An Experiment Worth Running
Embrace Experimentation: Shift Toward Success
The Pitfalls of Planning
When I ask my clients what they want to get out of a session, they often say “a plan for x,” “a schedule for y,” “a structure for z.” This desire makes perfect sense, especially regarding something that we are working on alone.
The tricky part is: we don’t always have the information we need to decide on an effective plan or work structure that will achieve our goal. If it involves something we haven’t done before, we are even less likely to know exactly what it will take. I see (and know) a common experience of deciding on a schedule, starting it, and realizing it doesn’t work how we imagined. Ugh!
But we don’t want to abandon it (because that would make us a quitter!), so we keep trying to make it work while our attention darts back and forth between whatever it is we want to focus on and the stress that we’re behind schedule.
This makes it much more difficult to do the thing. Wasn't the whole point of the structure to make it easier?
How might our experience of *doing the thing* change if, in the beginning, we embrace the nature of experimentation?
“I’ve been talking to folks about the importance of us building a million little experiments, just building and trying and taking risks and understanding we’re going to have tons of failure, and failure is actually a good way for us to learn lessons that help us…
People want to treat ‘we’ll figure it out by working to get there’ as a sort of rhetorical evasion instead of being a fundamental expression of trust in the power of conscious collective effort.”
How Experimentation Sets Us Up For Success
Learning Through “Failure” — Data, Not Setbacks
In this quote, Mariame Kaba is discussing collective organizing, but this truth has something to offer us even in our individual efforts.
When we design an experiment and it fails, we gain useful data about what doesn’t work. When we commit to a plan of action and that fails, it can feel like a much bigger setback. Embracing the nature of experimentation allows us to notice what’s not working without blaming ourselves for this reality.
From Obstacles to Breakthroughs: A Coaching Perspective
I support my clients to look at what their obstacles are so that they can clearly see where there is an opportunity for a breakthrough. Once they see it, I often ask: “Given what you’ve just seen, what is an experiment worth running?” By “worth running,” I mean something that will give them useful "data" on what it will take to reach their goal.
Designing and Running an Effective Experiment
Focus on What Works
As experimenters, we are not interested in finding the right way or the wrong way; we focus on ways that work and ways that don’t.
We also must be specific about the duration of an experiment. It needs a beginning and an end so that we get the necessary distance from which we can reflect on how it went. When I support my clients to design experiments, we usually include a step for written reflection on what worked and what didn't; it's much easier to use data that we intentionally record.
Learning From My Current Experiment
Right now I’m in the fifth iteration of an experiment to grow my writing practice. Some data I’ve collected on what works: writing at my standing desk, setting a timer, preparing tasty liquids before I start writing, and listening to music without lyrics.
Some data I’ve collected on what doesn’t: editing while I write, writing while hungry, and having my phone within arm’s reach.
Lucky for me, several of my clients are writers (major shout out to y'all!), so I've gotten to learn from the wisdom they've uncovered through their experimentation. Do you see an opportunity to design an experiment worth running somewhere in your life? If you do, embrace it! I suspect you'll uncover some wisdom of your own.