Embrace Uncertainty…Why Would I Do That?
February 15th, 2004 by Hal
Someone wrote me last week wondering if embracing uncertainty was an all-or-nothing position. It's a great question. Authors Phil Clampitt and Bob DeKoch suggest there are clear times when one wants to embrace uncertainty and other times where that is just not necessary.
Uncertainty increases with increases in the planning time horizon. One way to bring more certainty to your planning is by planning in shorter and closer in horizons. Save the detailed planning for today, tomorrow, and the next day. Plan at higher levels beyond that.
The greatest uncertainty has to do with what the team will learn and innovate. While we can't know months ahead of time how the team will evolve, we can plan that they will do just that. The implication is that we must continue planning for those teams that are most innovative. Any who doesn't want that?
Join Greg Howell and I in our interview this Thursday, Feb. 19, from 1:00-2:15 PM EST, for our conversation with authors Phil Clampitt and Bob DeKoch.
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February 16th, 2004 at 2:22 pm
I was looking at the dictionary the meaning of embrace and uncertainty.
According to Longman’s dictionary I found:
Embrace:
1. to put your arms around someone and hold them in a friendly or loving way;
2. to eagerly accept a new idea, opinion, religion etc;
3. to include something as a part of a subject, discussion etc.
Uncertainty:
1. when you feel doubt about what will happen;
2. a situation which you are not sure about because you don’t know what will happen
Embrace uncertainty under my perception is in a sequence 3 and 1 or:
“To include something as a part of the subject when you feel doubt about what will happen.”
In projects we need always to question ourselves about the directions we are taking and if we are speaking the same language. More we need to share our point of view among the team members to put under the lights the real issues.
Most of the time uncertainty becomes from our inability to perceive what is going on around us and measurements cannot helps us to do that if we are not able to perceive the environment in which these measurements occurred.
Even being measures they have their subjective meaning according to the different moods and backgrounds of the team members.
Hal wrote on his weblog:
“Someone wrote me last week wondering if embracing uncertainty was an all-or-nothing position.”
I would like to write something that Bart Kozko , in his book Fuzzy Thinking, wrote based on Bertrand Russell thoughts:
PARADOX AT ENDPOINTS, RESOLUTION AT MIDPOINTS
“Embracing uncertainty was an all-or-nothing position.”
They both assert and deny themselves and my opinion is that we must be aware of uncertainty all the time we are in process and the blindness of uncertainty will increase breakdowns.