Page 215 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

HOW DO I RESPOND TO DISPOSABILITY AND CHANGE? (GROWTH, LEARNING, AND RESILIENCE)

Experimentation

Leaders encourage experimentation and innovation by
asking employees for their input and encouraging employ-
ees to try out their ideas. Employees with successful track
records get more latitude in experiments. Experiments
are bounded in time and space and audited rigorously to
determine how well they work. Experiments may occur
in a number of areas: product design and features (e.g.,
Microsoft Office), service (e.g., FedEx), channel of distri-
bution (e.g., online purchases), operations (e.g., Walmart’s
supply chain), cost management (e.g., lean manufacturing
at Herman Miller), customer experiences (e.g., Starbucks),
management processes (e.g., virtual teams at Nokia), busi-
ness model (e.g., direct distribution at Dell), or industry
redefinition (e.g., iPod at Apple). Experiments that don’t
work should be abandoned, with lessons learned trans-
ferred to other settings and without lingering investments
in the unsuccessful experiment.
Learning leaders also accept difficult and new assign-
ments where they ask lots of questions and are resourceful
and creative in approaching traditional problems. They are
open to alternatives rather than locked into habits. These
leaders generally have many interests both inside and out-
side of work.
Google employees work aggressively on building a cul-
ture of experimentation or innovation. They have identified
10 attitudes for innovation that capture their commitment to
experimentation: 4

1. Ideas can come from anybody.
2. Share everything you can (new ideas and projects are
put on the Internet).

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