Fast Company - October 1, 2005
The 10 Faces of Innovation
By Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman
In an exclusive book excerpt from the general manager of Ideo, we meet
the personality types it takes to keep creativity thriving--and the
devil's advocate at bay.
We've all been there: the pivotal meeting in which you push forward a
new idea or proposal you're passionate about. A fast-paced discussion
leads to an upwelling of support that seems about to reach critical
mass. And then in one disastrous moment, your hopes are dashed when
someone weighs in with those fateful words: "Let me just play devil's
advocate for a minute. . . ."
Having invoked the awesome protective power of that seemingly
innocuous phrase, the speaker now feels entirely free to take potshots
at your idea and does so with impunity. Because he's not really your
harshest critic. Instead, he's essentially saying, "The devil made me
do it." Devil's advocates remove themselves from the equation and
sidestep individual responsibility for the verbal attack. But before
they're done, they've torched your fledgling concept.
The devil's-advocate gambit is extraordinary but certainly not
uncommon since it strikes so regularly in the project rooms and
boardrooms of corporate America. What's truly astonishing is how much
punch is packed into that simple phrase. In fact, the devil's advocate
may be the biggest innovation killer in America today. What makes this
negative persona so dangerous is that it is such a subtle threat.
Every day, thousands of great new ideas, concepts, and plans are
nipped in the bud by devil's advocates.
Why is this persona so damning? Because a devil's advocate encourages
idea wreckers to assume the most negative possible perspective, one
that sees only the downside, the problems, the disasters-in-waiting.
Once those floodgates open, they can drown a new initiative in
negativity.
Why should you care? And why do I believe this problem is so
important? Because innovation is the lifeblood of all organizations,
and the devil's advocate is toxic to your cause. This is no trivial
matter. There is no longer any serious debate about the primacy of
innovation in the health and future strength of an organization.
As the general manager of Ideo, I have worked with clients from
Singapore to San Francisco to São Paulo, and witnessed firsthand how
innovation has become recognized as a pivotal management tool across
virtually all industries and market segments. And while we at Ideo
used to spend the majority of our time in the world of product-based
innovation, we have more recently come around to seeing innovation as
a tool for transforming the entire culture of organizations. Sure, a
great product can be one important element in the formula for business
success, but companies that want to succeed today need much more. They
need innovation at every point of the compass, in all aspects of the
business, and in every team member.
Building an environment fully engaged in positive change, and a
culture rich in creativity and renewal, means creating a company with
360 degrees of innovation. And companies that want to succeed at
innovation will need new insights, new viewpoints, and new roles.
All good working definitions of innovation pair ideas with action, the
spark with the fire. Innovators don't just have their heads in the
clouds. They also have their feet on the ground. The company 3M, one
of the first to fully embrace innovation as the essence of its
corporate brand, defines it as "new ideas--plus action or
implementation--which result in an improvement, a gain, or a profit."
It is not enough to just have a good idea. Only when you act, when you
implement, do you truly innovate. Ideas. Action. Implementation. Gain.
Profit.
All good words, of course, but there's still one piece left out.
People. That's why I prefer the InnovationNetwork consultancy's
definition: "People implementing new ideas that create value." The
classic 3M definition might leave you with the impression that, as a
bumper sticker might put it, "Innovation Happens." But unfortunately,
there's no spontaneous combustion in the business world. Innovation is
definitely not self-starting or self-perpetuating. People make it
happen through their imagination, willpower, and perseverance. And
whether you are a team member, a group leader, or an executive, your
only real path to innovation is through people. You can't really do it
alone.
"Innovation is all about the roles people can play, the hats they can put on."
Innovation is all about people. It is about the roles people can play,
the hats they can put on, the personas they can adopt. It is not just
about the luminaries of innovation like Thomas Edison, or celebrity
CEOs like Steve Jobs and Jeff Immelt. It is about the unsung heroes
who work on the front lines of entrepreneurship in action, the
countless people and teams who make innovation happen day in and day
out.
At Ideo, we've developed 10 people-centric tools, talents, or personas
for innovation. Although the list does not presume to be
comprehensive, it does aspire to expand your repertoire. We've found
that adopting one or more of these roles can help teams express a
different point of view and create a broader range of innovative
solutions.
