Failing faster and better:how TO experiment in public (and not get fired)

#CommsHero Manchester

Hello!

I’m Paul Taylor I’m Innovation Coach at @BromfordLabYou can find me at @PaulBromford

The Twitter Test

Where Do You get your best ideas?

It wasn’t lack of ideas or poor leadership that killed

Blockbuster - it was resistance to change

1.Some Context

A bit about Bromford, Bromford Lab and failure

Blast from the past: 2003 sunday times best employers

Microsoft 1st 😃

Bromford 5th 😳Asda 7th 😤

Doors were opened - we went outside our sector

Our DNA

The social media policy

Whatever the

benchmark is:

do the opposite

Daring to be different means

you need to make friends with:

× Sarcasm× “Constructive criticism” (Inc.

Idiots)× Failure

Rewiring yourOrganisation

1: Test and research

2:Pilots demonstrate customer value/performance

3: Evaluation shows scaling could reduce repairs by 3million and improve cashflows by 1million

4: Scale up 130 roles.

2.Fear of failure

Why we say failure is an opportunity to learn - but don’t

really mean it

how to kill creativityHierarchy Restrictive Job Profiles Over complication

Silo working Lack of resources Reports and approvals

Lab 2014 - a safe space where bromford doesn’t exist

PERMISSION TO FAIL IS PERMISSION TO THINK BIG

WE HAVE AN ALLOWABLE FAILURE RATE OF 70%

Moonshot

It’s often easier to make something 10 times better than it is to make it 10%

better. And we need 10x gains to solve some of the biggest problems facing

humankind

Astro Teller

Try to be wrong as fast as you can

A PROTOTYPE IS WORTH 1000 MEETINGS

All life is an experiment - the more you make the better

Problem Definition

Design Test

Learn and move on

Good to go

Think big but start small

Avoid solutions in search of a problem

Every problem is an opportunity

Don’t keep talking about it - try it!

A quick fail beats a slow steady death

Innovation is about impact not ideas

Creativity is intelligence having fun

Go to the centre of the network

Fast failure is good risk management

Be ruthless pulling the plug

Lab Lessons

3.FAiling better

and fasterCreating space for

experiments

Experiment

How do you solve a problem like Asif

Choudry ?

Building to fail

Chindogu: The Art Of Intentionally Making A Useless Invention

Design an Un-Useless Solution to help asif’s family by Keeping him off Twitter

You must feature:Asif A smartphoneA Household Object/pet of your choosing

Problem definition

12 weeks max

Coaching

Think 10x bigger

prototype Test

Evaluate

Fail?

Prepare exit

resource for scale

From Experiments you get:

LearningEvidence Unintended Consequences

A Simple Experiment

Could we make people more

likely to talk to the Lonely?

Frugal InnovationYou stick Amazon Alexa in the office?You put Google Glass on customers for home viewings?You give people access to 3D Printing?You install home sensors that can track the occupancy of homes?You make video gaming available at work?You get kids to redesign communities with Minecraft?You use Whatsapp in place of email?You let your development team use drones to photograph land?

Share your problems, ideas and experiments with others

4.Daring to failBuilding trust and eliminating

the wrong type of failure

What are the irrational fears where you work?YellowIs the color of gold, butter and ripe lemons. In the spectrum of visible light, yellow is found between green and orange.

BlueIs the colour of the clear sky and the deep sea. It is located between violet and green on the optical spectrum.

RedIs the color of blood, and because of this it has historically been associated with sacrifice, danger and courage.

Your challenge:

Find The Problem

Test Something

Disprove the Fear

Get someone to write you a business case why you shouldn’t do something

Or..Just Do It and Don’t Tell

anyone

Or even...

…Just Do It

and Say someon

e else told you to do it

Be the mischief:

You’ll always have 50% of people for the old rather than the new

The Twitter Result

EACH MORNING REMIND YOURSELF THAT A YEAR OF YOUR LIFE WILL BE SPENT IN MEETINGS

THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT

Mediocrity isn’t an accidentLet’s declare war on it

thanksYou can message me at @PaulBromford

Or email lab@bromford.co.uk

CreditsSpecial thanks to all the people who made and released these awesome resources for free:× Presentation template by

SlidesCarnival× Photographs by Startupstockphotos