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Recognizing Uncertainty

Written by: Paul Bridle

Article Overview: Is uncertainly a bad thing? Maybe we just need to view it differently.

Recognizing Uncertainty

People like to make sense of their world and business leaders and managers look for formulas to give predictable results and achieve success. There are no simple formulas for success. It is an uncertain world we are living and doing business in.

Customers are uncertain in their behaviors. They can love you one minute and then go off you suddenly. It seems that there is no loyalty any more. Our staff leave after a year or two because they loose interest and our suppliers are equally unpredictable. Technology changes and advances year on year creating new opportunities and threats. Even our products can become valueless and even useless suddenly.

Trying to make sense of it all is a big challenge but trying to find formulas that guarantee success is a waste of time. What one company does to achieve greatness or success, is not a guarantee that it will work in another company.

The best a manager can hope to do is way up his options and view the probabilities and then make a decision. As someone said, it used to be Ready, Aim, Fire! Now it is Aim, Fire, Steer and hold on.

As people leading organizations, we need to recognize uncertainty and embrace it. It is not something to be scared of and shy away from. Every day I hear organizations saying, “How do we keep our staff?”. I answer by saying, “You don’t, and be grateful for that”.

It is time to look at things differently. What may have been a threat or even a problem ten years ago, may be a blessing in disguise now. In the current way businesses need to develop and re-invent themselves, we need to turn over staff and bring in new blood. The team that got your business from where you were ten years ago (and probably did it very well), is probably NOT the team you need to get your business to the next level in your organizations journey!!!

Look at Starbucks, one of the many examples of a highly successful global business that is having to re-invent itself. Google did not come into existence by doing things the way we always did things.

So how do you act in your business? Are your actions driven by a fear of uncertainty and a desire to keep things they way we have always done it? Are you embracing uncertainly and seeing problems as opportunities to re-invent your business? Do you actively develop your people to challenge and re-think all your practices, processes, procedures and methods of doing business?

We need to realize that certainty is a moment in time. It is not a guarantee of future certainty. In fact, if you want a certain future, you need to make sure you are creating uncertainty in your business!!

The truth is, we are on a journey and there is no certainty other than things will not improve or move unless we get over our fear of uncertainty and embrace the opportunity to think differently.


Paul Bridle
Leadership Methodologist

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Article Tags: blessing in disguise, business leaders, doing business, formulas for success, global business, google, greatness, guarantee success, loose interest, loyalty, new blood, new opportunities, next level, predictable results, probabilities, ready aim fire, starbucks, technology changes, uncertainty, waste of time



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