The art and science of management is much about coping with risk. There are few certain outcomes in business, and that’s particularly true when we factor in the reality that people are darned complex and don’t always act rationally.
More often than not, I see managers and leaders looking at their world through the eyes of “what can go wrong?” and basing their decisions solely on attempting to minimize those identified adverse outcomes. I also see a great number of aberrant behaviors impacting the decision-making processes and risk-taking actions of managers and organizations.
4 Bad Habits that Stifle Experimentation:
1. Fear of being wrong rules the day. In particular, early career leaders lacking the benefit of experience and often left to sink or swim on their own, act conservatively out of fear of making mistakes. While they may be anxious to experiment with people, teams and programs, they often lack a framework for understanding what is acceptable or unacceptable.
2. Managers and leaders struggle to interpret what “new” means and the knee-jerk reaction is to avoid “new” until it’s better understood. Social Media is a prime example of this, as many firms opt to create punitive and restrictive policies versus challenging their employees to find ways to leverage the tools. It wasn’t so long ago that the web was the “new” and many firms carried the same “wait and see” attitude and failed to leverage new and powerful capabilities to improve their businesses and gain an advantage.
3. Risk is managed to perceived political tolerance levels. Politically motivated managers and leaders focus on identifying decisions that fit within the tolerance zone of their superiors. Experimentation is reduced to subjective and politically motivated thought-processes.
4. Fear rules the day. In toxic environments, people strive and struggle to avoid making decisions out of fear of gaining the wrath of someone with a vested stake in his/her people not making decisions. Experimentation in this case is non-existent.
5 Ideas for Leaders to Help Experimentation Flourish:
1. Define, communicate and reinforce risk tolerance levels in all aspects of your business. As a senior leader, you owe this critical context to your team members. If you’re encouraging experimentation and innovation, then you need to create the processes and systems to reasonably evaluate opportunities AND risks and help the team understand choices that are acceptable. It’s common for me to see firms where there is no context for risk, yet ample lip service for innovation. The lack of context slows or stifles any true experimentation in some cases and simply confuses the situation in others.
2. Cultivate a “what does this mean for us?” opportunity and risk assessment type of thinking with your team members. Teach and encourage big-picture, competitive, customer and other industry scanning habits and challenge people to end all discussions with their own translation of what the opportunity might mean positively or negatively for your firm. Of course, the next discussion is, “What do you suggest that we do?”
3. Build experimentation into professional development plans. A key part of everyone’s development is their ability to cope with increasingly ambiguous circumstances. Move beyond encouraging people to experiment to making it a part of what gets done and what gets measured, and you are actively supporting personal professional development. Of course, ultimately, experimentation needs to provide meaningful outcomes, with a blend of lessons learned through failures and gains from successes.
4. Remember to help your team members cut through the very-real political fog and fud. They don’t have the political capital that you do and it is your job to help them gain it, while knocking down obstacles and cutting through aberrant organizational behaviors.
5. Extend experimentation beyond programs and processes to management tasks, including team development, decision-making processes, developmental activities, job definitions and so forth. We cannot keep solving the increasingly complex problems of our world with yesterday’s management approaches.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
A healthy workplace is one where people are comfortable being uncomfortable, as long as the discomfort is not politically motivated or driven by fear of repercussions. Healthy discomfort comes from pushing the envelope on new approaches, while managing and monitoring risks and learning in the process. I would much rather have a team of professionals pushing me as the leader to take chances for the right reasons than a team of professionals hiding in their cubicles hoping not to draw my gaze.
I really like suggestion number 3. I think if experimentation has a little more structure people are less likely to shy away from it. I enjoyed this!
