Joe: Most people think innovators like Steve Jobs are born, not made. A kind of creative genius sent from the heavens. Lewis: Oh, absolutely. We see the turtleneck and the iconic product launch, and we just assume it's magic. Some people just have it, and the rest of us don't. Joe: But what if I told you research on 117 pairs of twins shows creativity is only about 30% genetic? That means 70% of your innovative ability is up for grabs. Today, we're grabbing it. Lewis: Whoa, hold on. Seventy percent? That feels like a ridiculously high number. You're telling me that the difference between me and, say, the person who invented Post-it Notes is mostly practice? Joe: That surprising fact comes from the research behind a book that really changed the game: The Innovator's DNA by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and the late, great Clayton Christensen. Lewis: Christensen, the guy who came up with the whole theory of 'disruptive innovation,' right? So this is like the prequel—not just what disruption is, but who does it and how. Joe: Exactly. And what's fascinating is that the whole project started because Christensen himself, the guru of disruption, admitted he didn't know where disruptive ideas actually came from. So he and the team launched this massive, eight-year study to find out. Lewis: I love that. The expert admitting he doesn't have the answer. That's the start of a real adventure. Okay, so if it's not genetics, what is it? What's this 'Innovator's DNA'?

Joe: The authors found that disruptive innovators aren't defined by a single trait, but by five core discovery skills they practice relentlessly. Four are behaviors, and one is a cognitive skill they fuel. The behaviors are: Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting. Lewis: Okay, those sound like pretty standard business verbs. I'm not blown away yet. What’s the secret sauce? Joe: The secret sauce is how those four behaviors feed the fifth skill, the cognitive one, which is Associating. This is the ability to connect seemingly unrelated ideas, questions, or problems from different fields. It's the brain's superpower. Innovators are constantly collecting new dots through questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting. Then, their brain connects those dots to draw a new picture. Lewis: That sounds a bit abstract. Give me an example. How does this actually work in the real world? Joe: The most famous example, of course, is Steve Jobs. But let's look at him not as a mythical genius, but as a master practitioner of these skills. When he was designing the first Macintosh, he wanted it to be beautiful and easy to use. Where did that come from? It was an association of wildly different experiences. Lewis: Right, everyone knows he was a visionary. Joe: But the vision came from the dots he collected. Dot one: after dropping out of college, he randomly took a calligraphy class. That was Experimenting. He learned about serif and sans-serif fonts, about what makes typography great. It was a useless skill for a tech guy at the time. Dot two: years later, he visited Xerox PARC. That was Observing. He saw their early graphical user interface—windows, icons, a mouse. It was clunky, but he saw its potential. Dot three: his Zen practice. He was obsessed with simplicity and quiet. He even demanded the Apple II have no fan because the noise disrupted his meditation. That was a personal passion. Lewis: Calligraphy, a research lab, and Zen meditation. That’s a weird mix. Joe: Exactly! A typical executive wouldn't have that mix. But Jobs’s brain, trained in Associating, connected these unrelated dots. The calligraphy class led to the Mac being the first computer with beautiful, multiple typefaces. The Xerox PARC observation led to the intuitive, user-friendly interface. The Zen practice led to the clean, minimalist design. He didn't invent any of those things individually. He synthesized them. He connected the unconnected. Lewis: Okay, but that's Steve Jobs. It's easy to connect the dots in hindsight. The book gets some heat from readers for focusing so much on him. How does this apply to a normal person who isn't a world-famous CEO? Joe: That's a fair critique, and it's one the authors address. The point isn't to be Steve Jobs, but to act like him in this one specific way: actively collect diverse experiences. The genius wasn't in having the experiences, but in the discipline of collecting them and the mental habit of connecting them. Let's take a different story. Ratan Tata, the chairman of India's massive Tata Group. Lewis: A much less-known name for most of our listeners, which is probably a good thing. Joe: One day in Mumbai, during a torrential downpour, he was driving his car and saw a family of four precariously balanced on a single scooter. The father driving, a child standing in front of him, the wife sitting behind holding another baby. They were all soaked to the bone, and it was incredibly dangerous. Lewis: Wow, that's a powerful image. It’s heartbreaking. Joe: A typical executive might see that and think, "That's a shame," and move on. But Tata, using his innovator's DNA, engaged in two skills at once. First, Observing—he truly saw the struggle and the need. Second, and more importantly, Questioning. He didn't ask, "How can we sell more of our existing cars?" He asked a profoundly simple and human question: "Why can't this family own a car?" Lewis: That's a totally different frame. It’s not about the product; it’s about the people. Joe: Precisely. That single question, born from empathy and observation, sparked the entire project to create the Tata Nano—the world's cheapest car. The goal was to create a safer, affordable alternative for that family on the scooter. The innovation wasn't just a new car; it was a response to a deeply human problem that he only saw because he was looking and questioning. Lewis: I can see how that’s a skill. It’s not just observing the world, but asking the 'why' behind what you see. It's a shift from passive looking to active inquiry. Joe: And that's the core of it. Innovators live in a state of perpetual inquiry. They ask questions that challenge the status quo. Think of Edwin Land, the inventor of Polaroid. His three-year-old daughter asked him, "Why do I have to wait to see the picture?" A child's question! But it challenged the fundamental assumption of the entire photography industry. And boom—the Polaroid camera was born. Lewis: It's amazing how many of these breakthroughs start with a question that sounds almost naive. "Why can't a computer be quiet?" "Why can't a family afford a car?" "Why do we have to wait for a photo?" Joe: Because those are the questions that cut through the layers of "the way things have always been done." And that's a skill anyone, at any level, can start practicing today.

