The Power of Impossible Thinking: Transform the Business of Your Life and the Life of Your Business by Yoram (Jerry) R. Wind & Colin Crook & Robert E. Gunther

Author:Yoram (Jerry) R. Wind & Colin Crook & Robert E. Gunther
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Pearson Education
Published: 2007-12-05T05:00:00+00:00

Conducting Cognitive R&D

We all are familiar with the process of experimentation in the laboratory. What is the process at the personal level? Is it one big experiment or a series of little experiments?

This R&D approach is to regard the external world as not totally understood and constantly changing. Our mental models are treated as hypotheses. We need to either confirm the value of our existing mental models or to postulate new ones and carry out experiments to validate them. Either way, the external world is always regarded as an experiment. When things are not quite right, experiments or "probes" are sent out to investigate. This approach should not create an excuse for constant uncertainty or doubt or paralyze our ability to make decisions. It is the basis for remaining aligned to the reality of our world in order to maintain our competitive position. And experiments are a way to establish causality.

We can take three approaches to experimentation:

Planned Experiments. From our scientific training, this is what we usually think of when we discuss experimentation—a controlled and sharply defined study. We develop a hypothesis, design an experiment to test that hypothesis and then analyze the results to see whether they confirm or disconfirm the hypothesis. We begin to develop new understanding that might suggest a new hypothesis or further testing of the existing one. This method turns random experiences into systematic learning, but the experiments are often quite difficult and expensive to conduct effectively unless we have an environment in which we can control many of the variables.

Natural Experiments. We can learn from natural experiments through the same discipline, but even more care is needed. Everyday life generates vast amounts of data, but we ignore or dispose of most of what we see or experience (except, of course, for Funes the Memorious, discussed in the preceding chapter, who remembered everything). Natural experiments go on around us continuously, although we seldom view them as such. If we adjust our viewpoint and regard them as natural experiments, we can exploit them by developing theories to explain events going on around us and then examine how things work out. The surrounding world may not have the controlled structure of a formal scientific experiment, but it can serve as an effective learning laboratory.

Adaptive Experimentation. The third approach, which can be used in conjunction with the other two, is to ensure that the process of experimentation is ongoing. As each experiment is completed and assessed, the hypothesis is adjusted as needed, and then the next experiment begins. Experimentation is not a one-time activity but rather a continuous process of trial and adjustment and a commitment to continue with the results.

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