How Might We Increase Comfort as We Navigate Uncertainty?

Amen Lauren! I think you nailed it with the 0 or 100% commitment scenarios. I’ve had the same observations that social enterprises tend to get stuck in one of those mindsets and miss out on a lot of learning in order to avoid the risk of uncertainty; You’re also making a great link between last week’s theme on the value of learning and this week’s theme of using that uncertainty zone as an opportunity to learn.

I love the way the dschool uses post-it notes for a course syllabus – it allows for shifts in the process without abandoning the notion of focus. It leaves room for regular evaluation and multiple voices seem to be able to contribute to its shape. When dealing with social initiatives, this concept could help in evaluation. When things have room to move and be adjusted, which seems part of any social scenario naturally, individuals could feel like breathing room is offered in the process. To me, this represents a token of comfort in the midst of uncertainty. In fact, it seems to celebrate it.I also wonder if personality plays into this conversation. Some individuals love uncertainty and forget that others crave comfort and vice versa. To me, this discussion is as much to do with method as it is to do with leadership and the power of invitation. The HCD Toolkit is an example of how people are invited to move beyond the daunting aspects of entering an unfamiliar community by offering frameworks/structures that allow for uncertainty to exist but with enough guidance or comfort to make it accessible and doable. In light of this, I wonder if some people are meant to be the leaders in offering the structure, while others will use it and build something out of this structure. This can be noted by the emerging organizations who have leaders willing to step into uncertainty but who have enough structure in place to allow others to participate in some measure. When people can participate, then they also feel like they can contribute to some form of evaluation of the process.The thing I’ve appreciated about being involved in a design dialogue on this topic is that design is about iteration, process and potential failings. This tone allows you to more easily embrace uncertainty as part of the process. Watching a group of weavers in Rwanda navigate uncertainty in their social enterprise reminded me that sometimes organizations return to what is most familiar out of survival. If funders had this information, would they allow for social innovation (and all its ambiguities) without a traditional five-year plan? Lastly, “evaluation” can be a word with varying weights – some negative and some positive – depending on who you talk to. For some, evaluation means outcomes could make or break their future while others are pleased to have some way to measure their endeavor. Because of this, I wonder if the word itself might be part of the difficulty in understanding how to measure more effectively.

Kara, thanks for this thoughtful reply. I’m really excited about your point about providing structure during uncertainty.  That is actually a great way to frame the role of evaluation and I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it as title for the week’s theme.

It’s an interesting observation you make about personality.  Some people (and organizations) are more comfortable with uncertainty while some prefer the comforts of knowing before they act. For each of us, it’s important to acknowledge our own personality type (and that of our organizations we work with) and to be prepared to seek the right structures to compensate/support ourselves through the uncertainty zone. Finding tools that work for you is a great approach (like you have done with the toolkit)– another avenue is choosing partners to balance out your capabilities/mindset. 

I also appreciate your thoughts on how loaded the word “evaluation” can become for people. It can be either the heavy hand of judgment or the valued input along the way.  The intention of this blog series is to empower people to realize that any approach to evaluation is a choice that we make, and that we can make that choice in a way that benefits the goals of our initiative.  As you so rightly point out, evaluation can become a powerful opportunity leadership.

Here, here! So often in life, discomfort is the result of poorly managed expectations: It’s the classic “this won’t hurt a bit” you hear from the well-meaning nurse as she jabs a 4″ needle into your hip, the regularly-spaced reassurances of how important your call is while you wait interminably on hold, the gut-wrenching panic when you try on “your size” at a new boutique only to discover you can’t even button the trousers. In addition to, or perhaps as a result of providing structure in a new (ad)venture, integrated, authentic, continual evaluation creates a different set of expectations in an organization. We expect to discover things that don’t work, we expect middle-of-the-ride course corrections (and the accompanying jolts), we expect transparency and honest critique, and we expect iteration. It’s amazing the levels of “discomfort” we can adapt to if we expect it, and the performance we have the capacity to achieve through it is even more exciting. 

Thanks for the nice metaphors SaraJoy– really driving home the experience of what blind evaluation feels likes.

I have always found it strange that in the discussion of evaluation we seem to only use the definition of the core of the word “value” that promotes the allusion of objectivity as opposed to the “value(s)” we as human bring to the work. It is all subjective to some degree whether it is quantitative or qualitative. That being said, our ability to be adaptive is one of the things that puts us as humans higher on the evolutionary ladder and thus be able to be comfortable or at least manage the uncertainty that surrounds us.  Designing and utilizing frameworks which allow for and acknowledge that reality and strengthen our ability to make decisions within that context seems to be a critical indicator of a strong and effective organization.  That is not to say it is easy but it really doesn’t seem optional.

Good point about the values of the evaluator, Jdeancoffey. One’s personal values can be both advantageous (shaped by personal experience) and disadvantageous in terms of introducing bias. This is an important link to this weeks conversation on leveraging informed intuition.

Discomfort is about consequence; I have found most people uncomfortable with the politics and the consequences of performance metrics.  Loved your succinct reference to three key aspects of risk: structure, personality, evaluation.  I add an emphasis on both individual and organizational levels particularly with personality.Those things taken into account, I would perhaps add purpose; it is after all a question of value-ation:  what good at what cost or risk?  Whenever I find people debating task, I suggest rising to ask what is the project goal; whenever goals are in conflict it is helpful to rise to the question of values, and ultimately, purpose.Humans, it is said,  are unique in its ability for empathy: being able to abstract a value, and seeing/feeling those in another person/being. (Though in retrospect, I can think of some dogs I’ve had who were better humans than many people I know, if empathy were the basis for defining what’s unique in human cognitive abilities!   )To some risk junkies, it is simply the heady adrenaline rush.  Beating the odds. Getting away with something. Something physical, not philosophical.Thanks for a great discussion. 

For more on complexity, risk, and context – you may want to read an article I had written on Johari, Economic Meltdowns, and System Accidents  – http://matrixed.org/wordpress/strategic-execution/economic-meltdowns-system-accidents-johari-and-you/#comments 

Finally, I’d like to add that one might have to embrace discomfort: it is inherent to the edge, to the unfamiliar.  Even just leaning forward is uncomfortable -  but then, perhaps man has to live with that ambivalence – it has done so ever since our early ancestor decided to rise up on its hindlegs to accommodate its nascent prefrontal cortex’s need to see a more distant horizon.  And we have had to put up with back pain ever since ; ) 

Julian, thanks for your thoughtful comments and the link. I particularly like the analogy you made to the way pilots navigate uncertainty– continuous course correction.