fbpx

ARE YOU AN
ALIEN THINKER?

Take this assessment to test your ability to think and act creatively, and discover how to improve your ability to bring breakthrough solutions to life.

Take the quiz

THE QUIZ

20 questions to see if you are an ALIEN Thinker

Move the slider left or right according to your most appropriate answer.

1
I periodically try to experience what it feels like to be a user/customer
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
2
I notice subtle developments or surprising things that others have overlooked
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
3
I use digital tools to constantly monitor my environment, i.e. sensors, news alerts
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
4
I am curious about customers who behave in very different ways
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
5
I make time to consider the big picture, even when I am deep in details
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
6
I attend events that have nothing to do with my core industry, profession or specialty
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
7
I try to challenge my default perspective on problems
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
8
I seek out people with a different view on the issues I am looking at
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
9
I openly question accepted practices and assumptions
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
10
I mix ideas from unrelated areas
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
11
I try to be creative in how I make connections between things I observe
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
12
I try to look for solutions that are not obvious at first glance
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
13
I try to find novel ways of demonstrating the value of my ideas
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
14
I use computer simulations to test the feasibility of my ideas
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
15
I often don’t settle on the first solution I come up with, or the second
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
16
I allow myself to fail as long as I learn from it
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
17
I have access to people who can help champion my solution
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
18
I fully understand the different interests of critical stakeholders
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
19
I know how to tailor and deliver a message for different audiences
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
20
I have a good sense of when to disclose strategic information
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree

Attention

The people who generate truly breakthrough ideas look at their world like aliens. When an ALIEN comes down to Earth it sees the world with fresh eyes. It’s not constrained by assumptions and biases like we are. As an outsider, it also needs to learn how to navigate through a new and potentially hostile environment, just as many of us have to do in our personal and professional lives.

Areas of
Improvement

Our diagnostic tool suggests that to think like an ALIEN, you will probably need to hone your attention skills

Attention is the active effort of looking at the world to observe problems that need to be solved, opportunities worth addressing, and solutions that can be dramatically improved or revised.

Your conditioning—notably your professional training and work experience—can interfere with the quality of attention by channeling your focus in particular directions, impacting what you notice and blinding you to radical insights.

To think like an alien, you must set aside your preconceptions and open your mind to alternative takes on reality. To see the world as it is, not as you wish it to be, you can either zoom, zoom out or switch focus.

Tactics

To innovate like an ALIEN thinker, you must zoom in, zoom out, or switch focus to see the world with fresh eyes.

To zoom in, use a close-up lens to observe the situation in more detail and pick up on nuances, incongruities, anomalies, and weak signals. It is by talking to a woman making bamboo stools that Muhammad Yunus conceptualized the need for micro-financing solutions.

To zoom out, use a wide-angle lens to take in the larger patterns and trends, and engage different categories of stakeholders with a view on the phenomenon you’re trying to change. For example, a hospital trying to improve the quality of a patient’s experience might engage patients, their families, doctors, nurses, insurance companies, start-ups, and other stakeholders to capture equally valuable (and complementary) perspectives on the problems that exist and the solutions that make sense.

To see the world differently, try to switch focus—to redirect your attention to the signals coming from fringe sources, people and things you might normally perceive as marginal. It is by talking to school janitors that Kellogg got the insights that led them to develop healthier snacks for kids. Lego regularly plugs into the internet forums of its adult fans for a change of perspective.

Questions to
Ask Yourself

Can you recall a time when you missed or dismissed a weak signal that later proved to be important?

What biases and preconceptions (personal and professional) could be closing your mind to alternative views of reality?

Have you spent enough quality time immersing yourself into the phenomenon you’re trying to change? What are the big-picture items and what are the small, interesting details?

How can you enrich the way you look at problems that must be resolved? Are there specific categories of people you should spend more time with, places you should visit, dynamics you must observe?

Can you expand your search for solutions? Are there interesting “fringe sources” you should investigate or unusual stakeholders you could learn from?

Can you use digital tools to collect different types of objective data to inform and enrich your understanding—for example, through sensors or mobile phones?

Can you use digital tools (such as Reddit) to immerse yourself in niche communities that discuss and/or experience issues central to your inquiry?

