#567 How to use Tiny experiments to make progress at work | Tiny Experiments

**Sarah** (0:00)
The only experiments that fail are when you fail to learn.

**Anne-Laure Le Cunff** (0:03)
I think this is such a good definition of what I mean by a good mistake.

**Sarah** (0:09)
What is a tiny experiment, and how do we design one?

**Anne-Laure Le Cunff** (0:13)
Try at first to only run one experiment at a time, finish your experiment, and then you can design the next one. There's always going to be uncertainty, but what you can change is how you respond to it. Trying to be in control, clinging to those plans, or you can respond a little bit more like a scientist, and curious and saying, okay, I'm not quite sure what's going to happen here.

**Sarah** (0:33)
How should I get started?

**Anne-Laure Le Cunff** (0:35)
I'm going to use this space to experiment. I'm going to use this space to learn, to learn about myself, about my work, and about the world around me.

**Sarah** (0:43)
We make a mistake in our team, you share it on the same day. Also to stop the mistake magnifying.

**Anne-Laure Le Cunff** (0:48)
Any mistake you learn from is a good mistake.

**Sarah** (0:51)
Nice.
Hi, I'm Sarah, and this is the Squiggly Careers podcast, where every week we borrow some brilliance from a person, a place, sometimes even an object, and turn that curiosity into useful action for you and your career. And this week, I have the borrowed brilliance with me in the room. And if you're not watching, don't worry, you'll be able to hear her along the way. And this is a very special guest. So we've got Anne-Laure with us, who I think lots of you will already follow on LinkedIn, and if you're not, you should be, who wrote an amazing book called Tiny Experiments. And do you want to know the worst thing about writing a book that I think is that we wrote Learn Like a Lobster, which has a whole chapter on experiments, and Anne-Laure's book hadn't come out. And so the thing that makes me most sad about our book is that you are not in it. And so I need to do a second edition because we have all of our expert insights in Learn Like a Lobster.
And we talk about experiments, we finish writing, and then your book came out. And I was like, no, because it is fantastic. So it's okay though, because that's what podcasts are for, right? So welcome to the podcast, Anne-Laure. I'm so excited about our conversation today.

**Anne-Laure Le Cunff** (2:05)
Thanks so much for having me. And I feel like what you just described first has happened to me as well, where I then talk to authors or discover books, and I feel like, oh, why didn't I know about it before writing my book? But also very aligned with what you write about and what I write about in my book.
This happens because we keep on learning. So it's not a static thing, right? So it's bound to happen.

**Sarah** (2:26)
It is. It just this one in particular, I was like, oh, it's so connected. But you're right. I mean, the whole point of Learn Like a Lobster is that we never stop learning and growing. So you're telling me something I already know. So we are going to start with one of my favorite quotes in the book. I'm going to read out because I think it helps to frame the conversation. So you say, and you write so brilliantly, it's such an amazing mix of, it's my favorite mix of research, evidence, it's super credible, really thoughtful, but I also understand it all. I get it.
You say, linear goals promise certainty. If we just stick to the plan and climb, we will arrive safely at the expected destination. But life rarely follows such rigid and predictable patterns. Experiments are built for the in-betweens. They propel you forward even without a fixed destination, in constant conversation with your inner self and the outer world. It got a double underline.
And so I wanted to start before we talk about designing a tiny experiment and what that might mean in your working week, what does it mean to have an experimental mindset?

**Anne-Laure Le Cunff** (3:36)
I really think about an experimental mindset in contrast with a linear mindset. And I think it can be helpful to use a mental model to think about them. So the mental model of a linear mindset is the one of a ladder. So you have a clear plan with clear steps. And you tell yourself, if I climb this ladder in the right order, if I go through these steps in the right order, then I'll get to this place of success.