Coping with an uncertain future

From my research and work with successful organisations, I have isolated four key characteristics to cope successfully with uncertainty:

1. Developing a growth and learning mindset
A growth and learning mindset can set up a virtuous cycle. The key elements of this include:

Treating every day as a school day: A belief that life is a journey of learning and growth
Seeking new experiences to create learning opportunities: One can only learn by being exposed to different experiences
Accepting the uncertainty that accompanies these new experiences: In order to learn something new, the experience has to be different and therefore uncertain
Learning from new experiences to broaden your repertoire: The enhanced repertoire increases capability and effectiveness as a leader.

2. Preferring people over data
We should recognise that the traditional emphasis on “market-focus” can often obscure the real people who make up the customer base. We need to recognise the importance of focusing on people and their experiences rather than simply the data that measures market size and relevant demographics.

So, instead of simply describing the market by way of standard demographics and statistics, focus on identifying target groups who are characterised by particular lifestyles, product usage patterns or needs. Use research approaches where you can study and understand the real life experiences of customers.

Approaches such as these enable us to understand the needs of target customers as real people – thereby promoting value propositions that address these customer needs more closely.

3. Avoiding risky bets
Being successful in uncertain times does not mean taking big risks. Place small bets fairly quickly and then learn from the outcomes. Move on quickly and recognise that any failures from these small experiments are the price for learning and testing propositions. It’s the performance of the overall portfolio of experiments that counts – not the outcome of an individual bet.

As a consequence, you can be fairly conservative and tend to shy away from making large and risky “bet-the-business” decisions.

Allied to this is the fact you should be wary of describing yourslef as a perfectionist. In a way, perfectionism may be interpreted as a fear of having one’s work judged and receiving feedback – hence the need to continually avoid releasing it. In addition, the notion of “completing something to perfection” connotes that there is no more to be achieved or learned. We should favour the view that preparing for the future is an ongoing dynamism – something that keeps moving as you learn and develop your capabilities further.

4. Being a rational optimist
Rational optimists believe that they can and will make progress by pursing a bold, but sensible, approach. While they hold an optimistic view of life, they recognise that optimism is NOT necessarily the opposite of pessimism. It is not the idealistic belief (or hope) that things will get better simply because they want them to.

Instead, rational optimism is a balanced understanding of the whole system of which they are part. It is recognition of both strength and weakness; an interest in building the best as well as repairing the worst; and a concern for finding self fulfilment as well as serving the community. Rational optimists are realists, but their defining point of difference is that they don’t give up on themselves.

So, what does this all mean?

Thinking differently about the future is a key part of dealing effectively with uncertainty, and being able to create a viable future for our organisation. We need to adopt a growth and learning mindset; look behind the data to understand the people in their markets and organisations; avoid the risky “bet-the-business” decisions as they seek competitive advantage; and understand the whole system of which they are part.

By following these practices, we can improve our effectiveness in an uncertain and challenging world.

Go and create your own future!

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Part 3: Accelerate Performance With Strategic Alignment - Develop The Appropriate Culture

By Norman Chorn • March 27, 2023

In my previous article "Accelerate Performance with Strategic Alignment - Define the logic of your strategy", we demonstrated the alignment between the market and business strategy by matching the logic of the market with the logic of the strategy. The Explore logic emphasises a market where customers seek new solutions for emerging requirements. The strategy responds by exploring new opportunities and driving for growth. The Exploit logic occurs in a more stable market where customers seek lower costs and reliability of supply. The appropriate strategy focuses on operational efficiency and building close customer relationships. Culture is key to shaping the capabilities of the business to successfully implement strategy . It drives the way that people behave, decisions are made and actions are taken. It determines, therefore, the strategy that is actually realised in the market, as opposed to that which is merely intended. We make a key distinction between the desired culture and the appropriate culture. The desired culture is what people may choose because it sounds attractive and in vogue. However, the appropriate culture is the culture that is required to successfully implement the chosen strategy. Often, these can be different. For example, people might seek to develop a culture that is ‘innovative’, ‘flexible’ and ‘empowering’, but this may not be the appropriate culture needed to successfully implement the business strategy. DEVELOP THE APPROPRIATE CULTURE FOR YOUR STRATEGY Developing the appropriate culture requires a deliberate emphasis on certain cultural attributes and making trade-offs on others. As we will see, the attributes that are traded off are usually the opposites of those that are emphasised.

Part 2: Accelerate Performance with Strategic Alignment - Define the Logic of your Strategy

By Norman Chorn • March 27, 2023

In Part 1 "How to Accelerate Performance with Strategic Alignment - Understand the Logic of the Market" we outlined different market conditions and defined them in terms of two overarching logics — Exploring and Exploiting . To briefly recap, an Exploring logic is one where customers are seeking new solutions for emerging needs. It’s all about change and action. An Exploiting logic occurs in a more stable market in which the issues are about lowering costs and working collaboratively with customers. It’s a market that focuses on stability and cohesion. FORCES THAT SHAPE YOUR STRATEGY Clearly, it is one of these two logics — or a combination of both — that will shape your strategy as you operate in these markets. See figure 1 below that describes how these logics will form your business strategy: