An Innovation Dilemma and Question from Michael Dell
Posted on March 16, 2014 by Cris Beswick

http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2014/03/16/an-innovation-dilemma-and-question-from-michael-dell/

Great stuff…I added comments from our class on Driving Organic Growth through Innovation. This is the start of creating competitive
separation.

A six-year research study, The Innovator’s DNA,  by Hal Gregerson, Jeffrey Dyer and Clayton Christensen has identified five discovery skills, which characterize leading innovators. By using these skills in varying degrees the world’s best entrepreneurs and innovators are able to unearth ‘stuff’ which we don’t ordinarily see and to create new masterpieces from incomplete information. The five discovery skills are: 

Associating…
Just because two pieces are blue doesn’t mean they are adjacent bits of sky.” Associating” means being able to connect the dots, to combine pieces of disparate information until they join in new and innovative ways. (seeing the dots is obvious, connecting them is not and the source of deep insights) 

Observing…
Open your eyes and look for the patterns. When you observe properly you unearth deeper, more meaningful insight because you see different things. You can then resolve the real problems you see with solutions which have more substance and resonate with people rather than papering over superficial niggles.(Ethnography) 

Experimenting…
Entrepreneurs and innovators rarely take the easy; find the corners first option, to solving problems. Rather they favor a more “how else can we solve it and what are the options” approach. This requires an ability to accept that things may fail and that the solution may not be the best first time but the process will result in a learning curve and experimentation prevents the solution becoming bogged down in a ‘logical’ process which may never result in a satisfactory answer. (Options Management and Discovery Driven Planning) 

Questioning… (keep asking why? Until you get to the root cause)
From questioning grows a deep appreciation of the problem and the insight to produce a solution. Instead of assuming we know the answer to a problem or area of tension and in the process potentially making the problem worse; taking time to question, to create an innovative solution results in a long term improvement. A questioning mind never accepts the first or apparently easiest answer but always goes deeper asking what next?” or “how else could we do it?” 

Networking…
The world’s leading innovators take networking in a different context to the traditional definition. They use their constant inquisitiveness to gather people together who are fundamentally different from themselves in order to gain multiple perspectives on problems. This also means they use this to find challenging and opposing views to their own which will engender that spark of creativity.(fight the phenomenon of Escalation of Commitment)