ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the critical importance of safe-to-fail cultures of experimentation and offers suggestions on how to cultivate them. The chapter begins with a brief presentation on agile and lean approaches. It then examines the need to establish a safe-to-fail environment to foster a culture of experimentation. Complex situations require a probe-sense-respond approach that, in turn, necessitates experimentation. Solutions to complex problems cannot be predicted or designed prior to discovery and experimentation; they must emerge. Leadership must establish conditions which promote experimentation, establish a general direction, then step out of the way. The chapter concludes with a discussion of a four-step approach to adopt lean practices and create a culture of experimentation. Resilient organizations promote a safe-to-fail culture that recognizes the value of small, inexpensive, and thoughtful experiments performed in parallel to provide meaningful information for action.