And by adopting some of these innovation personas, you'll have a
chance to put the devil's advocate in his place. So when someone says,
"Let me play devil's advocate for a minute" and starts to smother a
fragile new idea, someone else in the room may be emboldened to speak
up and say, "Let me be an anthropologist for a moment, because I
personally have watched our customers suffering silently with this
issue for months, and this new idea just might help them." And if that
one voice gives courage to others, maybe someone else will add, "Let's
think like an experimenter for a moment. We could prototype this idea
in a week and get a sense of whether we're onto something good." The
devil's advocate may never go away, but on a good day, the 10 personas
can keep him in his place. Or tell him to go to hell.
The Learning Personas
Individuals and organizations need to constantly gather new sources of
information in order to expand their knowledge and grow, so the first
three personas are learning roles. These personas are driven by the
idea that no matter how successful a company currently is, no one can
afford to be complacent. The world is changing at an accelerated pace,
and today's great idea may be tomorrow's anachronism. The learning
roles help keep your team from becoming too internally focused and
remind the organization not to be so smug about what you know. People
who adopt the learning roles are humble enough to question their own
worldview, and in doing so, they remain open to new insights every
day.
1. The Anthropologist brings new learning and insights into the
organization by observing human behavior and developing a deep
understanding of how people interact physically and emotionally with
products, services, and spaces. When an Ideo human-factors person
camps out in a hospital room for 48 hours with an elderly patient
undergoing surgery, she is living the life of the anthropologist and
helping to develop new health-care services.
2. The Experimenter prototypes new ideas continuously, learning by a
process of enlightened trial and error. The Experimenter takes
calculated risks to achieve success through a state of
"experimentation as implementation." When BMW bypassed all its
traditional advertising channels and created theater-quality short
films for bmwfilms.com, no one knew whether the experiment would
succeed. Its runaway success underscores the rewards that flow to
Experimenters.
3. The Cross-Pollinator explores other industries and cultures, then
translates those findings and revelations to fit the unique needs of
your enterprise. An open-minded Japanese businesswoman was taken with
the generic beer she found in a U.S. supermarket. She brought the idea
home, and it eventually became the "no brand" Mujirushi Ryohin chain,
a 300-store, billion-dollar retail empire. That's the leverage of a
Cross-Pollinator.
The Organizing Personas
The next three personas are organizing roles, played by individuals
who are savvy about the often counterintuitive process of how
organizations move ideas forward. At Ideo, we used to believe that the
ideas should speak for themselves. Now we understand what the Hurdler,
the Collaborator, and the Director have known all along: that even the
best ideas must continuously compete for time, attention, and
resources. Those who adopt these organizing roles don't dismiss the
process of budget and resource allocation as "politics" or "red tape."
They recognize it as a complex game of chess, and they play to win.
4. The Hurdler knows that the path to innovation is strewn with
obstacles and develops a knack for overcoming or outsmarting those
roadblocks. When the 3M worker who invented masking tape decades ago
had his idea initially rejected, he refused to give up. Staying within
his $100 authorization limit, he signed a series of $99 purchase
orders to pay for critical equipment needed to produce the first
batch. His perseverance paid off, and 3M has reaped billions of
dollars in cumulative profits because an energetic Hurdler was willing
to bend the rules.
5. The Collaborator helps bring eclectic groups together, and often
leads from the middle of the pack to create new combinations and
multidisciplinary solutions. Not long ago, Kraft Foods and Safeway sat
down to figure out how to knock down the traditional walls between
supplier and retailer. One strategy--a way to streamline the transfer
of goods from one to the other--didn't just save labor and carrying
costs. The increased efficiency sent sales of Capri Sun juice drinks,
for example, soaring by 167% during one promotion.
6. The Director not only gathers together a talented cast and crew but
also helps to spark their creative talents. When a creative Mattel
executive assembles an ad hoc team of designers and project leaders,
sequesters them for 12 weeks, and ends up with a new $100 million
girls'-toy platform in three months, she is a role model for Directors
everywhere.
The Building Personas
The four remaining personas are building roles that apply insights
from the learning roles and channel the empowerment from the
organizing roles to make innovation happen. When people adopt the
building personas, they stamp their mark on your organization. People
in these roles are highly visible, so you'll often find them right at
the heart of the action.
