Innovators are constantly asking why things aren’t done differently #innopints

The title of this blog post is a quote from an article in The Economist: Think Different, that asks whether innovation can be learned. It provides a whistle-stop summary, nothing earth shatteringly new, but it does identify five traits, or habits of mind, of disruptive innovators. They are:

1. associating   2. questioning   3. observing   4. networking   5. experimenting

Sounds good to me. That said, to me they also sound very familiar traits, the sorts of traits in fact that I’d expect to find in a good researcher, or maybe I’m just hearing what I want to hear. I don’t know.

The same article also states:

For all their reputation as misfits, innovators tend to be great networkers. But they hang around gabfests to pick up ideas, not to win contracts.

So gabfest it is. Next Wednesday a couple of misfits/innovators/thinkers/people I knows via twitter [*delete as appropriate] are going to get together for a pint, at The White Hart in Dartington, to finally meet in real life and to debate and discuss innovation. Or not. Who knows what we’ll actually discuss but I’ve been looking for a reason to meet up for a while and this sounds good to me. To date the definite attendees are myself, Martin Howitt and Fergus Bisset – I’m also hopeful that Carl Haggerty might make it. If anyone else is interested in joining us please shout – here or on twitter #innopints and I’m sure it’ll be a lively discussion, you never know we might even make it a regular thing!

(cc) photo flickr by Seth1492