Bunsen burners, pipettes, safety goggles, phenyl orange…ahh the days of chemistry lessons, desperately trying to get the right result or at least not causing the apparatus to self combust in the lab.
Experimentation in its purest form. At an age when it was okay to experiment.
But why are we so afraid to experiment in our businesses or professions? If we don’t experiment, we do not explore alternatives, get creative, gather information, learn, broaden our vision, and ultimately increase our chances of success.
So what is stopping us?
Josh Kaufman made an interesting observation. He offered the notion that we conflate certainty with competence and I believe therein lies the rub. If we do not appear to know precisely where we are headed and how we are going to get there we are regarded as being incompetent, doomed for failure. But success is never a straight line and in fact the beauty of experimentation is that it enables you to explore alternatives without that pressure of having all the answers.
There should always be an element of experimentation in our working lives, whatever form that takes. Have the confidence to try new things, learn from them and let them inform your next steps. We should embrace it as a healthy means of growing our businesses and professionally.
Go experiment!
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