What are the personal characteristics of successful innovators?

Anyone can change his or her behavior to improve creative impact in a company, according to some new research by Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen which included a six-year study surveying 3,000 creative executives and conducting an additional 500 individual interviews they found five ‘discovery skills’ that distinguish them:

Associating

Most successful innovators tend to be very good at seeing connections between seemingly disparate ideas.

Questioning

The ability to ask “what if”, “why”, and “why not” questions that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture.

Observation

Attention to details, most notably in other people’s behavior.

Experiment

Always try new things by constantly exploring new worlds.

Networking

Ability to talk and learn from people they have nothing in common with.

Let’s call this the innovators code.