A client recently asked us, "What are the differences between innovative firms and more traditional firms? Well, we know that innovative firms have higher Swarm scores. That's because a higher proportion of their people have Swarm scores in the 50th percentile or higher.

But we expect that culture plays a part in innovation outcomes too.

To find out, we called our colleague, David Aycan, over at IDEO. You most likely know IDEO as originators of Design Thinking and a top-tier global design firm. All true, but IDEO has recently undertaken to develop some very cool products, as well.

The IDEO Creative Difference tool assesses 6 traits that drive
creativity and innovation outcomes in organizations:

Purpose: A clear, inspiring reason for the company to exist—beyond making money.
Looking Out: Looking beyond to understand customers, technologies, and cultural shifts.
Experimentation: Trying out new ideas, and making evidence-based decisions.
Collaboration: Working together across business functions to approach opportunities.
Empowerment: Providing a clear and fair path to create change in all corners of the company.
Refinement: How do strategy, product, and design functions play with the execution roles as new ideas move towards implementation.

While Swarm Vision measures the 8 innovation skills of individuals and teams, IDEO measures the prevailing processes and culture. It's like the chicken and the egg. Nature and nurture. You need to leverage both to drive transformation.

Sign up here to take the Swarm Innovation Profiler yourself, and share 15 free licenses with your colleagues:

And please check out this short video on the IDEO Creative Difference.

- Suzan

Suzan Briganti
CEO & Founder
Swarm Vision