All the playful trials, risk-taking, inevitable mistakes, and the mess that gets repurposed into something new—all that expansive curiosity—needs some boundaries.
But isn’t it supposed to be an open mode? (If you’re curious to know more look up this article)
Openness within boundaries
Think of it like a big room with a sliding door. When you throw a party, you slide the door wide open, giving your guests space to move around freely, to dance, chat, and enjoy themselves without feeling afraid of stepping on someone’s toes. You wouldn’t cram them into tiny locked rooms. But you still set some limits. You close certain doors to keep nosy guests out. You blast the music, but only until 10 PM—unless you’re my 20-year-old neighbour, but that’s another story. You tuck away that valuable vase from your pottery class.
In short, you set some ground rules.
But within those, everything else is fair game.
The same goes for creative experimentation during transformations. You want everyone to feel safe taking risks, throwing out wild ideas, and keeping a positive mindset. You want to encourage failure, but within certain limits. You don’t want aimless chaos, especially if it drags on. You want openness that sparks new ideas, ones you can actually use to grow your company.
Decision making culture
That’s the essence of a culture of constraints as opposed to a culture of permission. In times of transformation, constraints create a wide-open space for innovation within clearly defined boundaries. Within those boundaries, you don’t need to ask your superiors or investors for approval every time you have a new idea—you just act on it.
But it’s also about freedom of expression, honest feedback, and being candid, without getting bogged down by consensus that dilutes ideas into mediocrity. Instead, you seek consent through the strong bonds of trust within your company—trust you’ve given and trust you’ve earned.
Head of Failure & Experimentation
Some of the best in business really get this balance right. Take Steven Bartlett, for example. In his Diary of a CEO business, he hired a Head of Failure & Experimentation, whose job is to actually drive up the team’s failure rate! He also hired a data specialist who provides rapid feedback on these experiments, helping to measure outcomes and iterate quickly. Both roles give the rest of the team the freedom to explore and innovate without fearing failure, but within a framework that keeps risks calculated. Any lessons learned from mistakes are immediately applied to refine future efforts. It’s a smart way to let creativity thrive without sacrificing the company’s stability or direction.
“Those that fail the fastest, get the most feedback, because failure is feedback and feedback is knowledge and knowledge is power.”
-Steven Bartlett
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