Experimental
by Amale Ghalbouni
Are You Caught in "The Big Freeze"?
If you have asked your team to "be bolder," "take ownership," or "be proactive" and it simply hasn't stuck, you aren't facing a motivation problem, you are facing an environmental problem.
You’re not alone: only 31% of leaders feel equipped to lead change, meaning the environment around your team often quietly amplifies the fear of change
Brilliant book, and breakthrough writing. Amale cuts straight into the heart of common corporate culture challenges providing practical advice on how to turn them into powerful opportunities.
Jodi Cartwright, Chief Commercial Officer, Simply Business
Amale brilliantly prepares leaders and teams for change in this timely and grounded guide for our turbulent times. Change only happens and sticks when everyone knows what to do differently and better on Monday, this very human and practical book equips us superbly for contemporary challenges
Harriet Green OBE, Former CEO, IBM Asia, Thomas Cook, Premier Farnell
This book moves you from theory to action using two core frameworks:
The Experimental Culture Toolkit and The Experimental Change Method.
The Experimental Culture Toolkit
Build the five conditions your team needs to feel safe enough to try, clear enough to aim, and supported enough to recover when things go sideways:
Connection: Turning strangers into teammates who share uncomfortable truths.
Clarity: Defining the direction, priorities, and guardrails so teams can make decisions autonomously.
Curiosity: Staying with a problem long enough to ensure you’re solving the right one, not just a symptom.
Courage: The muscle to act when you are confident, even if you aren't certain.
Celebration: Making learning visible so the team stops making the same mistakes twice.
The Experimental Change Method
Stop the eighteen-month planning cycles and start learning in thirty days through three levers:
Ownable: Picking a fight worth having that aligns with what you, your team, and your organization need.
Backable: Finding the allies willing to spend their political, reputational, and attention capital alongside you.
Actionable: Designing a structured 30-day experimental loop to build more proof and collective courage than a year of planning ever could.
The goal is "Free Flow": an environment where people make clear calls without waiting for permission and where "failures" are treated as valuable data for the next move.
Leaders who are not actively experimenting in the agentic AI era are choosing decline - for themselves, their company, and their people. Experimental exists for this reason: to force the courage and discipline required to redesign work before irrelevance does it for you.
Mark Stevens, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, C&A
speaker .
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coach.
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speaker . author. consultant. coach. facilitator.
Amale Ghalbouni
(pronounced ah-maal)
Transformation Strategist | Executive Coach | Founder, The Brick Coach | Global Keynote Speaker
For almost two decades, Amale has transformed global brands by turning risk-averse cultures into experimentation engines. From strategy consulting at FTSE 100 firms to founding The Brick Coach, she now equips restless leaders to lead change-ready teams that move faster, together. She has worked with companies like Levi’s, UBS, Ralph Lauren, Generali, Visa, Microsoft, LSE, and many more.
10 Things This Book Will Teach You
Learn how to break "The Big Freeze" and shift your team from a state of defensive self-protection into a productive "Free Flow" where initiative is the default,,.
Learn how to build deep connection to turn relative strangers into teammates who trust each other enough to share uncomfortable truths while they are still cheap to fix,,.
Learn how to achieve radical clarity by defining direction, priorities, and guardrails so your team can make high-quality, autonomous decisions without constant escalation,,.
Learn how to master the discipline of curiosity to ensure you are solving the right root causes rather than just fixing loud, recurring symptoms,,.
Learn how to close the "Say-Do Gap" by building an environment where boldness and initiative are genuinely supported and rewarded rather than just requested,,.
Learn how to run 30-day experimental loops to build more collective courage and proof in one month than a year of planning ever could,,.
Learn how to identify "Ownable" fights that sit at the perfect intersection of your personal passion, your team’s capacity, and the organization's urgent needs,.
Learn how to make your changes "Backable" by finding allies and sponsors willing to spend their political, reputational, and attention capital on your vision,,.
Learn how to increase "Bouncebackability" by sizing your risks within "Safe Zones" to ensure every attempt is survivable and every failure is a painless lesson,,.
Learn how to institutionalize learning through "Celebration," making every win, miss, or near-miss visible so your team never makes the same mistake twice
