What if goal-setting is broken?

How to experiment your way to success

When I saw Anne-Laure Le Cunff on the speaker list for Kit’s Craft + Commerce conference in Boise, it sealed the deal. I've been an OG fan of her Ness Labs newsletter and was delighted when her book Tiny Experiments hit the shelves earlier this year.

Meeting her in person was even better than I imagined. She's every bit as lovely as she comes across in her writing—generous, thoughtful, and genuinely curious about people.

Here's a little story that not even Anne-Laure knows. Sitting in the Boise airport preparing to head back home, I was chatting with fellow attendees about our favorite speakers and all the incredible things we'd learned. One new friend shared that she'd been having a rough moment when she met Anne-Laure in person—and Anne-Laure was quick to give her a hug. "It turned my entire day around," she told us.

Never underestimate the ripple effects of a small gesture of kindness. It's the perfect example of what Anne-Laure's entire book is about—how our small actions create bigger changes than any grand plan ever could. 

And that's exactly what she challenged us to consider from the stage.

The problem with linear thinking

Anne-Laure shared her approach to experimenting your way to success, challenging something most of us take for granted.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff at Kit Craft + Commerce Conference in Boise, sharing her approach to experimenting your way to success.

We've been told success looks like a straight line from Point A to Point B. Set the goal, make the plan, execute flawlessly, celebrate at the finish line. Clean. Predictable. Measurable.

But anyone who's lived any kind of life knows what success actually looks like in reality—messy, winding, and full of unexpected turns. Plus some delightful discoveries along the way.

If you've been building a business focused on gathering people, you've experienced this firsthand. 

Success rarely looks like what we planned on paper.

Remember when you thought you knew exactly what your audience needed, only to discover they craved something completely different? Or when that workshop that didn't go as planned became the foundation for your most successful program?

Time and time again, the messy, unexpected moments lead to the biggest breakthroughs.

What if we could lean into those unplanned moments instead of fighting them?

The experimental mindset

Instead of rigid goals, Anne-Laure champions something she calls "tiny experiments." Think of it as adopting a scientist's mindset as we navigate our work, our plans, and our ambitions.

To do so, we have to let go of scripted outcomes and embrace what she calls the experimental cycle: observation, hypothesis, data collection, and analysis. This encourages us to be comfortable with ambiguity, discover our true ambitions through small personal experiments, and make choices that truly reflect our own ambitions—not what others expect of us.

"Success is the lifelong experiment of discovering what makes you feel most alive." - Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Her approach aligns beautifully with everything I've learned about sustainable community building:

Curiosity beats certainty. Your people will surprise you—lean into that instead of fighting it.

Small tests are easier to start and they give you the feedback you need to refine what's working.

Reflection is strategy. The learning happens in the looking back, not just the doing.

What experiments look like in real life

Anne-Laure's approach centers around creating what she calls PACTs—her alternative to traditional goal-setting. PACT stands for Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous, and Trackable. Instead of focusing on outcomes you can't control, PACTs focus on outputs you can.

The formula is simple: I will [action] for [duration]. 

Think "I will write for 15 minutes every morning for 30 days" rather than "I will finish my book this year." Or "I will reach out to one potential collaborator each week for 8 weeks" rather than "I will land three new clients this quarter."

I recently read Tiny Experiments with a book club of my closest friends (I wrote about the serendipity of this book club's start if you want the backstory), and there was a clear trend in their PACTs. Almost all of them centered around reclaiming something—our time, our energy, our sense of self outside parenting or work.

One friend wanted to test coming home by 6 PM three nights a week instead of her usual work-until-all-hours routine. Another friend, navigating an empty nest and divorce, wanted to lean into her love of cooking by trying one new recipe per week for four weeks. A third committed to early morning walks, curious if that restoration time would change her entire day.

Inspired by both Anne-Laure's framework and my friends' deeply personal PACTs, I started to wonder—what if we applied this to our communities too?

Your community as laboratory

What would it look like to approach your people-powered business with genuine curiosity instead of predetermined outcomes?

Maybe you start asking different questions—not "How do I get more engagement?" but "What kinds of conversations naturally spark energy in my community?" Instead of measuring success by numbers alone, you notice what creates those magical moments of connection in your workshops, retreats, or group calls.

No matter how you gather people—online, in person, or both—the experimental approach gives you permission to stay curious, make adjustments, and release the pressure to have it all figured out from the start.

My own July experiment

Speaking of experiments... 

Anne-Laure's talk inspired me to test a hypothesis of my own.

We often accept as gospel that "community slows down in July." Everyone's traveling, engagement drops, and we tell ourselves that we’ll just coast until fall. But what if that's not actually true? What if July could be the most active, connected month in our community?

Guess what—I'm going to find out.

This month in The Hive, we're running our own Tiny Experiments Challenge. Instead of accepting summer slowness, I'm testing whether some creative ideas can bring fresh life and energy that carries well beyond the season.

I'm inviting each member to design their own PACT. Perhaps some will experiment with new ways to gather their members, others might test a content idea they've been sitting on, or dive into something completely personal like my book club friends did. The point is to explore what makes us feel most alive—individually and as a group focused on community building.

Anne-Laure was so generous when I shared the Hive challenge idea with her—she insisted on sharing a signed copy of her book to give to one of our members.

Default to curiosity

What would change if you defaulted to curiosity this month?

Instead of asking “How do I fix this?” try “What am I noticing?”
Instead of “What should I do next?” ask “What am I curious about?”
Instead of “Did this work?” wonder “What did this teach me?”

If you're feeling a tug of curiosity about this approach, I'd love to have you join our conversation.

Join our free Book Chat next Wednesday, July 9th at 1pm EST. We'll explore Anne-Laure's key ideas together—no need to read the book first! It's a casual discussion about why traditional goal-setting often backfires for community builders and how tiny experiments can reveal what your people actually want.

🐝 For curious souls who aren't members yet:

You can join us for the full July Tiny Experiments Challenge using code EXPERIMENT25 for just $25. It's a tiny experiment in itself—a small way to experience being part of our community without any long-term commitment.

The beautiful thing about experiments is that there's no way to get them wrong. There's only what you discover along the way.

What are you curious about?

With care and endless curiosity,

P.S. Ready to explore these ideas together? Join our free Book Chat next Wednesday, July 9th at 1pm EST—no need to read the book first! Or jump straight into our July Tiny Experiments Challenge with code EXPERIMENT25 for just $25.

Either way, I'd love to hear: What tiny experiment is calling to you?

Speaking of experiments, here's another tiny one I'm testing:

I'm experimenting with a different day to publish Community Matters. You've been receiving it on Mondays, but I'm realizing I have a tendency to want to work on it over the weekend—and I know that's not good for me or my family. So this summer I'm experimenting with sending it on a different day. Let me know—do you care what day it lands in your inbox?

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