Intervene Skillfully: Act Experimentally

by Ed O'Malley

Sometimes we think our biggest job at the Kansas Leadership Center is simply to help desensitize people to the idea of failure. The scientist trying to cure cancer doesn’t fret over every failed experiment. She learns from it to inform the next experiment. You need to be more like that scientist if you are hoping to lead others to make progress on tough challenges.

Big challenges – adaptive challenges – have no clear solution. More progress is made with an experimental approach. The temptation, of course, is to not experiment but instead to proclaim answers and directions. This is where knowing how to lead on adaptive challenges versus technical problems is critically important. You can’t exercise leadership on adaptive challenges without the stomach to experiment, fail, learn and experiment some more.

Some risk in saying “act experimentally” is that it implies a process which implies elongated time.  In our results driven world, we just want the solution and we expect it now.  This concept doesn’t disagree with the idea of getting toward a solution, it just recognizes that given the nature of the challenge, we might have to try many things differently to find it.  You are essentially trying to do something that hasn’t been done before (because again, if it had, we would already know how to solve the problem and we would just do it).  This is precisely why acting experimentally is so important.

Other risk associated with this idea is the risk of actually trying to act experimentally.  You might be asking yourself “What if there isn’t room to fail?  What if failure means I will lost my job?  What if the risk feels too great?”  These are naturally the questions we ask ourselves when trying something new.  And they are legitimate.  They are a way to protect us from failure.  The idea here though is simple “act experimentally” not “create a grand experiment to act on.”  The obvious difference – it doesn’t matter the size of the experiment, just that you try something…and keep trying.  For example, a small experiment might be a minor behavior change that no one notices but you initially; speaking up in a meeting when you normally stay quiet, or taking some time to actually reflect on your experiment when you might normally blow by it and move on to something else.  The key is that you should feel a little uncomfortable, you should be aware of your action, and you should try to learn something from what you tried.  And don’t be surprised if others notice you are trying too.

Experimenting also isn’t designed to let you off the hook.  On one side, experimenting helps us get more comfortable with failure.  On the other side, make sure you aren’t funneling that comfort into an excuse such as “Oh, well, it was just an experiment!” therefore letting yourself off the hook.  The key is to evaluate what happened and then try again.  Make sure it’s about the learning!  Acting experimentally may feel like you’re going out on a limb, so hold to purpose as you get used to operating this way.

The following chart shows a simple cycle that should take place every time you experiment.  First, you make an observation.  What is data you can gather about what is going on (these are things you actually see taking place)?  Second, you can make interpretations.  Now that you have data, what are some possible things that might be going on?  Third, you can intervene by acting experimentally.  What is something you can do in order to try to change the system?  Now remember, it’s not over there.  You then need to diagnose the situation again now that you have new data from your experiment.  What did you learn?  What are some next steps?

<Insert the observe, interpret, intervene cycle chart>

How do you act experimentally?

• Determine how much you care.  Are you willing to fail?  Is what you’re thinking about worth experimenting on?  The more you care, the more you will be willing to experiment.
• Start cautiously. Begin with experiments that feel less risky and where you are pretty sure of the outcome. Then move to situations where the outcome is more in doubt and more important.
• Take a lesson from science. Ground your experiment in a clear purpose. Know what you expect will happen and then put your assumptions to the test.  Experiments should be designed if you really want to learn from them.
• First experiment, then diagnose. Pause between experiments to determine what you learned and how it ties to your purpose.  What did you learn if it was successful?  What did you learn if it failed?
• Make experimentation your standard operating procedure. Over time, “acting experimentally” will become a way of being in situations that demand leadership.

How do you design an experiment?

• Start with your purpose.
• Make a plan.  Be specific.
• Check your plan.  Ask the following questions: How much of a stretch is this for me?  How risky is this for me? How sure am I this will work? How much effort would it take?
• Act.
• Analyze.  Don’t draw out the process though.  You should be able to quickly analyze how things went after you tried.

Why is this difficult?

• “Failure is bad, very bad.” We are taught from an early age to strive for success. Experiments have the potential to fail. That feels risky.
• “I want success and I want it now!” In a results-oriented society, we value immediate success over progress toward a long-term goal. But there is no way around it, leadership on adaptive challenges takes time and requires experimentation.

Five ways to help others act experimentally:

1. Just use the word. When trying to find solutions, just saying things like “Well one experiment we could try would be…” or “What do you think we would learn if we tried this experiment…” begins to create a culture of experimentation.
2. Redefine failure. Let everyone know that success or failure is not about the outcome of the experiment, its about how much we learn.
3. Model experimentation. Tell colleagues about your own experiments. Be transparent about successes, failures and what you are hoping to learn.
4. Value learning. Ask open-ended questions that draw out learning from others. Celebrate discoveries and small successes.
5. Leverage your authority. If you are in a position of authority use it to show that you view leadership as a series of experiments regardless of title.

Q and A

Question: Senior management at our company has been doing a lot of micro-managing lately.  I’m trying to keep a project moving forward but keep getting stopped when I have to get approval or explain something.  What can I do so I don’t keep getting slowed down?

Answer:

What History Tells Us

Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before he created the lightbulb.

The United States started off with the ineffective Articles of Confederation before developing the Constitution.

William Wilburforce – trying to abolish slavery (started the first grass roots campaign ever, introduced new bills and processes that had never been seen before) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce#Abolition_of_the_slave_trade

Inspiration

“All life is an experiment.  The more experiments you make the better.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I have not failed.  I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ~Thomas A. Edison

Resources

Book: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

Song: “Dare You to Move” by Switchfoot

Movie: “Moneyball” directed by Bennett Miller