Fail Quickly

Morning Leaders

Imagine you had an idea or a potential solution to a problem, do you make the call or stress test it first?

A lot of people will bounce the idea off their colleagues or some people in that team but is that really going to give you to the perspective and the data that this new idea will work and be successful in reality?

The best and only way is to test reality. Run a pilot.

Similar to software, stress test the solution (or fix) in different environments with different variables to get an accurate picture.

The purpose of the pilot is to not find all the good things but to find all the bumps. Essentially you want to fail quickly. You want to find out what does and doesn’t work for this small group of pilot employees so you can contain the pain, and manage expectations before you look to scale to a much larger number.

Imagine if you had a business with a 1000 employees and you rolled out a new initiative without stress testing it first? It would be very painful. The early stages of feedback are vital so you can improve the initiative and find out what things you have overlooked. It becomes version 2, version 3, version 4 and so on. Then by the time, you roll it out to the whole company you are at version 10 and it’s far better than the earlier versions. This will make for a much better experience for everyone.

Photo by Science in HD on Unsplash

Try these steps with your new process or idea:

1. Get the draft idea or process change ready. Your MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Doesn’t need to be perfect, as it may change dramatically based on the feedback you receive.

2. Run a pilot for a small number of employees or users with different experiences and perspective at different levels. The goal is to fail quickly and figure out what does and doesn’t work.

3. Ask for critical feedback. What’s great and what’s not so great.

4. Implement common themes only.

5. With better viewpoints, data and perspective, you can now make better a more informed decision whether to roll it out en masse or go back to the drawing board.

Failing quickly and small will help you re-direct your efforts to what’s important and needs attention, this will help you to get things back on track before experiencing too much pain.

I have used multiple pilots to look for the bumps in the road. It’s critical you uncover those in the early stages before you scale, this will makemfor a much better employee experience.

All the best

David

Resources Of The Week

• YouTube - Brandon Burchard - What Great Leaders Actually Do. When I discovered this video I was instantly glued. Brendan talks through the 6 Es of Leadership and what behaviors make us great leaders.

• Book - Stephen R. Covey - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This beloved classic presents a principle-centered approach for solving both personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and practical anecdotes, Stephen reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity.

• App - uDemy - this is an online training platform where you can take courses in almost any subject. I have taken around 3 courses and found the quality and instructors to be great. You can usually find good Leadership courses in the promo reduced to £10-£20. Excellent value for a course to sharpen your skills.

Quote of the Week

“It’s failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.” - Ellen DeGeneres

If this newsletter has been useful to you or you think it might be to a colleague or friend, please subscribe here.