In This Edition Of The Soulful Lens at Work:

This newsletter has a new format! Let’s walk through what each section means so you’re ready for the next issue.

SOULFUL: Learning can feel exhilarating! Trying different things until something works is fun.
PRACTICAL: Uncertainty can be a competitive advantage if you can learn and adapt quickly. And it results in a better offering.
THE CONNECTION: There is delight in surprises, and a surprising result means you’ve uncovered new information.
TRY THIS: Look for one way to run an experiment to learn or reduce risk.

Hi Reader,

“Experiment and Learn” is a hot matra in business. Ever since the book Lean Startup, businesses started to understand that they need to learn quickly and adapt.

We understand conceptually, but in practice it requires people to unravel decades of conditioning.

What conditioning? Waste. For literally decades we have been conditioned to “eliminate waste.” We are still using these words. Heck, I’m using these words!

The nuance here is whether a failed experiment is waste. In hindsight of course it is, because if you knew what you didn’t know, you would have done it in the first place.

But you didn’t know. And that is the topic of our newsletter today.

"There is no such thing as a failed experiment, because learning what doesn't work is a necessary step to learning what does."
– Attributed to Jonas Salk

Soulfully ✨
- Jardena

Learning Sparks Joy

In framing requirements, I often ask clients “in addition to what you are building, what do you need to learn?”

The answer is usually “Nothing. We know what we need to do. We just need to do it.”

Most time, it quickly becomes clear that there are a lot of unknowns, that inevitably throw risk into the plan and chaos into the program.

Why is it so hard to identify things we need to learn? I propose that it’s because learning means you don’t know, and not knowing is not considered “valuable” for most organizations.

Lean production systems taught many of us that “if it’s not something a customer would be willing to pay for, it’s not a value-add step.” And a customer would probably not pay for you to learn.

So why is experimentation and learning soulful? Because we don’t know everything. And when we have to pretend we do, and tap dance around being wrong, it makes us inauthentic.

We shouldn’t know everything! We should be learning!

Running an experiment and being surprised by the results, is the climax of every innovation story you've ever heard. It’s soulful. It’s human. It’s delightful!

"Learning has become synonymous with taking in information, but real learning is about expanding the ability to create." - Peter Senge

Uncertainty is a Competitive
Opportunity

Being competitive means you learn faster than your competition, not that you know more.

Uncertainty creates opportunity. And those that can learn and apply quickly, will be better positioned to take advantage of that opportunity.

"The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organization's ability to learn faster than the competition."
- Peter Senge

Think about it this way, if your whole job is already knowable, why isn’t your competition doing it?

I promise you this, competition isn’t just about executing. If it were that easy, there wouldn’t be competition. It’s about learning and adapting, that’s the wildcard, and the wildcard is where differentiation lives.

When you get energized by finding opportunities in uncertainty, you’re on your way to success.

Surprise Results can be Fun!

What’s the connection between the soulful and practical when it comes to Experimentation? Anyone who has played a competitive game or sport knows, it’s fun to find a winning strategy! And it’s fun along the way when you try different strategies to see which ones work.

Surprise Becomes the Goal, Not the Enemy

In rigid systems, being surprised is a problem. It means something went “wrong.”
But in learning-centered systems, surprise is the win - because it means you’ve uncovered new information.

The best experiments don’t just validate what you already believe.
They reveal something you didn’t know you needed to learn.

This shift - from control to discovery - is what makes learning soulful and strategic.
It’s the same moment a scientist feels when a test result rewrites a theory.
It’s practical, and useful, because it uncovers something of value.
It’s soulful because it feels exhilarating.

Try This in Your Next Planning Meeting

Find one thing in the plan that might not go as expected.
Not just “what if customers don’t buy it” - think broader:

What if the tech doesn’t hold up?
What if we can’t hire fast enough?
What if we’re wrong about which tool will work best?

Propose an experiment. Something small and early that helps you learn fast:

A/B test a “coming soon” offer to see which message works.
Load test two algorithms to see which one scales better.
Pilot two tools to compare actual usability.

You’ll get resistance.
People will say, “We already know what to do.”
Doing two things can feel like waste.
And proposing that something might not work, can make people feel threatened.

So make the test small, cheap, and quick.
Find something with real risk if you're wrong, and offer a way to learn early - before it’s painful.

One good experiment can save the whole plan.
And it makes learning part of how you work - not just something you do when things break.

Every setback is a step forward in the learning process. This quote by Jonas Salk reminds us that experiments, whether they succeed or fail, are all part of discovering what works.

This Week’s LinkedIn Highlights

In case you missed it, one of last week’s post dives into how decision-making isn’t just about making choices - it’s about designing the right system to move things forward. This post breaks down how clarifying who decides, who advises, and when can eliminate the endless cycle of re-deciding.

Ready to move decisions forward with less friction? Check out this post and learn how redesigning your decision process can bring focus and momentum to your team.

Read more on LinkedIn below and discover actionable steps you can take to streamline your decision-making process.