Can you find new sources of inspiration through an analysis of online discussions?

Can you use digital tools to validate the insights you are collecting—for example, by providing objective data?

Can you use digital tools to help you zoom in or zoom out—for example, by using digital search strategies?

Can you find new sources of inspiration through digital channels?

Levitation

Levitation is the act of stepping back or “decentering” in order to expand and enrich your understanding. Having gathered insights into the realities of a situation, need, or challenge, you need space to make sense of those findings, work out what they mean, and prime your mind for inspiration.

Areas of
Improvement

Our diagnostic tool suggests that to think like an ALIEN, you will probably need to hone your levitation skills.

Levitation is the act of stepping back to regain perspective. It’s about distancing yourself from the activity itself to think more clearly. Levitation is not outward focused but inward focused and introspective. A common habit among elite performers, from musicians and athletes to chess players and scientists, is to work in ninety-minute cycles and then make a pause that will be essential to renewing their energy. As Daniel Pink, author of “When” and “Drive”, puts it: “Professionals take breaks. Amateurs don’t. Breaks are part of performance. They’re not a deviation from performance.” So organisations must learn to “treat breaks with greater respect…”

Levitation may seem like a new and foreign concept, but its roots stretch back to antiquity. In Japan, for example, the concept of “ma” (roughly meaning the space or time in between) is rooted in the ancient Shinto religion and is considered a driver of creativity. The neuroscience is clear: Your brain needs to be given the time and mental space required to reflect and create.

Levitation helps you overcome framing and action biases, prompting you to question your initial assumptions, redefine the problem you want to solve, uncover new insights, reflect on what really matters, and distinguish noise from weak signals.

Tactics

To innovate like an ALIEN thinker, you must leverage two forms of levitation: time-outs and time-offs.

Time-outs involve stepping back from the action and confusion to reflect consciously on your approach and how to redirect your efforts. To be creative, you will have to learn to disengage from what you’re currently doing, pause and reflect. When things don’t seem to work out the way you want, take regular time-outs as they do in sports. This will give your mind a chance to identify the sources of blockage and find new and creative ways to deal with the situation at hand and the problems you’re trying to resolve. Or you may choose to take a walk. Some of the most fertile minds in history, including philosophers and writers such as Kierkegaard, Thoreau, and Dickens, regarded walks as rituals sacred to their creative routines. At the minimum, block time for breaks and reflection in your agenda.

Time-offs involve taking a longer mental or physical vacation from your current preoccupations to tap the power of the unfocused brain. Adrian Ferra, the famous chef who created El Bulli – which for five years in a row was voted best restaurant in the world – used to close his business 6 months every year to achieve the peace and quiet he needed to refresh his creative approach. The search for breakthrough ideas and solutions should never be portrayed as a race. When we study real accounts of innovation, we find that breakthrough ideas take time to incubate and germinate. And their development is often preceded by long spells of reflection or incubation.

Questions to
Ask Yourself

Can you recall an instance where stepping back from the action led to a sudden insight—a major or minor eureka moment?

Can you make time for levitation in your weekly routine? Are there natural moments of reflection—such as during your commute—that you could more systematically leverage?

Could you transform wasted time (e.g., sitting at the doctor’s office, queueing at the supermarket, boarding your plane) into opportunities for introspection and learning?

Should you try to switch tasks, projects, or settings to avoid getting trapped in one rigid mode of reasoning?

Can you talk to a trusted colleague in a different area to help you make sense of what’s going on?

Can digital tools, like a meditation app or an audiobook, help you disengage and take a time-out?

Are you becoming overly distracted by digital tools, like your computer or phone?

Do you need to take a technology holiday?

Imagination

Imagination is the act of envisioning that which is not and then generating avant-garde ideas. Though often shrouded in mystery, imagination is essentially the result of making creative connections between existing concepts—joining the dots in new and interesting ways.

Areas of
Improvement

Our diagnostic tool suggests that to think like an ALIEN, you will probably need to hone your imagination skills.

As the root word—image—indicates, imagination is about seeing. It’s the ability of your mind to produce original ideas by envisioning something that doesn’t exist.