Thanks, Ashley! -Art
The notion that I most related with was how individuals who fear failure or being wrong limit their chances at growth and experience. I see this everyday at my organization. We have plenty of bright and intelligent employees who would rather sit on the sidelines and not risk messing up. They totally fail to see the value (and the importance) that going out there and learning presents. Hopefully this toxic fear of failure can be overcome because it is very hard to see talent go untapped. Very nice read.
as a new, young leader in a highly corporate, political environment, i feel like this is helpful but it skims the surface. I relate to a lot of the challenges, but I think I’d benefit from greater detail on each of these points. You can almost write a small book covering these points in more detail–or maybe you have. First time to your site. I’ll be back for more.
Brandon, the points are indeed thought-prompters that merit additional consideration. It’s always my goal to leave people thinking about the right issues..then it’s up to them. There are however another half-million words ont he site that tackle many of these issues in more detail. And yes, the book offers some quality time with the content. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Garrett, thanks for reading and sharing. The fear of failure is tremendously debilitating to many…and unfortunately, it is often fostered by leaders that missed Deming’s memo on “driving fear out of the workplace.” -Art
Good commentary describing best practices compared, unfortunately, to what is
commonplace. One shortfall, however. While experimentation is encouraged, there is no guidance on how it should be rewarded. If a firm is successful, that means much time is given to maintenance. Experimentation, however, requires efforts beyond the demands of maintenance. When these prove additive to business, reward should follow – no question. Yet, there is no mention of that here.
David, big topic, small blog post. You’ve added it. What are your thoughts? Thanks for reading and I look forward to your ideas. -Art
Thank you for this article. I have been wondering what was going on in my workplace and this article offered insight and encouragement to the “off” vibe I have been receiving. I am wondering if you would advise an aspiring manager to be the one to initiate a change in leadership culture by having a conversation with their boss. Thanks Art!
Georgie, thanks for reading and commenting. The short-answer is “Yes,” although read on for some thoughts on how to pull this off successfully. It’s critical for all of us to understand how to work with and even “manage” our bosses. Having said that, there’s a very deliberate approach that I encourage individuals to take with the person that signs their checks or at least writes their reviews. Take steps to understand your manager’s priorities and goals…and make certain that you tailor ideas on change to align with his/her priorities and accountabilities. In the case of encouraging increased experimentation, it is critical to understand the politics and personal and organizational risk tolerances. While you don’t want to let those stop you from pursuing experimentation and innovation, it’s good to know what the written unwritten rules are. Often, people approach their manager with an idea on change without realizing that the boss may not share the same view…or even agree, and they are surprised when they get a non or negative response. Seek first to understand and then to be understood. One last aside. There are many situations where you can beg forgiveness instead of asking permission. Of course, you have to know your own risk tolerance if you choose this path. -Art
My work with student leaders affords the opportunities for experimentation and trying new things. Our students learn leadership in what some would consider to be a laboratory environment. While we try to keep them from burning down the place or making major moral errors, there is the freedom to learn to lead by leading (and making mistakes in the process).
It’s interesting how this type of freedom is often stifled when these students become professionals. The boundaries of their environment do more to create a cookie-cutter type of leader than to actually foster the type of growth that helps employees develop and demonstrate true potential.
Thanks for a thought-provoking post.
Tim, thanks for encouraging your student leaders to experiment and learn! I’m a happy albeit perhaps naive believer in the fact that if enough people like you cultivate these types of behaviors, we are increasing the odds that these behaviors and practices will flow through to the workplace. Thanks for reading and sharing! -Art
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“A healthy workplace is one where people are comfortable being uncomfortable”
I think that often innovation/change is not pursued because of the belief that it needs to occur above one’s own level of leadership. As I grow as a professional, I find that the more I progress, the more I need/want new ideas from those whom I lead. In addition to knowing the climate above, it essential to both know and promote an innovative climate below. I love the quote above! That workplace prompts action and encourages innovation.
Harriet, I agree with your perspective that people often wait for innovation to be stimulated or produced from above. You’ve got a great perspective on the topic and I have no doubt that the team that you lead benefits from your wise approach. Thanks for reading and commenting! -Art