experiments ⁽³⁾

"I'm not the CEO. My boss doesn't get it. What can I actually do?" Perfect question. Today we tackle the hardest position - leading change when you have zero formal authority. If you've ever felt frustrated watching problems you could fix if someone would just listen, this is for you.

Your Front-Line Advantages:
🎯 You see real problems (not the PowerPoint version)
🔍 You know what actually works (versus corporate theater)
💪 You have credibility with people doing the work
⚡ Your 15% solution - the sphere you can control right now

*15% Solutions - Liberating Structure developed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless. Inspired by professor Gareth Morgan: https://www.liberatingstructures.com/7-15-solutions/

The 8-Week Battle Plan:

• Week 1: Map your real influence and find allies
• Week 2: Start your first micro-experiment
• Week 3: Make success visible to colleagues
• Week 4: Partner with someone curious
• Weeks 5-8: Let it spread organically

Key Strategies:
Start ridiculously small (one shared list changed everything) Find productive disruption techniques Make your manager your ally through results Use strategic passive resistance wisely Stay humble about success to avoid backlash

"You were the chosen one." That's how I feel about what happened to agile. We took beautiful principles for unleashing human potential and turned them into exactly what we were trying to escape: rigid ceremonies, certification mills, and story point torture sessions.

What Went Wrong:
🏝️ Cargo cult behavior: Copying agile forms without understanding the spirit
📜 Certification industrial complex: Weekend certifications and 150+ page frameworks
⚖️ Principles vs practices: We codified flexibility and removed adaptability
🔄 The scaling trap: When "this helped our team" becomes "mandatory for all teams"

What Actually Works:
✅ Experimenting and Learning is REAL agility
✅ Principles (trust, transparency) beat frameworks every time
✅ Voluntary adoption vs mandated compliance
✅ Local ownership vs corporate scaling

Real Examples:

• Valve: No hierarchy, billions in revenue through principles over process
• W.L. Gore: Lattice organization enabling constant innovation
• Spotify: Evolved organically, never became rigid doctrine

The Pattern:

• Boeing (rigid processes) failed.
• Alcoa (flexible principles) succeeded.

Your approach avoids the agile trap by growing change organically with informal leaders instead of imposing structure from above. 

You've seen the evidence (trust beats control) and found the hidden leaders in your organization. Now what? Here's your practical playbook that actually works - no rigid frameworks, just smart experiments with the people who can make change happen.

Your 5-Step Roadmap:

🎯 Step 1: Find your spark - What problem keeps you up at night?
📊 Step 2: Reality check - Coffee conversations with informal leaders
🧪 Step 3: Design experiments together - Start tiny, time-boxed, voluntary
📈 Step 4: Make success visible - Progress tracking that motivates
🚀 Step 5: Let success pull - Organic spread beats mandates

The Magic Formula: Small experiment + informal leader support + visible results = organic spread

Your 8-Week Timeline:

Weeks 1-2: Get clear and listen
Weeks 3-4: Co-create your first experiment
Weeks 5-6: Run it (celebrate small wins publicly)
Weeks 7-8: Let success spread naturally