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Experimentation culture in an organisation needs guard rails.
We have heard far too often that companies should experiment more, fail fast, learn from failures. I have seen the positive impact of such a narrative in many organisations where employees are encouraged to experiment. Unfortunately, I have also seen companies get into chaos and damage their current performance. How do we ensure that the experimentation culture works well for the company?
Experiments need some guard rails. Firstly, if the team is solving a recurring operations problem, we should first agree on the direction of solution. All experiments must be conducted in this direction. If we don’t agree on the direction of solution first, experiments would take us in different conflicting directions and possibly create a chaos.
Secondly, we should prioritise experiments which have a large potential upside and a small downside. Let’s avoid chupchiks, which don’t create substantial value for the organisation.
Once these guard rails are in place, allowing teams to experiment creates a positive culture and helps in quantum improvement of the business.