adaptors and innovators
The Kirton Adaptation-Innovation Inventory
"Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be" - JW Goethe
This inventory is designed to assess individuals' creative style along a continuum from highly innovative to highly adaptive.
- If you are innovative you like finding new and unique solutions which may challenge accepted practice, in other words, doing things differently.
- If you are adaptive, you prefer building on or improving existing practice, in other words, doing things better - a highly underrated form of creativity in Western Culture, where the innovator is the cultural icon.
Successfully adapting existing ideas, practices or technologies is often the real secret of competitive advantage for organisations - a practice which has been termed 'creative swiping' - rather than the ability to invent something completely new.
An interesting feature of this model is that perceptions are relative, and therefore how adaptive or innovative you are depends on who you are comparing yourself with. The model predicts communication difficulties and possible conflict when there is a 20% difference in score between individuals.
We often use the KAI model in Innovation BoostersTM to form groups with an appropriate degree of diversity, and to help individuals reflect on their creative styles and their way of relating to others.
