PEOPLE | LEADERSHIP
deliver dozens of tools and techniques that can be used to face , navigate , and see the upside of uncertainty .
“ The framework we have developed is meant to encourage everyone to meet every uncertainty with hope , creativity , and belief in the upside you may not yet see .”
Re-frame uncertainty as possibility To enable this , Furr argues the need to reframe the uncertainty in terms of its possibility rather than the potential losses .
We are wired to fear losses and seek gains , he says , and the challenge is that uncertainty almost always registers as a potential loss , and so we end up being afraid of it , try to reduce it , or avoid it altogether . But the problem is that any new possibility only comes after going through uncertainty .
“ Consider the moments in your own life of which you are most proud – the career change , the relationship risk , moving somewhere new . All these possibilities came only after first facing uncertainty . The same is true for innovators . To accomplish anything new , they first must learn to face uncertainty to capture an opportunity .”
Furr says uncertainty and possibility are really two sides of the same coin , and that the same is true of unplanned uncertainties , like the pandemic , job loss , or other crises . While these unplanned uncertainties certainly have very real downsides , they also come with new possibilities .
And if both businesses and individuals can re-frame uncertainty in terms of the opportunity – the gain – rather than the loss , we will feel less anxiety and more courage .
“ Consider the difference during the pandemic between leaders who framed the pandemic as the ‘ worst thing ’ that has ever happened to us versus those who framed it in terms of ‘ our chance to prove ourselves ’,”
Nothing could be m important , in the l run , than innovati and experimentat
Furr , adding that the “ positive forward momentum in the latter was massive .”
The same principle is true in other settings , such as responding to a potential disruption . Furr says that while leaders often talk about the importance of establishing a ‘ burning platform ’ to motivate people , the most famous application of that phrase hails from a company that failed to respond – Nokia .
“ Rather , empirical research shows that leaders who frame a disruption in terms of the opportunity , rather than uncertainty , are much more effective in leading positive responses to the disruption ,” he argues .
40 March 2023