How do you create a culture where it's OK to fail early and experiment? How do you build an evidence base that will gain extra investment into innovation? That was the subject at the final #CommsHero slot of 2016 in Manchester, England

1. Failing faster and better:
how TO experiment in public
(and not get fired)
#CommsHero Manchester

2. Hello!
I’m Paul Taylor I’m Innovation Coach at @BromfordLab
You can find me at @PaulBromford

3. The Twitter Test
Where Do You get your best
ideas?

4. It wasn’t lack of ideas or poor leadership
that killed Blockbuster - it was resistance
to change

5. 1.
Some Context
A bit about Bromford, Bromford
Lab and failure

6. Blast from the past: 2003 sunday times best employers
Microsoft 1st 😃
Bromford 5th 😳
Asda 7th 😤

7. Doors were opened - we went
outside our sector

8. Our DNA

9. The social media policy

11. Whatever the
benchmark is:
do the opposite

12. Daring to be different means
you need to make friends with:
× Sarcasm
× “Constructive criticism” (Inc. Idiots)
× Failure

13. Rewiring your
Organisation

14. 1: Test and research
2:Pilots demonstrate customer value/performance
3: Evaluation shows scaling could reduce repairs by 3million
and improve cashflows by 1million
4: Scale up 130 roles.

15. 2.
Fear of failure
Why we say failure is an
opportunity to learn - but don’t
really mean it

16. how to kill creativity
Hierarchy Restrictive Job Profiles Over complication
Silo working Lack of resources Reports and approvals

18. Lab 2014 - a safe space where bromford doesn’t exist

19. PERMISSION TO FAIL IS
PERMISSION TO THINK
BIG
WE HAVE AN
ALLOWABLE FAILURE
RATE OF 70%

20. Moonshot
It’s often easier to make something 10 times better than it is
to make it 10% better. And we need 10x gains to solve some
of the biggest problems facing humankind
Astro Teller

21. Try to be wrong as fast as you can

22. A PROTOTYPE IS WORTH 1000 MEETINGS

23. All life is an experiment - the more you make the better
Problem
Definition
Design Test
Learn and
move on
Good to go

24. Think big but start small
Avoid solutions in search of a problem
Every problem is an opportunity
Don’t keep talking about it - try it!
A quick fail beats a slow steady death
Innovation is about impact not ideas
Creativity is intelligence having fun
Go to the centre of the network
Fast failure is good risk management
Be ruthless pulling the plug
Lab Lessons

25. 3.
FAiling better and
faster
Creating space for experiments

26. Experiment
How do you solve a problem
like Asif Choudry ?

28. Building to fail
Chindogu: The Art Of
Intentionally Making A
Useless Invention

34. Design an Un-Useless Solution to
help asif’s family by Keeping him off
Twitter
You must feature:
Asif
A smartphone
A Household Object/pet of your
choosing

35. Problem
definition
12 weeks max
Coaching
Think 10x bigger
prototype
Test
Evaluate
Fail?
Prepare exit
resource for
scale

36. LearningEvidence
Unintended
Consequences

37. A Simple Experiment
Could we make
people more likely to
talk to the Lonely?

38. Frugal Innovation
You stick Amazon Alexa in the office?
You put Google Glass on customers for home
viewings?
You give people access to 3D Printing?
You install home sensors that can track the occupancy
of homes?
You make video gaming available at work?
You get kids to redesign communities with Minecraft?
You use Whatsapp in place of email?
You let your development team use drones to
photograph land?

39. Share your problems, ideas and experiments with others

40. 4.
Daring to fail
Building trust and eliminating the
wrong type of failure

41. Yellow
Is the color of gold,
butter and ripe
lemons. In the
spectrum of visible
light, yellow is found
between green and
orange.
Blue
Is the colour of the
clear sky and the
deep sea. It is
located between
violet and green on
the optical
spectrum.
Red
Is the color of blood,
and because of this
it has historically
been associated
with sacrifice,
danger and courage.

42. Your challenge:
Find The Problem
Test Something
Disprove the Fear

43. Get someone to write you a business case why you shouldn’t do
something

44. Or..
Just Do It
and Don’t
Tell anyone

45. Or even...
…Just Do
It and Say
someone
else told
you to do it

47. The Twitter Result

48. EACH MORNING REMIND YOURSELF
THAT A YEAR OF YOUR LIFE WILL BE
SPENT IN MEETINGS
THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT

49. Mediocrity isn’t an accident
Let’s declare war on it

50. thanks
You can message me at @PaulBromford
Or email lab@bromford.co.uk

51. Special thanks to all the people who made and
released these awesome resources for free:
× Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
× Photographs by Startupstockphotos