7. The Experience Architect designs compelling experiences that go
beyond mere functionality to connect at a deeper level with customers'
latent or expressed needs. When Cold Stone Creamery turns the
preparation of a frozen dessert into a fun, dramatic performance, it
is designing a successful new customer experience. The premium prices
and marketing buzz that follow are rewards associated with playing the
role of the Experience Architect.
8. The Set Designer creates a stage on which innovation team members
can do their best work, transforming physical environments into
powerful tools to influence behavior and attitude. Companies such as
Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic recognize that the right office
environments can help nourish and sustain a creative culture. When the
Cleveland Indians discovered a renewed winning ability in a brand-new
stadium, they demonstrated the value of the Set Designer.
Organizations that tap into the power of the Set Designer sometimes
discover remarkable performance improvements that make all the space
changes worthwhile.
9. The Caregiver builds on the metaphor of a health-care professional
to deliver customer care in a manner that goes beyond mere service.
Good Caregivers anticipate customer needs and are ready to look after
them. When you see a service that's really in demand, there's usually
a Caregiver at the heart of it. Best Cellars, a retailer that takes
the mystery and snobbery out of wine and makes it simple and fun, is
demonstrating the Caregiver role--while earning a solid profit at the
same time.
10. The Storyteller builds both internal morale and external awareness
through compelling narra-tives that communicate a fundamental human
value or reinforce a specific cultural trait. Companies from Dell to
Starbucks have lots of corporate legends that support their brands and
build camaraderie within their teams. Medtronic, celebrated for its
product innovation and consistently high growth, reinforces its
culture with straight-from-the-heart storytelling--patients' firsthand
narratives of how the products changed or even saved their lives.
Note:
The appeal of the personas is that they work. Not in theory or in the
classroom but in the unforgiving marketplace. Ideo has battle-tested
them thousands of times in a real-world laboratory for innovation. The
personas are about "being innovation" rather than merely "doing
innovation." Take on one or more of these roles, and you'll be taking
a conscious step toward becoming more of an innovator in your daily
life.
The 10 Faces of Innovation
By Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman
In an exclusive book excerpt from the general manager of Ideo, we meet
the personality types it takes to keep creativity thriving--and the
devil's advocate at bay.
We've all been there: the pivotal meeting in which you push forward a
new idea or proposal you're passionate about. A fast-paced discussion
leads to an upwelling of support that seems about to reach critical
mass. And then in one disastrous moment, your hopes are dashed when
someone weighs in with those fateful words: "Let me just play devil's
advocate for a minute. . . ."
Having invoked the awesome protective power of that seemingly
innocuous phrase, the speaker now feels entirely free to take potshots
at your idea and does so with impunity. Because he's not really your
harshest critic. Instead, he's essentially saying, "The devil made me
do it." Devil's advocates remove themselves from the equation and
sidestep individual responsibility for the verbal attack. But before
they're done, they've torched your fledgling concept.
The devil's-advocate gambit is extraordinary but certainly not
uncommon since it strikes so regularly in the project rooms and
boardrooms of corporate America. What's truly astonishing is how much
punch is packed into that simple phrase. In fact, the devil's advocate
may be the biggest innovation killer in America today. What makes this
negative persona so dangerous is that it is such a subtle threat.
Every day, thousands of great new ideas, concepts, and plans are
nipped in the bud by devil's advocates.
Why is this persona so damning? Because a devil's advocate encourages
idea wreckers to assume the most negative possible perspective, one
that sees only the downside, the problems, the disasters-in-waiting.
Once those floodgates open, they can drown a new initiative in
negativity.
Why should you care? And why do I believe this problem is so
important? Because innovation is the lifeblood of all organizations,
and the devil's advocate is toxic to your cause. This is no trivial
matter. There is no longer any serious debate about the primacy of
innovation in the health and future strength of an organization.
As the general manager of Ideo, I have worked with clients from
Singapore to San Francisco to São Paulo, and witnessed firsthand how
innovation has become recognized as a pivotal management tool across
virtually all industries and market segments. And while we at Ideo
used to spend the majority of our time in the world of product-based
innovation, we have more recently come around to seeing innovation as
a tool for transforming the entire culture of organizations. Sure, a
great product can be one important element in the formula for business
success, but companies that want to succeed today need much more. They
need innovation at every point of the compass, in all aspects of the
business, and in every team member.
