Epistemic humility and embracing uncertainty are crucial for a culture of experimentation.
Leadership should provide clear objectives and targets to align teams towards the same goal.
Creating an environment that encourages and values experimentation is essential for a healthy culture.
Deep dives
Importance of Epistemic Humility
Having a culture of experimentation requires embracing epistemic humility and operating under conditions of uncertainty. It involves acknowledging that we don't have all the answers and being willing to experiment to discover what works.
Clear Expectations for Teams
Leadership should provide teams with clear objectives and targets to aim for, while monitoring their progress and adjusting if necessary. This helps ensure that teams are aligned and working towards the same goal.
Organizational Encouragement for Experimentation
Creating an environment where experimentation is encouraged and valued is crucial. This includes allowing individuals to try new ideas, embracing failure as a learning opportunity, and celebrating the efforts made towards experimentation.
Balancing Big Swings and Optimization
A healthy culture of experimentation should involve a mix of big swings and optimization efforts. Leadership plays a role in setting expectations for teams and guiding them on whether they should focus on making small improvements or taking larger risks.
Leadership's Role in Addressing Conflicts
Leadership should actively address conflicts that arise from different parts of the organization having conflicting objectives. This may involve adjusting metrics, resolving incentives, and providing clarity on priorities to minimize conflicts and promote a unified culture of experimentation.
How does one build a strong culture of experimentation at an organization (and what does that even mean)? One way is to spend a few years working at a company that already has such a culture… and then jump ship to another organization that is well on its way! That's (sort of) what our guest, Lukas Vermeer, did when he left booking.com to go to Vista. With Val Kroll guest-co-hosting, we dug into the challenges — organizational, educational, and mindset-al (?) — when it comes to having an organization successfully and appropriately integrate experimentation into their operational ways. For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.
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