Do small experiments help you be more innovative?

I was recently at an entrepreneurship conference in Nashville when a panelist (Eric of Hustle Fund) talked about what he looks for in a founder to invest in. “Hustle” was at the top of his list, and he went on to describe hustle as someone who “takes more shots on goal.” 

Shoot more, score more 🥅

In soccer, if you don’t shoot, you can’t score. So generally, the team who makes more attempts to score…eventually ends up scoring more and winning more.

If you want to score, you have to shoot ⚽

So, can that be applied to innovation practices in a company? Absolutely. Your team will obviously never create a new product or service that transforms how you do business without trying.

Celebrate the attempt 🥳

But trying new things can be scary, risky, difficult, etc… right? Yes, sometimes “taking a shot on goal” can seem like it’s all those things. But if a soccer player takes a shot and misses, the team still celebrates the attempt. “Oooh, that was sooo close… next time we’ll score, keep shooting!”

Change how your team views taking a shot 👀

The key to changing how your team sees taking a shot comes down to two things.

1. reducing the consequences for misses
2. taking more shots on goal

Low-risk experiments help you take more shots 👩‍🔬

Running small experiments in your organization accomplishes both of these things. If a big project with thousands of dollars on the line misses, then that could be a big deal. But if a small experiment fails, then it’s no big deal. A failing experiment is an expected possibility.

The difference is the amount of risk. What are the consequences if we miss? Running lots of low-risk experiments gets your team used to taking more shots and gets them comfortable with misses. “That was so close…keep shooting!” It also means there will be more scores. 😉

Examples coming soon

I’ll talk more about examples of low-risk, small experiments you could run in future posts, but what examples of low-risk experiments have you seen? Drop me an email at wm@SodiumHalogen.com 

PS - Are you wanting to bring more innovation to your workplace? 

We did too, so we created a step-by-step framework that anyone on our team could use to change “possibly good ideas” into a solid product that has already been battle-tested and de-risked.
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