Building an environment fully engaged in positive change, and a
culture rich in creativity and renewal, means creating a company with
360 degrees of innovation. And companies that want to succeed at
innovation will need new insights, new viewpoints, and new roles.
All good working definitions of innovation pair ideas with action, the
spark with the fire. Innovators don't just have their heads in the
clouds. They also have their feet on the ground. The company 3M, one
of the first to fully embrace innovation as the essence of its
corporate brand, defines it as "new ideas--plus action or
implementation--which result in an improvement, a gain, or a profit."
It is not enough to just have a good idea. Only when you act, when you
implement, do you truly innovate. Ideas. Action. Implementation. Gain.
Profit.
All good words, of course, but there's still one piece left out.
People. That's why I prefer the InnovationNetwork consultancy's
definition: "People implementing new ideas that create value." The
classic 3M definition might leave you with the impression that, as a
bumper sticker might put it, "Innovation Happens." But unfortunately,
there's no spontaneous combustion in the business world. Innovation is
definitely not self-starting or self-perpetuating. People make it
happen through their imagination, willpower, and perseverance. And
whether you are a team member, a group leader, or an executive, your
only real path to innovation is through people. You can't really do it
alone.
"Innovation is all about the roles people can play, the hats they can put on."
Innovation is all about people. It is about the roles people can play,
the hats they can put on, the personas they can adopt. It is not just
about the luminaries of innovation like Thomas Edison, or celebrity
CEOs like Steve Jobs and Jeff Immelt. It is about the unsung heroes
who work on the front lines of entrepreneurship in action, the
countless people and teams who make innovation happen day in and day
out.
At Ideo, we've developed 10 people-centric tools, talents, or personas
for innovation. Although the list does not presume to be
comprehensive, it does aspire to expand your repertoire. We've found
that adopting one or more of these roles can help teams express a
different point of view and create a broader range of innovative
solutions.
And by adopting some of these innovation personas, you'll have a
chance to put the devil's advocate in his place. So when someone says,
"Let me play devil's advocate for a minute" and starts to smother a
fragile new idea, someone else in the room may be emboldened to speak
up and say, "Let me be an anthropologist for a moment, because I
personally have watched our customers suffering silently with this
issue for months, and this new idea just might help them." And if that
one voice gives courage to others, maybe someone else will add, "Let's
think like an experimenter for a moment. We could prototype this idea
in a week and get a sense of whether we're onto something good." The
devil's advocate may never go away, but on a good day, the 10 personas
can keep him in his place. Or tell him to go to hell.
The Learning Personas
Individuals and organizations need to constantly gather new sources of
information in order to expand their knowledge and grow, so the first
three personas are learning roles. These personas are driven by the
idea that no matter how successful a company currently is, no one can
afford to be complacent. The world is changing at an accelerated pace,
and today's great idea may be tomorrow's anachronism. The learning
roles help keep your team from becoming too internally focused and
remind the organization not to be so smug about what you know. People
who adopt the learning roles are humble enough to question their own
worldview, and in doing so, they remain open to new insights every
day.
1. The Anthropologist brings new learning and insights into the
organization by observing human behavior and developing a deep
understanding of how people interact physically and emotionally with
products, services, and spaces. When an Ideo human-factors person
camps out in a hospital room for 48 hours with an elderly patient
undergoing surgery, she is living the life of the anthropologist and
helping to develop new health-care services.
2. The Experimenter prototypes new ideas continuously, learning by a
process of enlightened trial and error. The Experimenter takes
calculated risks to achieve success through a state of
"experimentation as implementation." When BMW bypassed all its
traditional advertising channels and created theater-quality short
films for bmwfilms.com, no one knew whether the experiment would
succeed. Its runaway success underscores the rewards that flow to
Experimenters.
3. The Cross-Pollinator explores other industries and cultures, then
translates those findings and revelations to fit the unique needs of
your enterprise. An open-minded Japanese businesswoman was taken with
the generic beer she found in a U.S. supermarket. She brought the idea
home, and it eventually became the "no brand" Mujirushi Ryohin chain,
a 300-store, billion-dollar retail empire. That's the leverage of a
Cross-Pollinator.
