How do innovators think?

What makes visionary entrepreneurs such as Apple's Steve Jobs, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and P&G's A.G. Lafley tick?

In a question-and-answer session with Harvard Business Review contributing editor Bronwyn Fryer, professors Jeff Dyer, of Brigham Young University, and Hal Gregersen, of the international business school INSEAD, explain how the "Innovators' DNA" works.

Q: You conducted a six-year study surveying 3,000 creative executives and conducting an additional 500 individual interviews. During this study you found five "discovery skills" that distinguish them. What are these skills?

Dyer: The first skill is what we call "associating." It allows creative people to make connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas. The second skill is "questioning" — an ability to ask "what if," "why" and "why not" questions that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture. The third is the ability to closely observe details, particularly of people's behavior. Another skill is the ability to experiment. And finally, they are really good at networking with smart people who have little in common with them, but from whom they can learn.

Q: Which of these skills do you think is the most important?

Dyer: Overall, associating is the key skill because new ideas aren't created without connecting problems or ideas in ways they haven't been before. The other behaviors are inputs that trigger associating.

Gregersen: You might summarize all of the skills we've noted in one word: "inquisitiveness." I spent 20 years studying great global leaders, and that was the big common denominator.

Q: How else do you think innovative entrepreneurs differ from average executives?

Dyer: We asked all the executives in our study to tell us about how they came up with a strategic or innovative idea. That one was easy for the creative executives, but surprisingly difficult for the more traditional ones. All the innovative entrepreneurs also talked about being triggered, or having what you might call "eureka" moments. They would use phrases like "I saw someone doing this, or I overheard someone say that, and that's when it hit me."

Q: But since most executives are very smart, why do you think they can't, or don't, think inquisitively?

Gregersen: If you look at 4-year-olds, they are constantly asking questions. But by the time they are 6 ½ years old, they stop asking questions because they quickly learn that teachers value the right answers more than provocative questions. High-school students rarely show inquisitiveness.

And by the time they're grown up and are in corporate settings, they have already had the curiosity drummed out of them. Eighty percent of executives spend less than 20 percent of their time on discovering new ideas. Unless, of course, they work for a company like Apple or Google.

Distributed by

The New York Times Syndicate.