Joe: Exactly. And once you have leaders who master these personal skills, the next question is, how do you build an entire company that thinks this way? You can't just rely on one or two brilliant people. That's where the book's 3P framework comes in: you build it with the right People, Processes, and Philosophies. Lewis: Okay, so we're moving from the individual innovator's DNA to the organization's DNA. This is where it gets tricky for most companies, right? They hire one "Chief Innovation Officer" and think the job is done. Joe: And that almost never works. The book argues that truly innovative companies hardwire the five discovery skills into their very structure. Let's focus on Processes and Philosophies, because that's where the magic happens. A great example is Amazon. Lewis: The everything store. Their innovation is relentless. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's a little scary. Joe: Well, their internal system is a masterclass in the 3Ps. For Processes, they institutionalize questioning. They have a famous process called the "Five Whys," which they stole from Toyota. Anytime there's a problem, big or small, they ask "why" five times to get to the root cause. Lewis: I think I've heard of this. It's like peeling an onion. Joe: It is. The book gives a great story. An associate in a fulfillment center injured his thumb on a conveyor belt. Jeff Bezos himself led the Five Whys exercise. 1. Why did he hurt his thumb? Because it got caught in the conveyor. 2. Why was it on the conveyor? He was chasing his bag. 3. Why was his bag on the conveyor? He put it there, and the belt started unexpectedly. 4. Why did he put his bag there? He was using the conveyor as a makeshift table. 5. Why did he need a table? Because there was no place near his workstation to put his personal items. Lewis: Ah, so the root cause wasn't "employee error." It was a lack of a simple table. Joe: Exactly. They didn't blame the employee; they fixed the system. They provided tables. That's a process that forces deep questioning and prevents superficial solutions. It's a company-wide habit. Lewis: That's a powerful process. But what about the philosophy? That feels squishier. How do you build a philosophy? Joe: You live it from the top down. Amazon's philosophy is all about experimentation and taking smart risks. Bezos is famous for two ideas. First, the "Two Pizza Team" rule. Lewis: I love this one. If you can't feed a team with two large pizzas, the team is too big. Joe: It's a simple rule with a profound impact. It keeps teams small, agile, and autonomous. It allows Amazon to have hundreds of these small teams running experiments simultaneously, exploring what Bezos calls "blind alleys." Most will fail, but the ones that succeed can become massive new businesses, like Amazon Web Services. Lewis: Which brings us to the risk. That's the total opposite of most corporate cultures, which feel like an 'Institutional No.' You have to get 15 levels of approval just to buy a new stapler. How does Amazon manage the risk of all these experiments? Aren't they incredibly expensive? Joe: This is the most crucial part of their philosophy. Bezos has a famous quote: "If you’re not making some significant mistakes, then you won’t be doing a good job for our shareholders because you won’t be swinging for the fences." Their philosophy is what he calls the "Institutional Yes." They are culturally biased to greenlight ideas and try things. Lewis: But 'swinging for the fences' sounds like you could also strike out and lose a billion dollars. Joe: Here’s the counter-intuitive part. They manage risk by making the experiments small and fast. An A/B test on their website costs almost nothing. A "beta" launch of a new feature to 1% of users is a low-cost way to get real-world data. The book argues this is actually less risky than the traditional corporate model of spending two years and $50 million on a single, massive product launch that might completely flop. They are de-risking innovation by making failure cheap. Lewis: So the philosophy is: fail often, but fail small and fail fast. And learn from every single failure. Joe: You've got it. It's a philosophy that champions Experimenting. It's baked into their DNA. They hire people who are curious (People), they give them structures to test ideas (Processes), and they have a culture that rewards smart attempts, not just successful outcomes (Philosophies).

Lewis: So when you put it all together, it seems the big idea isn't just about having a 'Eureka!' moment. It's about deliberately changing your behavior—acting like a detective, an anthropologist, a tinkerer—to constantly feed your brain new, unconnected dots. And then building a system around you that encourages everyone else to do the same. Joe: Precisely. The book's ultimate message is 'Act different to think different.' It’s not about waiting for inspiration to strike like lightning; it’s about creating the conditions for inspiration. And that starts with the courage to ask a naive question, to try a weird experiment, or to talk to someone completely outside your field. Lewis: It reframes innovation from a result to a practice. It's something you do, every day, not something you are. Joe: And that's incredibly empowering. It means anyone can get better at it. The authors make a strong case that this isn't just for business. Social innovators, artists, scientists—they all use these same skills to solve the world's toughest problems. Lewis: So what's one small thing someone can do this week to start building their innovator's DNA? Something practical they can try after listening to this. Joe: I love this one from the book. Just for one day, track your Question-to-Answer ratio. In meetings, in conversations, with your family. Consciously try to ask more questions than you give answers. It's a simple behavioral shift that forces you out of execution mode and into a discovery mindset. Lewis: That’s a great challenge. It’s so simple but I can already feel how uncomfortable it would be. My instinct is always to have the answer. I love that. Try it out and let us know how it feels. What's the most powerful question you asked this week? Share it with us. Joe: This is Aibrary, signing off.