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The Innovators DNAChapter 3: Discovery Skill #2 Questioning
Chapter 4: Discovery Skill #3 Observing
By Janelle Thompson
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Peter Drucker
The important and difficult job is never to find
the right answers, it is to find the right question.
For there are few things as uselessif not dangerous-as the right answer to the wrong question.
Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata group
Question the Unquestionable
Betterunderstand
what is
ChallengeStatus Quo
Betterunderstandwhat might
be
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When you
persist in asking
questionsthroughout life
particularly
challenging
onesits central
to who you are
and how you
lead.
Orit Gadiesh
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Questions are the creative catalyst for the
other discovery behaviors.
Hold the potential to cultivate creative
insights. Innovators ask more questions than non-
innovators, they also ask more provocative
questions.
Questioning is a way of life for innovators.
Counterintuitive questions.
What is Questioning?
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Question common wisdom & pushboundaries, assumptions and borders.
Describe the territory
Tactic #1: Askwhat is? questions
Tactic #2: Askwhat caused? questions
Disrupt the territory
Tactic #3: Askwhy?/why not? questions
Tactic #4: Askwhat if? questions Impose constraints
Eliminate constraints
How to ask disruptive questions?
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Afraid to look stupid
Do not want to be looked at as
uncooperative, disagreeable or disrespectful.
Punishment for questioning own firm
Expectations of answers and not questions.
Cant ask the boss questions that challenge
the status quo.
What stops us from asking
questions?
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Questions alone do notproduce innovation.
Combine asking theright questions with otherinnovators DNA skills.
Constantly create betterquestions
You dont invent the
answers, you reveal theanswers by finding the
right question.
Jonas Salk (discoverer ofthe 1st polio vaccine)
Tip #1: Engage inQuestion-Storming
Tip #2: Cultivate
question thinking Tip #3: Track your Q/A
ratio
Tip #4: Keep a question-
centered notebook. Kind and patterns
Why is it this way
Challenge the status quo
Disruptive territory
Potential
TurbochargerDeveloping Skills
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Vuja deA sense of seeing something for the firsttime, even if you havent actually seen it many times
before.
Scott Cook, founder, Intuit
Observation is the big game
changer in our company.
Observedifferentenvironments
Observe theworld aroundyou
Connectcommonthreads
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Learning from Anthropologists
Observe someone trying to do a job
Gain insight and understanding about the job to bedone
Functional, Social, Emotional dimensions
Find a better way to do it.
Two different types of observations
Watching people in different circumstances who are
trying to do a job and gaining insight about what jobthey really want to get done.
Observing people, processes, companies, ortechnologies and seeing a solution that can be applied(perhaps with some modification) in a different context.
Framework for Observing: Look forthe Job and a Better Way to Do It
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Developing Observational Skills
Actively watch consumers to see whatproducts they hire to do what jobs
Learn to look for surprises or anomalies.
Find opportunities to observe in a new
environment.
Framework for Observing: Look forthe Job and a Better Way to Do It
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Workaround
Partial or incomplete
solutions Pay attention and
identify them
May lead tocompletely new
idea
Actively Watch Customers-and
Look for Workarounds
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Customers unintended use of the
product or service
Can provide clues to why it is not acomplete solution.
Look for the unexpected
Multisensory Experience
Engage all of your senses.
Look for surprises
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Try to put yourself in a new
environment
Countries, museums, conferences
Dont just look, but observe.
Change the environment
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Observe companies.
Observe with all of your senses.
Observe whatever strikes your fancy.
Tips for Developing Observational
Skills
Observe customers.Tip #1
Tip #2
Tip #3
Tip #4
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He who asks is a fool for 5
minutes, but he who does
not ask is a fool forever.Chinese proverb
Nothing has such power tobroaden the mind as the
ability to investigate
systematically and truly all
that comes under thyobservation in life.
Marcus Aurelius