Embracing Potentially Radical Change
Small steps to big impact in your organization
The Safe Path to Radical Change
Incremental improvements are comfortable. They tweak existing systems without disrupting our assumptions or workflows. We can adapt quickly and measure the impact in familiar ways. However, these small changes often deliver limited value.
True breakthroughs sometimes lie in radical change. This kind of change challenges our established ways of thinking and forces us to adapt. However, it has a conundrum at its heart: how can we reap the rewards of radical change while minimizing the associated risks?
Risk is the multiplication of likelihood and impact. We often don’t know the likelihood of something going wrong when we try new things. Instead, we can play with the ‘impact’ dial by limiting the scale of any experimentation. If things do go awry, we then have predictability over the cost of failure. This principle is sometimes referred to as “limiting the blast radius” of a test, in the spirit of the precautions taken by people who need to run experiments on potentially dangerous processes.
Examples of radical change at a non-radical scale:
Micro-pilots: Test a completely new recruiting process with a single team. This allows you to refine the approach before a full-scale rollout.
Localized trials: Offer a pay-what-you-want pricing model for a product in a specific market to gauge customer appetite.
Meeting experiments: Begin a low-stakes meeting with a short, energizing team-building activity to see if it improves engagement.
Healthy nudges: Convert one snack area in your office to stocking only healthy options. Monitor usage to see how people respond.
Building a Learning Culture
True breakthroughs from radical change come not just from the initial experiment, but from the organization's ability to learn from it. This requires building a learning organization that prioritizes continuous learning, experimentation, and adaptation. Such organizations view failures as valuable learning opportunities, not setbacks.
The foundation of this approach is psychological safety. Employees must feel comfortable sharing ideas, even if they seem risky or unconventional. This fosters an environment where good ideas can bubble up from anywhere in the organization.
Companies like Google have demonstrated this with policies like "20% Time," where employees can dedicate time to passion projects. Simple frameworks like this (that emphasize continuous learning and improvement cycles) turn each experiment into a stepping stone for the next potential breakthrough.
Human-Centered Experiments: Putting People at the Core
Successful radical change isn't just about the change itself, but how it impacts the people involved. This means incorporating human-centered design principles throughout your experiment by understanding people’s needs, concerns, and the potential benefits of the change.
Use methods like user interviews, focus groups, or surveys to gather this human-centered data. This feedback can then refine the experiment for a more positive employee experience and, ultimately, a better chance of a successful outcome.
For example, if you're experimenting with a new, self-directed work model, use focus groups to understand employee concerns about workload, communication, and collaboration. ‘Design-thinking’ frameworks that prioritize user needs and experiences can guide this process, ensuring your radical ideas actually serve the people they're meant to help.
Your Turn
What's one radical idea you could test at a small scale within your organization?
Remember, the goal isn't to avoid all risk, but to learn quickly and adapt while minimizing potential downsides.
Looking for support with problem solving and innovation? Check out this workshop. It’s ideal for a team who want to work on a real-world challenge in an engaging way and build stronger cohesion at the same time.