If you wanted to be healthier, what would you do? Most likely, you would regularly practice some behaviors such as eating with nutrition in mind, sleeping significantly, exercising cardiovascularly and with resistance or weight training, etc.

If you wanted to be more innovative and develop your creative capacities as a leader of positive change, what would you do?

From “The Innovator’s DNA,” Dyer, Gregersen, Christensen, Harvard Business Review, December, 2009:

But how do they do it? Our research led us to identify five “discovery skills” that distinguish the most creative executives: associating, questioning, observing, experimenting, and networking. We found that innovative entrepreneurs (who are also CEOs) spend 50% more time on these discovery activities than do CEOs with no track record for innovation. Together, these skills make up what we call the innovator’s DNA. And the good news is, if you’re not born with it, you can cultivate it.

How are you creating the conditions in which you can cultivate your innovator’s DNA through practice of associating, observing, questioning, experimenting, and networking? How are you beginning your 100-hour knack? How are you discovering the problems and opportunities that you are uniquely capable of identifying and addressing?

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Written as continued provocation and encouragement for capacity building happening @MVPSchool’s and @MVIFI’s Innovation Diploma