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Personas
As you develop the culture that will foster this mindset of innovation, expect to encounter both support and pushback from your peers and leaders. The research uncovered overarching behaviors, values, and norms of individuals in organizations, summarized here into seven personas you can expect to see as you develop a culture of innovation. Understanding the personas of those around you-as well as yourself-will help you build a team that can effectively and efficiently effect this culture change.
Of these seven personas, five are seen as positive personas that support an innovative mindset and are needed to get innovation going. The remaining two personas are considered negative and can pose challenges or barriers to innovation gaining traction in an organization.
Positive Personas (things you want)
Catalyst
Passionate individual always on the lookout for how to engage people, promote new initiatives, and make lasting and sustaining changes in the organization.
Enabler
Supportive of the organization and its people to pursue innovation. Actively promotes transformation initiatives.
Accelerator
Anxious to get initiatives underway and see results. Works to tear down barriers hindering progress.
Sustainer
Carries out necessary roles and responsibilities to sustain innovation initiatives. Does not actively promote initiatives but also does not discourage others. Someone you can count on to get things done in support of innovation.
Challenger
May appear as if they are not on board when they really are; careful and conservative, they want to ensure success.
Negative Personas (things you do not want)
Inhibitor
Passively refuses to try new ideas and discourages others from participating in organizational initiatives supporting innovation. May lack the ability to empathize with colleagues and see the big picture as it relates to a culture of innovation. Needs coaching and other hands-on training initiatives to improve their perspective.
Destroyer
Actively seeks opportunities to discourage innovation initiatives, and may even consider low levels of sabotage. Lacks emotional maturity and does not work well with others. Unable or unwilling to understand and connect with people around them.
It is important to think about where people with these types of personas exist in your organization. You may also find that people have more than one persona-for example, one might primarily be a sustainer of innovation, but when they are particularly excited about an idea, they do everything they can to accelerate its traction.
Chapter 4 will encourage you to consider these personas as you develop a team to champion the development of an innovation culture. But first, continue on to Chapter 3 for what a culture of innovation could look like in your airport's ecosystem.
