Innovator's DNA: Mastering Five Skills for Innovative Disruption

Innovation is a big buzzword that means different things to different people. Where do innovative and revolutionary business ideas come from? According to research by Hal Gregersen, co-author of The Innovator's DNA and executive director of the MIT Leadership Center, mastering five key skills forms the foundation for finding ideas that create value. This innovation program helps executives learn to achieve breakthrough insights through self-assessment, catalytic questioning, deep observation, diverse networking, and rapid experimentation.

Every great innovator, from Jeff Bezos to Steve Jobs, excels at asking the right questions. Day-in and day-out they seek provocative new insights by getting out of their offices and into the real world, actively observing, networking, and experimenting to generate valuable new ideas. By doing so, they improve our lives and grow our economy, finding new solutions to the most challenging problems we face. Innovative entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs act differently to think differently and, in the end, they make a significant impact..

Building on hundreds of interviews and more than ten thousand survey assessments, Gregersen delivers unique insight into the behaviors of extraordinary innovators. Participants of this new program will learn and practice important discovery skills that lead to new and disruptive innovation, ranging from product improvement to new market creation, to generate valuable, new economic growth.

These key innovation skills include:

•    Questioning the status quo
•    Observing the world like anthropologists
•    Networking with diverse people to get new ideas
•    Experimenting in small, fast, and cheap ways to reach novel solutions
•    Connecting typically unconnected insights to deliver disruptive new business ideas

To put this innovation strategy into practice, participants will identify an individual challenge for which they seek a solution and commit to innovating around that challenge throughout the two days. They will also engage in a personal diagnostic assessment to better understand their own innovation and execution focused leadership skills.