Shrouded in mystique, imagination is often portrayed as a gift. Like innate talent, it’s frequently viewed as a quality that you either have or don’t have—something you’re born with (or not). But the research is clear: Imagination constitutes a universal quality—a trait that everyone acquires at a very young age. Unfortunately, it’s also something most of us progressively lose over time. The more you’ve practiced a certain way of doing things, the harder it becomes to see alternatives. And your imagination is often held prisoner by perceived constraints, such as the fear of experiencing failure or being ridiculed.

Fortunately, there are tactics you can use to promote and revitalize your imagination—to break through the bonds of conventional thinking.

Tactics

To innovate like an ALIEN thinker, you must find ways to release your imagination, and then stimulate it even more.

To release your imagination, you must unlock the cell door and approach situations and problems as children do—with an open mind. Don’t wait for a Eureka moment to arrive! You can come up with very creative concepts simply by being open to possibilities that exist and by asking “what-if-questions”. That’s what McLaren did in 2009, when they asked themselves what would happen if they were forced to abandon their current activities in Formula 1 racing. This led them to realize they had capabilities in aerodynamics, predictive analytics, and teamwork that could be applied to other sectors as well – from cycling and sailing teams to health care systems and air traffic control services. Today McLaren has morphed into a consulting and technology group that happens to have a successful Formula 1 team.

To innovate like McLaren did, you should also be willing to play with ideas and concepts to see what comes out. The discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming, was accused by his boss of approaching research like a game. When asked what he did, he replied: “I play with microbes. . . . It is very pleasant to break the rules and to be able to find something that nobody had thought of.”

Your playful side will have fun blazing new trails, whether they lead to breakthrough solutions or a brick wall. This is the attitude that will give you the emotional space you need to make judgment-free mistakes and then study the results of those mistakes with an open mind. As Bernard Shaw once said: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

To stimulate your imagination, you can also seek new inputs and associations. Radia Perlman is a legend in tech circles. Her work was instrumental in bringing the Internet to life. And she is best known for being the inventor of the STP protocols that help people communicate across interconnected corporate networks. Where did she get her inspiration? From nature, and the image of a tree in particular. Likewise, it is by studying the wild cheetah that Van Phillips designed the famous prosthetic limb that powered double amputee Oscar Pistorius to succeed as a professional sprinter.

Imaginative people, like Radia Perlman or Van Phillips, are great at using analogies and combining concepts in new and interesting ways. The reflective property of cats’ eyes inspired Englishman Percy Shaw to develop reflectors to help motorists drive safely at night, and the annoying thistle burrs that attach themselves to clothing on hikes is what spurred Swiss engineer George de Mestral to invent Velcro.

Questions to
Ask Yourself

Are you comfortable asking questions to which there are no immediate answers?

Can you use an analogy to describe a situation or problem you’re currently trying to solve?

Have you spent enough time searching for interesting developments in other fields or disciplines that could shed new light on your project?

If you were trying to explain your innovation quest to a child, what would you compare it to?

Have you ever come up with innovative solutions in a field where you were an outsider? If so, what was the idea that helped you develop the solution?

Can you use digital tools to promote creative thinking?

Can you use digital tools, like AI, to find hidden patterns in the data?

Can you read, watch, or listen to content—like a TED Talk, podcast, or audiobook—on a topic that is far away from your normal areas of focus?

Experimentation

Experimentation is the act of turning a promising idea into a workable solution that addresses a real need. It should be used improve a solution, or generate new insights, not merely to prove or disprove a hypothesis.

Areas of
Improvement

Our diagnostic tool suggests that to think like an ALIEN, you will probably need to hone your experimentation skills.

Experimentation is all about testing concepts quickly and smartly, with the goal of improving your idea – as opposed to simply trying to prove that your initial thinking is correct.

Dean Kamen invented Segway, a device that he said would become the primary mode of transport within a decade of its launch, and force the redesign of cities. But he was so concerned about IP that he went through three or four iterations of the Segway based exclusively on internal feedback, not user feedback. By the time, he asked external staleholders to provide feedback, it had become difficult to welcome the rare pieces of criticism that could have helped the Segway team to evolve and enrich their thinking. It was much more comfortable to listen to those who confirmed their initial beliefs. It was a recipe for disaster that resulted in commercial failure.

