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Are you more experimental or more conceptual as an innovator?
Understanding which type of innovator you are can make a difference personally and professionally. Anyone can benefit from knowing more about how their mind works.
The categories of experimental innovator and conceptual innovator don’t apply just to geniuses and world-changing innovators. Office workers, laborers, bosses, students, teachers, homemakers -- all are seekers, finders or some mix of the two.
Here are some suggestions for figuring out whether you’re more of an experimental innovator -- a seeker -- or a conceptual innovator -- a finder.
Rate yourself on a scale of 1 (seeker) to 9 (finder)
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Start at 5 points. Adjust that number up or down as you answer the following questions. Skip ones that don’t seem to apply.
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5
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1. Planning. When you start a project, do you first plan it out, step by step, or do you jump in and improvise as you go along?
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Advance planning: Add 2 points.
Improvise: Subtract 2 points.
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2. Starting. In thinking back on the best-received change you ever made in things or procedures in your part of the world (including career, workplace, school and home, but excluding self-improvement), did it start with a bright idea that you put into practice or did you achieve it by trial and error without knowing in advance what the change would be?
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Bright idea: Add 2 points.
Trial and error: Subtract 2 points.
No change of mine was ever well received: 0 points.
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3. Principles or specifics. When you need to make a change or otherwise do something new, do you choose how to act by thinking first about how general principles apply to the situation or by first examining the details of the situation?
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General principles: Add 2 points.
Specifics: Subtract 2 points.
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4. Ending. When a project nears an end, are you ready to wrap it up and move on, or do you want to keep making improvements?
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Move on: Add 2 points.
Keep improving it: Subtract 2 points.
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5. In retrospect. After a project ends, are you often satisfied with it or more likely to be dissatisfied with it?
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Satisfied: Add 2 points.
Dissatisfied: Subtract 2 points.
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If your score is below 1, adjust it to 1.
If it’s above 9, adjust it to 9.
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Score: 1 to 4
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You’re an experimental innovator, or seeker.
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Score: 6 to 9
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You’re a conceptual innovator, or finder.
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SURVEY: Compare yourself to others who have taken the quiz before you.
FEEDBACK: Did these questions help? Which ones were hardest to answer, and why? What’s your number, and does it tell you anything about yourself?
FEEDBACK: Do you have suggestions for improving or expanding on these questions?
What next?
If you’re a finder, then what? Your strengths. Your particular challenges.
If you’re a seeker, then what? Your strengths. Your particular challenges.
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