Much has been written about building a culture of experimentation, including one of my previous posts on how to create experimentation as a habit. I was recently listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantam, a social scientist. The episode was called “The Snowball Effect” and started off as follows:

“Why do some companies become household names, while others flame out? How do certain memes go viral? And why do some social movements take off and spread, while others fizzle?

I was immediately intrigued. Was there something I could learn that would help me understand why experimentation thrives in some organizations but falters in others? Why experimentation becomes a part of the DNA at some organizations but remains an occasional tactic at others? How organizations are able to grow the scope of their experimentation program year after year but others are still seeking to get a strong foothold (making a case for resources)?

As it turned out, there were a lot of interesting ideas in the episode that could help experimenters think of culture change in a different way. I hope this post helps in that journey.

The main idea of the episode is that most things spread through a simple contagion. Whether it is a virus or some information, often a “glancing contact” at say an airport is enough to transmit it. Think of a fireworks display as an example.

Ideas we are familiar with or those that make sense to us spread pretty effectively this way. There is little cognitive barrier to adopting and spreading, so one exposure is likely enough. A good example of this is the Ice Bucket Challenge, a campaign to raise awareness about ALS in 2014.

So, if your goal is to spread information, this model of simple contagion works well. However, if your goal is to change behavior and get people to take action, simple contagion is not enough. This would be participating in an actual protest as opposed to liking and sharing a meme. For example, civil rights movement, renewable energy and organic foods.

It is difficult for such ideas to take hold because:

• the idea is novel
• there is an element of persuasion
• there are strong barriers to adoption

In these situations, behavior change doesn’t happen simply from transmission or contact but requires persuasion and reinforcement. So, to effect behavior change, you need something known as complex contagion.

How does complex contagion work?

Complex contagion requires a network that reinforces new behaviors and ideas. Think Black Lives Matter. This model is more like a fishing net, created by strong ties and not a fireworks display made of weak ties as illustrated below. And although as research shows the fishing net model is slower in terms of spread, change was more likely to occur and to last in that.

So, how does complex contagion work? Complex contagion is a function of the following:

• how much do people hear about the idea?
• who do they hear it from?
• how can we show people are changing?

The first one deals with the number of exposures to the idea. The more the exposure, the higher the reinforcement. The second one focuses on the quality and strength of their relationship with people they are hearing the idea from. And finally, the last one deals with having social proof to show that the change is occuring within their network.

There is another idea that is presented in the episode that real change often begins at the periphery and then moves into mainstream. This means that groups in the periphery often adopt the idea which then influences the mainstream. The growth in popularity of Donald Trump is a case in point.

How can experimenters use complex contagion?

The central idea of the post is that behavior change doesn’t occur through simple information exchange (simple contagion). This means that just being aware of experimentation may excite stakeholders but may not be enough to change the way they work. Complex contagion is required for organizations to adopt an experimentation culture which happens through multiple exposure and social reinforcement among other factors.

Complex contagion is required for organizations to adopt an experimentation culture which happens through multiple exposure and social reinforcement among other factors.

Multiple exposure

Experimenters should take every opportunity to create awareness about the need for testing and optimization. It is important to pitch experimentation as a way to make better decisions (where there is risk) with more confidence as compared to other data sources which are mainly correlationary in nature. So, through meetings, lunch and learns, roadshows, newsletters etc., experimenters should seek to drive home the message repeatedly.

Social reinforcement

By sharing success stories from other departments, experimenters can show stakeholders how other teams are benefitting from testing. This acts as a social proof.

Another tactic is to provide support to early adopters by creating a community of supporters. Adopters of experimentation may give up if they don’t see early wins or see others adopting as well. It is easy to get disillusioned with the process especially since testing does add extra planning time and requires dev resources. So, it is important to connect early adopters with each other and with supporters to reinforce the contagion.

Peripheral groups

This idea is less intuitive than the other two but instead of solely focusing your experimentation efforts on the usual suspects (read product and marketing teams), there could be value in expanding your focus to different teams that are trying to answer interesting questions (or make decisions) but don’t come in the traditional purview of experimentation.

Many of the questions may not readily lend themselves to testing either due to sample size constraints or lack of randomization. In such cases, partner with the stakeholder to help them make sense of the research and data at their disposal. It is important to not be too narrowly focused on A/B testing (hammer and nail mentality).

This post draws ideas from the sphere of social change to help experimenters change the culture at their organizations to be more experimentation driven/ evidence based. We often blame lack of resources, HiPPOs, internal politics etc., but hopefully these ideas help expand the tools in your tool kit to drive experimentation.