two-thirds of our innovation skills still come through learning.
 

A research that studied 50 innovators compared to 50 typical executives showed the differences factors that make innovators different from typical executives. First, innovators have associational thinking. Associational thinking works when our brain synthesizes and makes sense of novel inputs. It enables the innovators to discover new ideas. Moreover, innovative breakthroughs often happen at the intersection of diverse disciplines and fields. Frans Johanssen called this phenomenon as “the Medici effect.” The four behaviors that can trigger the associational thinking are questioning, observing, networking and experimenting. Second difference is innovators are risk takers. They tend to take smart risks to make changes. Innovators usually refuse to have regular schedule in which dictated by others. A research showed that innovative CEOs spend 50 percent more time on discovery activities than CEOs with no innovation track record. In order to strengthen the DNA innovators, we must not only focused on developing ourselves alone but also try to look what is going on outside. For instance, some activities that can Steve Jobs done are talks with innovative people from various background, visits three innovative start-ups to observe what they do, samples five “new to the market” products and takes them apart; shows a prototype he’s built to five people, and asks several challenging questions such as “What if I tried this?” and “What would make this not work?”. These activities are linked with the four behaviors.
 

Sometimes, top executives barely mentioned their own innovative business idea even though they are qualified and talented. Most of the senior executives focused on delivering the existing business model effectively. Senior executives are usually good at executing. The four delivery or execution skills: analyzing, planning, detail-oriented implementing, and self-disciplined executing. In order to develop new business and opportunity, a company does not only need delivery skills, but also discovery skills. The discussion about the skills in the book The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators is relevant with an article with the same title. The relation between these resources is both emphasize that creativity is not only genetic trait, but also something that can be acquired, practiced, and developed by everyone. A Research about identical twins proved that shows that genetics only accounts for 30% to 35% of a person’s creativity. Another relationship between the two contents is the importance of think different. Both the book and article concern in convincing us to think different in order to gain innovative ideas. Then, both state that innovative ideas can be achieved by the five discovery skills which are associating, questioning, observing, networking and experimenting.
 

The content of both sources can be related with the learning process. The discovery skills and delivery skills are also needed in learning process. In discovery skills, students can do questioning. They can trigger and explore their potential in learning by addressing some challenging question such as “how to learn effectively?”, “what will happen if I use technology to support me in learning?” or “what I want to make in collaborative project?”. Those questions will lead them to be innovators. Next, in learning process, students also need to be able to observe. They need to observe the lesson they get and the relation between it with the current situation. Then, networking is also demanded in learning. Students need to broaden their social lives in order to open up greater chance for developing themselves. Another important thing is experimenting. Experimenting can help the students to get better understanding and direct experiment so that they will be able to know how to apply their knowledge in real context. These four skills will give them novel inputs which can build their associating skill.
 

In associating, they can connect things that previously unconnected. In delivery skills, students need to have good analyzing, planning, detail-oriented implementing, and self-disciplined executing. Students will be required to be able to analyze the materials given in learning or simply analyze their own learning. Then, once they can analyze, they will be able to plan what they need to improve their learning. After they have already planned the strategies, they need to implement their plans based on their needs. Last, they need to execute. Students have power to become executors in their learning. To illustrate, they can make decision about their learning strategies or time allocation for their own learning.
 

The DNA of innovators skills issues can be implemented in Indonesian context. The implementation can be done by doing collaborative learning like in 2013 curriculum. In collaborative learning, we can trigger the learning process to become more student-centered learning. So, the students can have responsibility to become autonomous learners that actively participate in learning process. As we know that collaborative learning can enhance students’ creativity and social network, it will provide various learning activities that can also promotes their lower and higher order thinking. Activities such as problem-solving, discussion, and group works can facilitate them to address questions related to their learning. They can share and work with their peers to sharp their mind. Observing can be done by giving them opportunity to visit or learn in new places. It can be done by giving them interesting learning materials as well so that required they can do analysis. They can observe by comparing several materials or simply link them with the phenomena in their lives.
 

Next, networking can be performed by several activities such as make collaborative projects, peer correction, class discussion, jigsaw puzzle activities, role play and even we can use technology to help us in interacting with people across the globe. These activities will require them to interact with others. And then, experimenting can be achieved by giving students real context to learn. For example; the students are asked to do a real project such as journals. Another example is giving the students opportunity to experience real situation in work place like joining job training program related with their study. For instance, Students in English Department here are required to take PKM course in order to give them direct experience in teaching. These four skills will be completed by associating skill. in associating skill, we can ask the students to use their creativity and the ability to think different in order to make innovative ideas for learning. Collaborative project can trigger them to think creatively since they are allowed to produce something related to their own needs, concerns, motivation or passions. All in all, the skills demanded to be innovators can be implemented by everyone in every context including learning process.

Reference

 
Gregersen, Hal. Jeff, D. Clayton, C. 2011. The Innovator’s DNA : Mastering The Five Skills of Disruptive Innovator. Boston : Harvard Business Review Press.