The Power of Experimentality
The interesting bit about this experiment is that people failed to understand free fall for over a thousand years until Galileo. I think the key issue here is the belief that the ideas of Aristotle, who was considered the greatest authority of the period, were indisputable and it was absolutely unnecessary to even try questioning them. If we wanted to observe a similar experimentation today, all we would need is an umbrella. Climb to the top of a tall building, drop a closed umbrella, then do the same with an open umbrella and observe the radical difference. Well, what exactly is this power that renders this imagery and these ideas unquestionable for as long as thousand years?
That's why Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott dropped a hammer and a feather at the same time towards the lunar surface during the 1971 expedition. As Galileo and Einstein predicted and expected, both the hammer and the feather touched the lunar surface at the same time. These scientists thought that all objects would fall to the ground at the same time in the absence of air resistance. They managed to predict this, although they did not have the chance to observe David's experience. So what was the driving force, the internal motivation that suggested they had to persistently experiment?
The form of free thought that we try to create by removing the authoritative ideas is capable of answering both of these questions. It is true that some elements such as experience, rank, and power give us competence and convenience, but should we underestimate their dark side?
At Latro, we worked with the performance systems we call KPI for a long time. To put it simply, KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are an effective method based on target realization at the end of a pre-determined period. It contains many outputs such as promotions, income models, positions, productivity, and goals as well as many input variables that present a significant value. We examined a lot of basic performance data during the periods when we set goals for ourselves, even when we set them at a micro-scale on an individual customer or product basis. Some just represented our activities, some the output we created. Did they work? Yes, of course. Did they make an extraordinary difference? Absolutely no. Yes, we were reaching our goals and monitoring progress, but in a constant comparison and competition environment, we were monitoring the performance of individuals or teams rather than the benefit the ecosystem created. In fact, the main purpose was to “monitor”. We realized that we were tracking exactly 52 different units of data only when we changed the system. What was interesting was that the time we spent for collecting and preparing this data was longer than the time we spent for analyzing it. The realities of that period certainly presented aspects and awareness that developed us at that stage of our journey, but they did not open the doors to new opportunities and perspectives for us. It was surrounded by secret authorities, which were secretly harbored, sometimes manifesting themselves as competence and sometimes as seniority. And everyone in the ecosystem considered and measured each line in the KPI as their performance.
As we witnessed that the ecosystem benefited extraordinary solutions in the following period, we first got rid of the targets. The targets constrained us through a growth of 20-25%, just like the learned realities from previous years. It was becoming our authority, which was a reminder that the significant differences and values we could create were almost unimaginable. Yes, we were growing step by step as individuals who were happy but not satisfied when we received our reward.
When we got rid of the targets and adopted a new goal of creating solutions, we attained a rather extraordinary result. We had grown more than previous periods. Back then, we experienced OKR applications for a short time. OKR is essentially a goal setting framework used to define objectives, key results and measurable goals and to monitor their results. It actually reveals the target. In terms of measurement, it uses key performance indicators to observe whether the goal is anywhere nearer. It leaves the details to the people who will do it. Our transition to the OKR system was very fast - indeed as fast as we gave up on it. Fortunately, it took us a very short time to realize that when we focused on the target, we were once again focusing on numbers and discussing results. When we realized that our ultimate focus was not the target itself, but the time spent on the way to the target, a single keyword popped up in our minds.
“Experimentalism”, which flourishes in environments where free thought can make room for itself.
As soon as experimentalism was there in the system, the only data we basically tracked was the number of different experiments we did. The moment we paved the way for extraordinary experiments and trials, we began to observe their effects. And this was how Latro's working model was formed.
“Try at any rate, make lots of mistakes and errors, and then try again.”
Teams started meeting quarterly and chatting about proposed experiments where new problems or needs were discovered. Hence the name of the meeting: "Discovery" Discovery is the essence of fundamental progress, from which all experimentation flourishes. You can think of experiments as a sort of tool set by teams to establish a short-term focus for themselves and explore specific value propositions. Some experiments only trigger learning, while some cause perfect mistakes and some make you go 'wow'. It is not the results but the trial that creates value.
Teams come together on a weekly basis and hold "progress" meetings. Progress is a weekly team event where team members check their metrics, review their experiments and adapt their actions as needed. It seeks an answer to the question of whether everything is alright and most importantly, whether we are having fun on this journey.
Monthly "Improve" meetings serve to review progress from time to time, stopping and taking a look around what's going on. Teams constantly improve themselves, but they stop at least on a monthly interval and create a ground for improvement to take a moment to think about how they are going to do the work.
Last but not least, “Share&Learn” is both the most fun and the most sharing moment to improve communication between teams as well as collective working. All teams come together quarterly to share what they have learned in addition to their failures, successes and to produce new ideas together. This activity, where each explorer feels like a perfect part of the whole, allows us to be "complete".
We cannot say that we felt the same excitement or emotion that Galileo felt when he watched two balls dropped from the tower fall at the same time. After all, we did not discover one of the most important laws of the universe. However, as we observe the gradual effects of experimentation on the Latro ecosystem day by day, we sometimes find it difficult to believe what we have achieved. The magnitude and momentum of change and transformation is incredible. We climb our own Pisa Tower, drop the traditional targets and goals, budgets, and performance criteria of the business world and replace them with an unlimited number of experiments.
And the result? Extraordinary solutions and the endless possibilities they create!