Change and Uncertainty

Leaders are trained to manage change. But change is often the wrong frame. What people actually struggle with isn't the change itself, it's the uncertainty that surrounds it.

Change has a destination; uncertainty doesn't. Change can be planned; uncertainty can't. And yet most organisational responses to uncertainty borrow the language and tools of change management: roadmaps, timelines, communication cascades, all of which promise a clarity that doesn't yet exist.

These posts explore what it actually takes to lead through genuine uncertainty: how to make decisions when information is incomplete, how to manage the emotional toll on your team, and how to resist the temptation of false certainty when patience and honesty would serve better.

If you're leading through a period of genuine uncertainty - restructure, merger, strategic pivot - your people need more than a comms plan. They need a leader who can hold the ambiguity without pretending it doesn't exist. I can help.

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How to manage emotions through change
How to manage emotions through change

A mistake I often see leaders make is to try and snap people from the point of first hearing about a change to being totally on board with it, skipping over all the uncomfortable complexity in between. Here’s why that doesn’t work

Stuck in a crevasse: decisions in the face of uncertainty
Stuck in a crevasse: decisions in the face of uncertainty

Our family movie night got me thinking about making decisions in the face of uncertainty.

A framework for meeting significant change
A framework for meeting significant change

When faced with significant change, do you continue operating as your authentic self, or flip completely to meet the new needs? Here are my tips for expanding what is authentic and sustainable for you.

Don’t manage change; manage uncertainty
Don’t manage change; manage uncertainty

Change management has historically been about helping people, teams and organisations get through a change. The big assumption is that there’s an “other side”, when the job is done and the change is complete. I hear a lot of people talking about getting through 2020, on the assumption that somehow in 2021 things will get back to “normal”. Maybe they will. I’m not counting on it.

A riot is the language of the unheard
A riot is the language of the unheard

Saying nothing about what’s happening in the world right now feels like saying it doesn’t matter. And it does. A riot is the language of the unheard. And right now, we need to listen to each other.

Smashing it: the joy of the coronavirus pinata
Smashing it: the joy of the coronavirus pinata

Ever felt that you just need to let it all out? This week I share an article that addresses the seriousness of this pandemic, and makes a fun suggestion on how we just might deal with some of that built up ‘stuff’.

False Binaries Keep You Stuck
False Binaries Keep You Stuck

“Either I look after my family, or I go and do what I really want to do and have a career.” Sound familiar? That fear that listening to your inner calling is going to mean throwing away everything that's valuable and secure in your current life, is in fact exactly what keeps you stuck. Read more…

If you're leading through a period of genuine uncertainty — restructure, merger, strategic pivot — your people need more than a comms plan. They need a leader who can hold the ambiguity without pretending it doesn't exist. I can help.

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