The opposite of uncertainty is not what you might think
How to sense your way forward when things fall apart around us.
Picture someone walking on a tightrope. How do they keep their balance when below there’s a chasm full of unknown? Are they straight as a stick moving forward with perfect poise? Do they take big strides rushing to make it on the other side?
The opposite is actually true. Balance on a tightrope comes from a counterintuitive stance: allowing yourself to wobble while continuing to move forward.
Balance is constituted of many ‘imperfect’ micro steps, with an active centre of gravity and your gaze focused on a point in front of you.
This metaphor occurred to me as the world around us is turned upside down by the intersection of: the dismantling of values, institutions and alliances we used to take for granted; war, famine and crimes against humanity; the AI revolution advancing at bewildering speed; an epidemic of burnout and anxiety. There are no acronyms left to encapsulate this chaos, so I’ll stick to describing it as “the meta crisis.”
As I sit with my clients every day, they seem to be more overwhelmed, fatigued and disoriented than ever. They tell me of ‘spinning their wheels’ just to get basic work done.
So the tightrope metaphor offers us three core principles:
1) Give yourself permission to wobble - aka ‘you don’t need to have all the answers’
This is the hardest one to wrap our heads around as we badly crave certainty, control, something to hold on to.
The leaders I coach find this hard, because their people look to them for answers; and they tell me how paralysing this can be when they are themselves anxious and confused. The irony is that even if they did try to come up with some semblance of certainty, people wouldn’t believe it - too much is in flux around us.
Instead, I suggest surfing that flux and sharing with people that, as you journey together through uncertainty, these four things will be true*:
You won’t have all the facts. (No one does, because there are too many moving parts. That also means you rely even more on everyone keeping their eyes and ears open and reading the signals.)
You can’t remove all the risk. (Nor should you, because risk = potential for something new to emerge.)
You can’t promise zero loss. (No one can - but you will work together through that loss.)
You can’t eliminate all the pain. (And the more you take that upon yourself, the more you’ll wear yourself down.)
*This is inspired by Timothy R. Clark, a social scientist whose research on psychological safety I respect.
With my clients, I call this ‘staying close to what is’, rather than trying to manufacture false certainty. Naming these facts with candour and realism is what helps people to rally together and better tolerate uncertainty.
2) Know and activate your ‘centre of gravity’
Back to our tightrope: balance comes not from tightening our whole body but from keeping it loose and flexible, while engaging our core.
The equivalent of that ‘centre of gravity’ is returning over and over again to what matters the most right now. Stripping away everything that’s unnecessary or distracting.
For every organisation and for every individual, that might look different. For me and my business that centre of gravity is: the strength of relationships with my clients and partners; confronting ‘what is’ even when it hurts; faith in my vocation and inner resources. What is yours?
3) Take small and consistent steps forward
On the tightrope, briefly pausing to regain your footing is vital; but stopping for too long is what causes the fall. So keep moving forward.
What my clients discover is that taking action is what enables them to gather new data from their environment; discover new possibilities; and learn more about themselves, others and their relationships. Some of them do that by exploring small bets in new technologies or R&D; or small acquisitions; or unconventional partnerships.
Not all action will be fruitful and some experiments might fail. But all action will reveal something new and, when taken consistently, will keep your momentum going.
A word of caution! This is not to be confused with ‘keeping busy’ in a frantic way i.e. the major syndrome I see at play in organisations these days.
There’s a world of difference between taking action by being erratic and spreading yourself thin; and acting with clarity from your centre of gravity.
The opposite of uncertainty is not certainty. It is courageously confronting ‘what is’; anchoring in what fundamentally matters the most and sensing your way forward through small and consistent experiments.
Stay fierce, curious and adaptable!
Alina
There's been a recent wave of 'Flip the Script' subscribers, so I thought I'd reintroduce myself:
Hello, I'm Alina Costache - a systemic-somatic coach and facilitator supporting senior leaders & their teams to better resource themselves so they skilfully adapt to uncertainty.
My approach is grounded in activating our whole intelligence—not just from the neck up!—and working with how our relationships shape who we can be and what we can achieve.
Over the past 20 years I've built a toolkit that blends my experience as a leader & entrepreneur with training in depth psychology, neuroscience and somatics. And this is what I’m sharing here every week. 👀
When I'm not geeking out on all of the above, you can find me in a yoga or dance studio, running in nature, or looking at art in Europe’s fine galleries and museums.
Head this way to learn about my background as a senior (team) coach, trainee psychotherapist, and mindfulness & yoga teacher.
Come say hi 👋🏽 here or at alina@change-odyssey.com.