The Innovator's DNA
Updated 2026-08-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
A research program by Clayton Christensen, Jeff Dyer, and Hal Gregersen, published in The Innovator's DNA, which studied founders and executives to identify the behaviors that generate novel ideas. They found five discovery skills: associating, or connecting ideas across domains; questioning, or challenging assumptions; observing, or watching customers and the world closely; networking, or seeking ideas from people unlike oneself; and experimenting, or testing by doing. The key qualification is that these are behaviors rather than traits, and can therefore be practiced.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Skill self-audit: score yourself on each of the five behaviors to find your weakest link. - Daily drill: attach one question or one cross-domain observation to an existing routine. - Network widening: deliberately seek input from people outside your field every week.
Anchor fast decisions
Novel ideas are recombinations, and the supply of raw material for recombination depends on what a person has encountered. Questioning breaks existing assumptions, observing and networking import material from outside, and experimenting tests combinations cheaply. Because each behavior increases the flow of unfamiliar inputs, practicing them raises the base rate of useful novelty instead of waiting for inspiration to arrive.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- hbr.orghttps://hbr.org/2009/12/the-innovators-dnaverified
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