Innovation drives success at work. By innovating, you break down stale, stuck systems and introduce exciting new ideas and tools that make work enjoyable. Here at Glide, we have watched thousands of creative thinkers build apps to solve problems, create new ways of working, and power entire businesses.
We’ve discovered that the people who succeed with Glide have one crucial trait in common – they’re innovators at work.
Surprisingly, success in innovation doesn’t seem to be correlated to what type of role you’re in or where you are in your career. We’ve seen brilliance across many functions, including brilliant innovation in Operations, IT, HR, and more. Instead, it aligns more strongly with how you approach creativity, inventive thinking, and working processes.
The heart of innovation, it turns out, is a willingness to take action on big ideas and try new things. It’s a desire to be constantly learning, trying new tools, and coming up with ingenious solutions.
The 4 Types of Innovators at Work
Within the wealth of observations we’ve gathered from the innovative people we’ve studied and worked alongside, supported by our data-driven research, we’ve found four primary types of innovators at work:
- The Builder – Innovation as vision combined with action.
- The Strategist – Innovation of a systems thinker.
- The Optimizer – Innovation that produces results.
- The Scientist – Innovation for innovation’s sake.
Each innovator type has its unique way of creating inventive new things and producing groundbreaking results in their workplaces. Discovering your type will show you where you shine creatively at work, how your innovation compares or contrasts with those around you, and what kind of environment will best foster your innovative mind.
The Builder
Innovation as vision combined with action.
You build things — businesses, tools, products, or systems. Your innovation shows concrete results. You’re a visionary, evaluating the big picture and constantly looking for the next groundbreaking idea, but you’re not one to sit back and watch. When you see an opportunity, you organize the right resources and take action to actually bring it to life.
Builders make excellent hands-on leaders. They may be entrepreneurs and founders, highly motivated team leads, or action-focused individual contributors. At work, others look to you because they know big, exciting things happen when you’re involved.
The Strategist
Innovation as vision combined with action.
You build things — businesses, tools, products, or systems. Your innovation shows concrete results. You’re a visionary, evaluating the big picture and constantly looking for the next groundbreaking idea, but you’re not one to sit back and watch. When you see an opportunity, you organize the right resources and take action to actually bring it to life.
Builders make excellent hands-on leaders. They may be entrepreneurs and founders, highly motivated team leads, or action-focused individual contributors. At work, others look to you because they know big, exciting things happen when you’re involved.
The Optimizer
Innovation as vision combined with action.
You build things — businesses, tools, products, or systems. Your innovation shows concrete results. You’re a visionary, evaluating the big picture and constantly looking for the next groundbreaking idea, but you’re not one to sit back and watch. When you see an opportunity, you organize the right resources and take action to actually bring it to life.
Builders make excellent hands-on leaders. They may be entrepreneurs and founders, highly motivated team leads, or action-focused individual contributors. At work, others look to you because they know big, exciting things happen when you’re involved.
The Scientist
Innovation as vision combined with action.
You build things — businesses, tools, products, or systems. Your innovation shows concrete results. You’re a visionary, evaluating the big picture and constantly looking for the next groundbreaking idea, but you’re not one to sit back and watch. When you see an opportunity, you organize the right resources and take action to actually bring it to life.
Builders make excellent hands-on leaders. They may be entrepreneurs and founders, highly motivated team leads, or action-focused individual contributors. At work, others look to you because they know big, exciting things happen when you’re involved.
