unior Achievement of Alaska is a nonprofit that helps young people expand their horizons and realize their potential. Its programs can spark imagination and ignite young people’s passion for business and entrepreneurship.

When I was 11 years old, I participated in Junior Achievement. In our cohort, someone took the idea of “igniting our passion” a little too literally.

At the start of the project, our mentors gave us several concepts to select from. There was a car emergency kit, custom greeting cards, and embossed matchbooks.

What do you think a bunch of kids selected? Matchbooks, of course!

The team was fully committed despite the distraction of market testing our product (e.g., playing with fire). We reviewed options, debated choices, created plans, sold our product, and critiqued our work. The experience of trying something new and figuring things out was transformative. Thinking that I could create a business at a young age was empowering.

I remember that feeling well. Today, it drives me to keep trying new things.

With the pace of change in the world today, innovation is critical to success. Organizations that create a culture of innovation can improve employee engagement, increase productivity, improve resiliency, and reduce costs.

Change is hard, though, and there are barriers to innovation.

Organizations have a lot to lose when trying something new. Internal disruptions can threaten profits and market share, increase turnover, and create confusion. Leaders are hesitant to make changes because of the risks involved.

The status quo carries a lot of momentum. Managers have many ideas for change but usually aren’t empowered to implement them. Without support from leadership or the potential for significant rewards, managers will focus on maximizing value with established tools and processes.

If change is to be successful, it requires commitment from everyone involved. If not fully invested in the idea, employees will succumb to operational demands and stick to what’s tried and true.

Leaders must provide a consistent and compelling vision for change to be relevant. To be successful, they must also think about how to implement their vision.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced the United States would put a man on the moon and safely return him to Earth. This seemed like an impossible goal at the time, but it helped unite and inspire the United States.

Today, companies use the idea of a moonshot to promote change and drive innovation. These big, ambitious ideas seem impossible but, if accomplished, change the organization’s trajectory.

The rewards make moonshots attractive, but undertaking one can also negatively impact an organization. For example, the world-changing vision will inspire people, but it may overlook the team’s strengths and cause you to miss an obvious opportunity.

Moonshots take organizational commitment, qualified people, and dedicated resources, which are costly. The moonshot initiative must be balanced with day-to-day operations, or you risk disrupting the entire business. Deciding who will be part of the moonshot, who won’t, and how they feel about it takes time.

Despite all of that, the rewards are compelling. You want to inspire and motivate people to change, and it is tempting to think a big initiative is the right vehicle.

In reality, most moonshots fail, people become reluctant to try again, and innovation stagnates.

Scientists approach change differently than traditional business leaders. They are constantly trying new things by running experiments. Experiments aren’t a success or failure; instead, they are an opportunity to learn. The process is more important than the outcome.

A scientist conducts an experiment, captures what was learned, makes adjustments, and then runs another experiment. As their findings become conclusive, they look to apply them practically.

You can use this approach for yourself or your organization. Have big visions and ideas, then conduct small experiments to pursue them.

I call this Aspirational Experimentation.

Experiments promote curiosity and learning, which will overcome the resistance to change. Small experiments reduce risk, which makes experimentation accessible to more employees and distributes the responsibility for innovation. This is how you build a culture of growth and engagement.

To do this effectively, you want a tool that encourages employees to experiment, provides visibility for managers, and supports capturing lessons learned.

Here’s one you can use. I call it the STARSHOT Framework.

If a moonshot is a big initiative that comes from the top, a starshot is a small initiative available to anyone.

(I know, I know… technically, stars are bigger than the moon and much farther away. But from where I’m standing, the moon is enormous, and there is only one. Stars are everywhere, look smaller, and feel more accessible.)

This framework can be turned into a checklist or worksheet that any employee can use to design and run an experiment. It provides structure and promotes planning while empowering the individual to own the process and engage others for support as needed.

If you like it, consider building it into your processes. For example, ask employees about possible experiments during check-ins, create a quarterly meeting for employees to submit starshot ideas, or give employees a certain amount of time each month to work on a personal experiment and have them share what they learned with the team.

Here are the eight components of the STARSHOT Framework.

• Scope: At a high level, describe what you’re going to do.
• Timeline: What is the maximum amount of time you’ll run this experiment? It may end earlier, but set an upper limit.
• Ambition: Why is this important to you? How will it help others? What is the potential impact?
• Requirements: What do you need to run the experiment? Who should be included on the team? How much time will be required from you and others? What technical, physical, and financial resources do you need?
• Setup: Consider all the details of your experiment. What goals are you hoping to achieve? What data will you collect? Who are the stakeholders? Who else will be impacted, interested, or inspired? How will you communicate with them?
• Hypothesis: What is your idea? What is the specific experiment you’re doing to test it? It could be an A/B test, prototype, testing a concept, creating a mock-up, thought experiment, running a pilot, or something else. What results do you expect? Identify your parameters and any constraints or limitations.
• Operation: Conduct the experiment, track progress, and collect data. Day-to-day operations can cause experiment activities to take a back seat, so create checkpoints to stay on track.
• Takeaways: What were the results, and how did they compare to what was expected? What did you learn that can be applied going forward? What was the impact? Who needs to know about the results?

Using this framework, you can conduct aspirational experiments in a structured manner. Use it when planning your experiment to think through all aspects and decide if it is something you want to do. If so, use this framework to present the idea to others, create your plan, and execute it.

When you start conducting your own experiments, you’ll quickly see that the process is more important than the results.

I learned this years ago as the product owner of an internal business system. The application had done wonders for our business, and I wanted to take it to market.

I developed the concept and marketing material, did sales calls, and brainstormed ideas for new product components and features. Sales were anemic, though, and the experiment was a failure.

Or so I thought. Then I started noticing subtle changes within our company. Developers had hated working on the tool. But after the experiment, they started talking about it as a product and took more pride in their work.

Similarly, users constantly complained about bugs and usability issues. After the experiment, they became more positive and proactive and engaged in collaborative discussions about new features.

The results of aspirational experiments might not be what you expect, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

When I was 12, Junior Achievement showed me I could create a business. The project created possibilities and stirred emotions. Although we didn’t make money, we created a team and learned new skills. I was inspired.

I even got matches to play with!