Perfect Casting To truly unlock your employees' talents, you need to understand who they are and what roles best suit them.
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Worried about your product line in an increasingly competitiveglobal marketplace? It's time to spot the innovators in yourmidst. In his most recent book, The Ten Faces of Innovation, author TomKelley talks about 10 roles employees can play to spur innovationat the conference room table. We asked Kelley, general manager ofIdeo, a Palo Alto, California, industrial design and human factorsfirm, about the top three innovative personality types described inhis book.
Entrepreneur: It seems like theAnthropologist--someone who observes customer behavior to uncovernew insights--is your favorite type of innovator. Is thattrue?
Tom Kelly: There is something almost disarming to meabout the anthropolo-gist. Often, when [they] come back with afinding, you recognize it instantly as [being] correct. It'slike, "Why didn't I think of that?" Latent customerneeds-that's what the anthropologist is all about. I believeit's the single biggest source of innovation in our firm.
Let's talk about the experimenter. Who is thisperson?
Kelley: The experimenter [learns] by enlightened trialand error. In the book, I talk about people who are remark-ablynimble and quick at doing experiments. If you can develop a cultureor a process in which your organization conducts more experimentsfaster and cheaper than the people down the street, then you canlearn at a faster rate, which means you can keep ahead of thecompetition.
And the cross-pollinator?
Kelley: [This is] somebody who looks across industries[and] geographies, [who] seeks learning in places that people tendnot to look. [They] say, "How is our business like thatbusiness? What can we learn?" The huge successes are the oneswho crossed the line, who came up with a business model or an ideathat didn't live in their industry. The cross-pollinator is ahuge, untapped way to help your company learn.
How can entrepreneurs think differently and spot theseinnovative types?
Kelley: Eliminate [negative thinking] from [your]vocabulary and frame up more positive discussions about ideas.[It's] about creating a more idea-friendly environment in whichpeople can discuss things openly, and then build on the ideas ofothers.
