The It’s only an experiment
One of the most significant challenges we face as a manager is figuring out how to balance maintaining the status quo while also making room for innovation. By definition, changing things breaks the stasis of our environment and that of our teams. Too much of it, and we can’t get our regular work done. Too little of it, and we can’t keep up with the work itself.
Redefining failure
In 2016, Brett Bonfield published a fascinating paper called “Failure FTW,” where he describes some of the hiccups we have with losing. One of the biggest highlights of his article is the reminder that humans tend to be so risk-averse that we fear losing more than we enjoy winning! (We are terrible at predicting the odds of things.)
All is not lost, though. The point of Brett’s paper is to get us to reconsider how we view failure — going so far as to redefine it. He suggests communicating changes to your team as experiments. “We’re going to try this out, see how it works, learn, and adjust.” Experimentation taken in small bits is much more satisfying than failing. And, one can argue that we can’t fail when we experiment since all we are doing is learning.
Learning to try things
There is a plethora of literature on failure and how humans cope with it. Are there things you face in the day-to-day work that you want to change but aren’t sure how? Consider adjusting a few small pieces in how you approach tasks or habits and observe what happens. Observation includes seeing how your team reacts and how you feel about it.
Maybe it would be useful to talk with them about experimenting? What’s the worst thing that can happen? You might just surprise yourself.
References
Bonfield, B. (2016). Failure FTW (“For The Win”). Journal of the Leadership & Management Section, 12(1), 7–10.
