Do you experiment at work?
One easy way to break down all of this innovation stuff is to talk about experiments. What changes to you make at work where you are unsure of the outcome?
I make the argument in this Harvard Business post, titled, Do you experiment at work? that experiments are everything. It’s the easiest way to think about how positive change happens.
Give it a spin and let me know what you think.
Scott,
You are my new favorite blogger since I saw you at the Web 2.0 Expo in SF in April.
Your perspective on “innovation” and the topics you post are extremely relevant in my role. I’m a marketing project manager for a corporate website, and the message from above is “Innovate”. You understand how that translates to action. I didn’t.
Experimentation at work. Vital. In my field, that translates to on-the-fly app development (pilots), which is not easy. Further I’ve found it’s not natural to a lot of good developers who are more accustomed to getting finite requirements, spending a lot of time, and churning out a finished, high-quality product.
I’ve found it is important to set up a flexible framework for all manner of experiments, whether they’re calculated guesses or simply darts. This is a perhaps a given, but it’s also v imp to be able to convey results and findings and act on the metrics you get back.
Anyway, thanks for breaking it down for the rest of us.
AM
Hi AM;
Hey – nice to hear from you – Let me know if there’s anything special I can do to stay your favorite :)
Cheers.
Somewhere along the line people have forgetten about experiments.
The output of an experiment is knowledge. I can always use more knowledge.
I recall in elementary school 40+ years ago reading about an experiment
someone did. The conclusion was, “My device failed, the experiment was a success.”
I don’t remember what the device was, but I do remember that the experiment
provided the person with the knowledge that his device would not work.
It is often great to know what will no work and the circumstances and and and…
Many people I meet today only want to do experiments where their device or idea
or whatever is shown to work. Those aren’t experiments, they are demonstrations.
I posted a comment on your HBSP blog about my current little experiment but I recalled one I did some time ago. It was around creating a catalog for the products of the company.
It was the first time I had to take on that project and the people who did before me took over a month and a half to create the final report, they would create all sorts of databases and parsing applications to churn the data and come up with a report.
When I was given the task I decided I could try a little experiment, I literally threw all others did before out the window and started fresh, it took me 3 hours to have the report complete and ready for distribution, I did not do it manually, I created a simple macro in excel that did the job. People was amazed and they could not believe I had done the work of 6 weeks in a little more than a couple hours.
Now, what I learned from the experiment was that people easily overlooked the possibility of the simple vs the prestige of the complex. Every IT folk wanted to create a database for it, they wanted ER diagrams and lots and lots of queries.
Nobody really understood the expected result: a report.
One of the things I heard the most that day was: “well of course, that makes sense”
One major challenge i face at work is the burden of managing expectations of others higher up in the organization and protecting my reputation if i want to get promoted (which i really do!) How do you experiment when you know your reputation and “track record” is on the line and the general expectation is to get the job done and “close things” faster.
For me, the key to a useful experiment (whether it produces the results you want or not) is that I can actually learn from it and adapt my future behaviors accordingly.
I often find it challenging to identify the clear “cause-and-effect” relationships in the complexity of the real world. Too many variables to keep track of and too many butterflies creating tornadoes :)
Scott, any suggestions?
I love experimenting. In fact, I approach many things in life like new experiments. And, over the years I learned to be comfortable with failures. It’s fun and very gratifying to see an idea take shape.
Now, the analogy with baseball is overused but the best hitters miss about 2 out of three.
There’s a book “Stumbling on happiness” that states that in life, when we look ahead we want to take the safe approach but, as we look back, we are most proud of the times when we took the chance even if we failed.
Of course any experiment requires some planning and thinking ahead and it’s best to try when things are relatively quiet or when existing solutions are either too risky or simply don’t work for the problem on hand.
I enjoyed reading the Myths of Innovation and found it very realistic. The truths is that our emotions and psychology is much stronger than we think. Many professionals I know are far from objective and spend a lot of energy to rationalize their emotions. Especially when a more junior person comes up with a very simple and brilliant idea.
Scott,
When my daughter was young we used to play board games. And as adults have to take care of so much I could never concentrate on the games as much as my daughter did. Means I was loosing in a row. One Day I got so angry when I was about to loose again that I said to myself: “Ok, you will lose again, no way out. This entitles you to have at least fun!” And with this I did silly moves, followed crazy impulses. With my mind totally free flowing and experimenting I was able to not censor myself and in the end I won.
This experience I never forgot even so it happened many years ago. And when I face unsolvable “rotten” problems at work now I always remember “Sagaland”, the game we then played, and start to copy this freeing experience I had today at work. And it works!
I wish I would be more brave to do it more often but work still has that serious touch.
Greetings from Vienna in Austria,
Annette
Dear Scott,
I have enjoyed many of your essays and articles and thought them to be of much help and benefit in my college life as well as in my personal dealings. Thank you for that. I would encourage you to make a visit down in Boston, at Babson College where entrepreneurship and start-up are synonyms with the college name. I beleive you could provide much value and help to alot of budding entrepreneurs and business students who need assistance in finding new ways to generate sales. Afterall, “innovation is our tradition” is our slogan! What better place and audience for you to demonstrate your turbo-powered presentations!
Regard,
Arjun Shete