Experimentation is important, if not essential, if we want to have successful high performing teams. It allows us to try things without needing months to review and phase in a new way of working. Instead encourage trying something different, reflect and start again.
In theory, I really like it.
In practice, it was difficult within our group.
I’d like to talk about my attempts to learn the drums. I was tempted to try drumming as I still believe there’s something musical that I can be good at. I started with a small experiment.
I bought a cheap electronic drum kit. I did some reading and I started trying to follow along to a few YouTube videos. I even got a little bit of success doing a not completely terrible job of playing some songs. It was kind of fun.
However I was pretty useless. My experiment didn’t transform me into a musician so I gave up. It joins my bass & guitar sitting idle. Occasionally I’ll have a quick play with one, maybe get a bit of fun but it isn’t yielding great results so I rarely bother.
And this was my frustration with experiments at my former work. We were very open to trying something but seeing things through is a challenge. Straight away we’re asking “is this giving us the results we want?”, potentially then spending more effort on analysing success/failure than the experiment itself and subsequently drifting or stepping off that path. Maybe the odd strum of the guitar so we can say that we play instruments, but not really.
If I want to become a musician, I know that it takes time and practice. The same can be said for becoming high performing teams.
Sometimes our experiments & initiatives can be about trying new things for quick wins but failure to succeed doesn’t necessarily mean the idea is bad. It may mean that it isn’t truly effective yet.
It is essential that we don’t just look for how quickly we can get end results. Some things will require building up skill and practice. If you never give yourself the opportunity to become good at something, you’ll never reach those standards.