Finding true innovators to run your strategically significant projects is tough. After all, it’s not easy to find individuals who can take an idea from concept and gestation to roaring success.
It’s bloody hard to be on the bleeding edge of innovation. Creating the future is always uncomfortable, and from day to day it usually feels like failing, until hindsight reveals how far you’ve come. (Scott Berkun’s classic book The Myths of Innovation is a must-read for those wishing to understand the nature of innovation.)
Alas, the world is full of Forrest Gumps who were present, almost accidentally, at key or successful moments in history. Unlike Gump, many of these pretenders attribute success to their own skills, hubris that often stands in the way of your innovation as surely as their inflated salary requirements impoverish a new initiative.
So what do Real Deal Innovators look like? More importantly, how do you interview them to determine if they indeed have innate innovative skills that can help your team or organization?
Innovators spend their time in the trenches
Real Deal innovators spend their time in the trenches. They are constantly experimenting and challenged by the imperative of producing results. Real innovators know that most ideas don’t survive contact with reality. But parts do. So they try things, fail, learn, refine and improve.
To uncover this aspect of innovation, during an interview, ask something like: “Tell us about a time a project you worked on failed, and whether something good (however small) came out of it.”
Innovators put their ideas into practice
Real Deal innovators put ideas into practice more than peers, extending their expertise far beyond everyone in their field. Renowned physicist Neils Bohr once said, “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
For a guide to judging someone’s expertise (especially if you’re not an expert in their field), consider this brief article.
Innovators don’t deal with red tape
Real Deal innovators likely aren’t working in a place where ideas have to be approved by committee. Nor do they spend hour after hour in meetings. And they certainly don’t spend all day reporting on results instead of producing them. Innovators don’t necessarily shirk these responsibilities, but they certainly don’t like doing them. So innovators will tend to move on from any job burdened by bureaucracy and red tape, especially if either or both prevents them from doing work they need to do.
To interview for this aspect of innovation, ask something like: “Break out where you spend your time between reporting, budget, administrative and experimentation.”
Innovators rely on their metrics
Real Deal innovators allow the “tyranny of daily results” to drive their innovation, measuring themselves against hard metrics. They don't come up with ideas and then spend time giving speeches about it. Instead, they distill actionable takeaways, changes and innovations from the data. Spending time in the trenches means they know when something isn’t working and have the numbers to prove it. Recognizing and acknowledging those failures help Real Deal Innovators successfully pivot and tweak (and when to abandon) an initiative.
Ultimately, Real Deal innovators are effective and knowledgeable. So when you’re interviewing, keep an ear open for any mention of metrics, especially in follow-up questions. Empty suits and hacks speak in platitudes; effective executives speak in specifics, recalling metrics they’re intimate with to answer your questions with specificity.
Innovators generally aren’t famous (and aren’t trying to be)
Why are Real Deal innovators not necessarily widely known? Probably because being famous is a reverse predictor—it usually takes time and effort to build fame. And many innovators would rather spend theirs on innovation. So with few exceptions, they don’t speak at the cool conferences. They may earn the respect of industry insiders for their work, but they don’t willingly engage with the PR machine.
When interviewing, don’t assume that people who are better known are more skilled. Internet fame, high-profile visibility and conference keynoting don’t necessarily mean someone is better at doing the work. It may only mean someone is better at self-promotion.
So how do you distinguish the Real Deal innovators from poseurs and pretenders? Try these:
- Listen for the daily grind. Do they talk about the data, the metrics and the results?
- Listen for the experimentation, the risk and the failure.
- Listen for the grit and resilience to try again.
I’d like to leave with two final words of caution: 1) Run from people who claim their big success came easily, with no moments of uncertainty, and 2) When all is said and done, ask yourself, “Am I really ready to put up with a Real Deal Innovator?”