Like good scientists, creative people must engage in experimentation to establish whether their idea is desirable, feasible and viable. This is the essence of the lean start-up methodology, with its emphasis on “build, test and learn”.

But as the Segway trap suggests, going through this cycle alone is no guarantee of success. The chief risk, once you start testing your cherished idea, is that you set up experiments to ratify your assumptions rather than refute them. And the more you fall in love with your ideas, the more you seek evidence to support your thinking and discount corrective feedback. As one executive told us “if you torture the data long enough, it will confess.”

That’s a trap you must be able to avoid. You have to remain open to learning and discovery through the experimentation process.

Tactics

ALIEN thinkers find ways to welcome and then also accept surprises at all stages of the creativity and innovation process.

To welcome surprises, try to look for ways to acquire faster, richer, and more unexpected data from the outside world. Experiment like Frank Gehry, the pioneering Canadian architect who built the Guggenheim museum and the Louis Vuitton foundation in Paris. To avoid falling in the Segway trap, Gehry is always eager to get real, honest feedback from clients and for this, he doesn’t just ask clients to react to a few sketches or miniature models he’s built. No, he develops extreme – almost shocking – points of view that he will never implement in practice. Why? Because he values negative feedback as much as the positive, and so he uses what he calls “Shrek models” (a Yiddish expression for “fright”). By provoking strong emotional reactions, whether positive or negative, he hopes to better understand how his clients think. The inputs he receives can be the source of unanticipated refinements, and the basis of entirely new models. Gehry is able to learn from the discomfort of clients, which lets him explore ideas and concepts that are quite unconventional as a result.

So when you experiment, always try to investigate multiple and ideally extreme, models in parallel. Alien thinkers create multiple concepts and pursue the option that seems to have the most traction with independent experts or actual paying customers. This gives you, as an experimenter, two advantages. First, it will keep you from getting too attached to any one idea. You can more easily remain open to learning—and pivoting—if you are not overinvested in your prototype. Second, it accelerates your discovery and lets you pivot earlier, before hitting a wall.

The primary aim should always be to improve your thinking – and not prove you are indeed correct.

To accept surprises, you must be willing to let the data speak – interpreting it without prejudice. You need resilience to accept criticism, learn from it, and then move on. Even if you acquire robust feedback through parallel testing or provocation, you could still fail if you aren’t receptive enough to the findings.

As cofounder of Pixar (and later president of both Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios), Ed Catmull learned this the hard way. At Pixar, Catmull oversaw a parade of film directors who were trying to bring their creative projects to the screen. And he noticed systematic patterns of resistance to constructive and well-intentioned feedback. To combat filmmakers’ resistance to feedback at Pixar, Ed Catmull created a group called the Braintrust. It consisted of a panel of experts (from a core group of directors, writers, and heads of story) who delivered candid feedback to help directors pivot when necessary. In addition to the quality of the feedback, the key to the Braintrust’s impact was its two ground rules: (1) no hierarchy, and (2) no obligation to implement the feedback. As a result of these rules, directors didn’t enter discussions in a defensive posture and were less prone to emotional reactions. Therefore, they were more likely to hear, digest, and act on the feedback.

You don’t have to work at Pixar to create a Braintrust. As an innovator, you can surround yourself with people capable of challenging your interpretations of the evidence. Catmull saw this as the best antidote to confirmation biases: “Seek out people who are willing to level with you, and when you find them, hold them close.”

Questions to
Ask Yourself

In your organization, to what degree are product selection and development choices determined by the highest-paid people’s opinions? Can you devise experiments to deliver evidence that can inform and enrich their judgment?

How open are you to new possibilities that emerge when trying to validate a core hypothesis? Can you recall at least one occasion when confirmation bias or sunk-costs impeded your ability to implement corrective feedback? What are you doing to keep this from happening again?

Do you have regular exposure to people who think differently from you? If not, where could you find such people?

Can you investigate multiple paths in parallel—like Frank Gehry—rather than prototype and test each promising idea in sequence?

Be honest. Do you tend to regard criticism of your ideas as a criticism of you? How can you reduce such defensiveness when bringing new ideas to your colleagues or boss?

Can you use digital tools like a simulator, digital twin, or A/B testing to automate experimentation?

Can you test your ideas with remote stakeholders, through social media or online communities?