The Organizing Personas
The next three personas are organizing roles, played by individuals
who are savvy about the often counterintuitive process of how
organizations move ideas forward. At Ideo, we used to believe that the
ideas should speak for themselves. Now we understand what the Hurdler,
the Collaborator, and the Director have known all along: that even the
best ideas must continuously compete for time, attention, and
resources. Those who adopt these organizing roles don't dismiss the
process of budget and resource allocation as "politics" or "red tape."
They recognize it as a complex game of chess, and they play to win.
4. The Hurdler knows that the path to innovation is strewn with
obstacles and develops a knack for overcoming or outsmarting those
roadblocks. When the 3M worker who invented masking tape decades ago
had his idea initially rejected, he refused to give up. Staying within
his $100 authorization limit, he signed a series of $99 purchase
orders to pay for critical equipment needed to produce the first
batch. His perseverance paid off, and 3M has reaped billions of
dollars in cumulative profits because an energetic Hurdler was willing
to bend the rules.
5. The Collaborator helps bring eclectic groups together, and often
leads from the middle of the pack to create new combinations and
multidisciplinary solutions. Not long ago, Kraft Foods and Safeway sat
down to figure out how to knock down the traditional walls between
supplier and retailer. One strategy--a way to streamline the transfer
of goods from one to the other--didn't just save labor and carrying
costs. The increased efficiency sent sales of Capri Sun juice drinks,
for example, soaring by 167% during one promotion.
6. The Director not only gathers together a talented cast and crew but
also helps to spark their creative talents. When a creative Mattel
executive assembles an ad hoc team of designers and project leaders,
sequesters them for 12 weeks, and ends up with a new $100 million
girls'-toy platform in three months, she is a role model for Directors
everywhere.
The Building Personas
The four remaining personas are building roles that apply insights
from the learning roles and channel the empowerment from the
organizing roles to make innovation happen. When people adopt the
building personas, they stamp their mark on your organization. People
in these roles are highly visible, so you'll often find them right at
the heart of the action.
7. The Experience Architect designs compelling experiences that go
beyond mere functionality to connect at a deeper level with customers'
latent or expressed needs. When Cold Stone Creamery turns the
preparation of a frozen dessert into a fun, dramatic performance, it
is designing a successful new customer experience. The premium prices
and marketing buzz that follow are rewards associated with playing the
role of the Experience Architect.
8. The Set Designer creates a stage on which innovation team members
can do their best work, transforming physical environments into
powerful tools to influence behavior and attitude. Companies such as
Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic recognize that the right office
environments can help nourish and sustain a creative culture. When the
Cleveland Indians discovered a renewed winning ability in a brand-new
stadium, they demonstrated the value of the Set Designer.
Organizations that tap into the power of the Set Designer sometimes
discover remarkable performance improvements that make all the space
changes worthwhile.
9. The Caregiver builds on the metaphor of a health-care professional
to deliver customer care in a manner that goes beyond mere service.
Good Caregivers anticipate customer needs and are ready to look after
them. When you see a service that's really in demand, there's usually
a Caregiver at the heart of it. Best Cellars, a retailer that takes
the mystery and snobbery out of wine and makes it simple and fun, is
demonstrating the Caregiver role--while earning a solid profit at the
same time.
10. The Storyteller builds both internal morale and external awareness
through compelling narra-tives that communicate a fundamental human
value or reinforce a specific cultural trait. Companies from Dell to
Starbucks have lots of corporate legends that support their brands and
build camaraderie within their teams. Medtronic, celebrated for its
product innovation and consistently high growth, reinforces its
culture with straight-from-the-heart storytelling--patients' firsthand
narratives of how the products changed or even saved their lives.
Note:
The appeal of the personas is that they work. Not in theory or in the
classroom but in the unforgiving marketplace. Ideo has battle-tested
them thousands of times in a real-world laboratory for innovation. The
personas are about "being innovation" rather than merely "doing
innovation." Take on one or more of these roles, and you'll be taking
a conscious step toward becoming more of an innovator in your daily
life.
