In Tom Kelly's latest book "The 10 Faces of Innovation" internal personas are used to help illustrate traits critical in building an innovation culture. Here's how they break down:
The Learning Personas
Individuals and organizations need to constantly gather new sources of
information in order to expand their knowledge and grow, so the first
three personas are learning roles. These personas are driven by the
idea that no matter how successful a company currently is, no one can
afford to be complacent. The world is changing at an accelerated pace,
and today's great idea may be tomorrow's anachronism. The learning
roles help keep your team from becoming too internally focused and
remind the organization not to be so smug about what you know. People
who adopt the learning roles are humble enough to question their own
worldview, and in doing so, they remain open to new insights every day.
1. The Anthropologist brings new learning and
insights into the organization by observing human behavior and
developing a deep understanding of how people interact physically and
emotionally with products, services, and spaces. When an Ideo
human-factors person camps out in a hospital room for 48 hours with an
elderly patient undergoing surgery, she is living the life of the
anthropologist and helping to develop new health-care services.
2. The Experimenter prototypes new ideas
continuously, learning by a process of enlightened trial and error. The
Experimenter takes calculated risks to achieve success through a state
of "experimentation as implementation." When BMW bypassed all its
traditional advertising channels and created theater-quality short
films for bmwfilms.com, no one knew whether the experiment would
succeed. Its runaway success underscores the rewards that flow to
Experimenters.
3. The Cross-Pollinator explores other
industries and cultures, then translates those findings and revelations
to fit the unique needs of your enterprise. An open-minded Japanese
businesswoman was taken with the generic beer she found in a U.S.
supermarket. She brought the idea home, and it eventually became the
"no brand" Mujirushi Ryohin chain, a 300-store, billion-dollar retail
empire. That's the leverage of a Cross-Pollinator.
The Organizing Personas
The next three personas are organizing roles, played by individuals who
are savvy about the often counterintuitive process of how organizations
move ideas forward. At Ideo, we used to believe that the ideas should
speak for themselves. Now we understand what the Hurdler, the
Collaborator, and the Director have known all along: that even the best
ideas must continuously compete for time, attention, and resources.
Those who adopt these organizing roles don't dismiss the process of
budget and resource allocation as "politics" or "red tape." They
recognize it as a complex game of chess, and they play to win.
4. The Hurdler knows that the path to
innovation is strewn with obstacles and develops a knack for overcoming
or outsmarting those roadblocks. When the 3M worker who invented
masking tape decades ago had his idea initially rejected, he refused to
give up. Staying within his $100 authorization limit, he signed a
series of $99 purchase orders to pay for critical equipment needed to
produce the first batch. His perseverance paid off, and 3M has reaped
billions of dollars in cumulative profits because an energetic Hurdler
was willing to bend the rules.
5. The Collaborator helps bring eclectic
groups together, and often leads from the middle of the pack to create
new combinations and multidisciplinary solutions. Not long ago, Kraft
Foods and Safeway sat down to figure out how to knock down the
traditional walls between supplier and retailer. One strategy--a way to
streamline the transfer of goods from one to the other--didn't just
save labor and carrying costs. The increased efficiency sent sales of
Capri Sun juice drinks, for example, soaring by 167% during one
promotion.
6. The Director not only gathers together a
talented cast and crew but also helps to spark their creative talents.
When a creative Mattel executive assembles an ad hoc team of designers
and project leaders, sequesters them for 12 weeks, and ends up with a
new $100 million girls'-toy platform in three months, she is a role
model for Directors everywhere.
The Building Personas
The four remaining personas are building roles that apply insights from
the learning roles and channel the empowerment from the organizing
roles to make innovation happen. When people adopt the building
personas, they stamp their mark on your organization. People in these
roles are highly visible, so you'll often find them right at the heart
of the action.
7. The Experience Architect designs
compelling experiences that go beyond mere functionality to connect at
a deeper level with customers' latent or expressed needs. When Cold
Stone Creamery turns the preparation of a frozen dessert into a fun,
dramatic performance, it is designing a successful new customer
experience. The premium prices and marketing buzz that follow are
rewards associated with playing the role of the Experience Architect.
8. The Set Designer creates a stage on which
innovation team members can do their best work, transforming physical
environments into powerful tools to influence behavior and attitude.
Companies such as Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic recognize that
the right office environments can help nourish and sustain a creative
culture. When the Cleveland Indians discovered a renewed winning
ability in a brand-new stadium, they demonstrated the value of the Set
Designer. Organizations that tap into the power of the Set Designer
sometimes discover remarkable performance improvements that make all
the space changes worthwhile.
9. The Caregiver builds on the metaphor of a
health-care professional to deliver customer care in a manner that goes
beyond mere service. Good Caregivers anticipate customer needs and are
ready to look after them. When you see a service that's really in
demand, there's usually a Caregiver at the heart of it. Best Cellars, a
retailer that takes the mystery and snobbery out of wine and makes it
simple and fun, is demonstrating the Caregiver role--while earning a
solid profit at the same time.
10. The Storyteller builds both internal
morale and external awareness through compelling narra-tives that
communicate a fundamental human value or reinforce a specific cultural
trait. Companies from Dell to Starbucks have lots of corporate legends
that support their brands and build camaraderie within their teams.
Medtronic, celebrated for its product innovation and consistently high
growth, reinforces its culture with straight-from-the-heart
storytelling--patients' firsthand narratives of how the products
changed or even saved their lives.
Note:
The appeal of the personas is that they work. Not in theory or in the
classroom but in the unforgiving marketplace. Ideo has battle-tested
them thousands of times in a real-world laboratory for innovation. The
personas are about "being innovation" rather than merely "doing
innovation." Take on one or more of these roles, and you'll be taking a
conscious step toward becoming more of an innovator in your daily life.
In Cathy Clift's recent article titled 