Navigation

Navigation is the act of adjusting to forces that can make or break a solution. Your belief in the solution (and overfamiliarity with the context) can lead you to underestimate the effort needed to mobilize supporters and steer past obstacles.

Areas of
Improvement

Our diagnostic tool suggests that to think like an ALIEN, you will probably need to hone your navigation skills.

Navigation is about dealing with the external environment and adjusting to the forces that can make or break your solution. Without buy-in from key decision-makers, your solution may not survive contact with the organization, investors, or industry partners.

For breakthrough innovators, what often comes as the biggest shock is in fact the internal opposition they face from their own organization – even though it stands to benefit the most from the breakthrough. How often are Alien thinkers portrayed as good guys in movies? They are typically depicted as outsiders, misfits, not to be trusted, threatening to our ways of life.

The story of Steve Sasson is a case in point. After inventing the first-ever digital camera, he demonstrated it to his bosses at Kodak. But he presented the new technology as “filmless photography.” And in doing so, he failed to connect with executives whose careers depended on the sale and processing of film. The filmless concept totally clashed with their beliefs about what made Kodak so special, and profitable, alienating them in the process. The detractors didn’t kill the idea outright, but nor did they seize the opportunitiy. A few years later, he switched the language to digital film, and got a much better reaction, but Kodak had squandered the advantage it should have had as the originator of the technology.

This is not unusual. Great solutions get quashed all the time, because they clash with the core paradigms and beliefs that are in place, or because they don’t fit the prevailing business lines or business model. Very similar to the Steve Sasson story, all the big vacuum manufacturers rejected James Dyson’s bagless vacuum cleaner, not because it didn’t work, but because it challenged their revenue model. No more bags to sell!

As an innovator, you must learn to frame the opportunity you are working on in a way that does not trigger such allergic reactions. And you must succeed at rallying parties that will give you the credibility, resources, and drive you need to succeed.

Tactics

ALIEN navigation strategies are built around the need to survive and the need to thrive.

To survive, you must be able to map the sources of friction and then work to neutralize them in two ways: (1) by using camouflage to evade detection and the destructive judgment of others, especially during the project’s early stages; and (2) by strengthening your ability to absorb hits from critics and opponents. For example, in terms of the language you use, make sure to minimize the disruptive potential of your project by stressing its links with the past and the mission/value/DNA of the company. You can demonstrate that, although the solution is different, it’s not radically different. It’s a complex twin challenge that you have to resolve. On one hand, you must keep your solution alive and on the other hand, you must ensure that it’s not adulterated to the point that it’s no longer disruptive. You do want your solution to remain original, despite all the forces trying to derail it or make it conform.

To thrive, you need to identify positive forces to help your creative ideas gain traction. After Bertrand Piccard found that the aviation industry had zero interest in building a solar plane, he turned to yacht builders instead who brought him totally new perspectives on how to advance his Solar Impulse project. Demis Hassabis, co-founder of the machine learning lab DeepMind got the seed funding he needed to start his business by engaging a key investor around his passion for chess. The business discussion came a bit later. In the words of a former Lego innovation director, you have to be a “diplomatic rebel.” If you want to build support for your disruptive ideas, you have to build bridges.

Questions to
Ask Yourself

What are the forces that can make or break your solution?

Your solution may be extremely innovative and promising, but are you aware of how it might encroach on other people’s turf internally and externally? Do you understand all of the frictions it could create?

To make your disruptive idea less threatening, are there ways you could link it to the organization’s heritage? Can you show how it supports the achievement of a mission that is highly relevant to your key stakeholders?

Recall moments when you failed to rally key decision-makers behind your cause. Are there lessons you can draw that can inform how you’ll secure buy-in on your next innovative project?

Do you have a plan B if your idea meets with internal resistance? Can you foresee multiple paths to take until you can finally declare victory?

Can you use online services (like Ideafoster) to test responses and get feedback on new ideas?

Can you use data to help form arguments that will convince stakeholders of the power of your ideas?

Have you sought advice about your ideas on websites like Quora or Reddit?

Have you used collaboration networks—for example, corporate collaboration networks or social media—to promote and socialize your ideas?

Have you tried to build viral support for your ideas?

Have you used psychographics to influence key stakeholders about the power of your ideas?