Popular culture celebrates experimentation and gives lip service to accepting failure through stories like Thomas Edison's long quest to invent of the electric light bulb, about which he said, "I haven't failed; I've simply found 2,000 ways that don't work." Yet in reality, we forget such lessons and the idea that experimentation is not just good, it's desirable.

In organizations, we often act as if there truly is nothing new under the sun and the ways of doing things are clear, established, and sacrosanct. Not only that, we position failure as the worst possible outcome, to be avoided at all costs. This bias against failure blocks experimentation, which then blocks innovation and creativity at a time when the global economy in which we live cherishes speed and invention. Organizations simply cannot remain competitive unless they embrace experimentation that will allow people to question and challenge the status quo.

What is experimentation?

Experimentation invites risk and encourages us to work outside of our comfort zone. If organizations aren't encouraging employees to push against their limits, the implicit message is that experimentation and creativity aren't valued, and perhaps not even tolerated. This plays into the fear many have of trying something new and the failure that can result. Experimentation also requires new a mindset about the value of failure - which society hails in theory as necessary for invention, but that in practice is generally discouraged or leads to punishment.

Some ways of thinking that block experimentation relate to planning. Most organizations teach their people to rehearse and plan - if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. While planning is critical, just as important is the ability and flexibility to know when and how to veer from the plan. Moreover, organizations should remember that spontaneity can lead to great results - sometimes having no plan is good thing.

Organizations must also make room for employees to slow down and reflect on established methods, so they can sort the helpful from the outdated and wasteful. Additionally, experimentation must go hand-in-hand with flexibility. When moving in one direction results in a dead end, we must be ready and able to adjust to make major course changes quickly, nimbly, and efficiently.

When individuals are permitted and encouraged to experiment and grow, boundaries are broken, encouraging exploration of ideas that may reside in uncharted territory. We (and our organizations) need to not only explore such territory - we need to write the new maps.

Tara Whittle is vice president of strategy acceleration for the Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group. For 40 years, Kaleel Jamison has been partnering with organizations to unleash higher operational performance using inclusion as the how; tarawhittle@kjcg.com.

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