Act Experimentally

Leading adaptive change requires an experimental mindset which involves risks and the possibility of failure. You need to give yourself permission to fail. Scientists have been developing and testing ideas for centuries. Failure is integral to their approach. Judge your action beyond the binary “it worked” or “it didn’t work.” Consider what you are learning as your experiment.

Questions to Ask Yourself

• How are you defining success for your initiative? Does it need to be broadened?
• What are the expectations of the group working on your issue when it comes to success or failure?
• Who have you noticed that naturally experiments? How can you harness their capacity in helping the group to do more of that?