Recently, more and more leaders are talking with me about how to improve their capacity to cope with ambiguity, hold paradox, and deal with operational and strategic tensions. Rather than this being an occasional situation, it has now become routine. And privately, many have shared that they are not very good at it, and are struggling to figure out how to get better at it. The outcome of these discussions has resulted in some interesting insights.
First, we need to define what is ambiguity. The dictionary tells us it is “uncertainty of meaning or intention.” It also is something that is “unclear or confusing” and something that “can be understood in more than one way.” In the written word, lexical ambiguity is caused by multiple meanings of a word, whereas structural ambiguity is caused by the structure of a sentence.
However, in the world of leadership, strategic ambiguity is caused by a lack of understanding about what exactly is happening in society and with their customers. Therefore, it is difficult to make decisions due to lack of information or conflicting information. On the other hand, operational ambiguity reflects a lack of direction, a lack of clearly defined roles, or a lack of clear definition of the problem someone is trying to solve.
On a parallel track, a paradox is defined as “a statement or situation that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet perhaps true, e.g. “it was the beginning of the end.”
With the above definitions in mind, we must remember something written a long time ago. To paraphrase Einstein, we can not solve problems with the same consciousness that caused the problems in the first place. And this is what we are often doing. We are attempting to cope with ambiguity and paradoxes with an “old” consciousness.
In order to create a “new” consciousness around ambiguity and paradox, we must reframe the concept of change. First, leaders often share with me that people don’t like change and that they resist change. And one one level, this is true. However, we need to reframe this perspective. What I have learned over many decades is that people don’t resist change. They resist the loss of control. They resist the loss of clarity, competence, and confidence that routinely comes with any level of change. Thus, most people don’t want change to take place.
But, if they are open to it, most of the time what they want is for change to happen some other place, e.g. be that in another division, location, system, or team. Because, deep down inside us, we fear change, not just because of the loss of control, but because we know on one level that we ourselves will actually have to change.
Fundamentally, we like internal status quo and external status quo. While we may be open to some degree of external change, we do not like internal change and external change that happens at the exact same time period. This is what overwhelms us, and makes everything feel chaotic, the total convergence of ambiguity, paradox and tension.
In the new consciousness that helps us understand and cope with this convergence, we must recognize that change changes us whether we like it or not. And along the way, we change change, too. In short, when we change, change changes. Understanding this insight is critical to a new level of consciousness.
The other critical insight to a new level of consciousness, and a new way of leading, is to recognize that we are all connected. We have a choice to participate in a shared consciousness, i.e. a shared level of clarity and understanding about change. This common ground is how great leaders and great teams cope with change, and can change change. They start from the place of “all being on the same page,” or, in essence, having the same mindset or consciousness about what is happening and what could happen.
And from this unitive understanding, we can change change, and be changed by change without loosing the feeling of being grounded through it all. This happens because our shared consciousness is a line of continuity greater than our need for maintaining status quo. This shared mindset also provides us with new perspectives and new ideas about how to proceed in the face of confusing and difficult periods of ambiguity, paradox, and tension.
Strategic and operational ambiguity is not going to go away any time soon. All leaders will encounter adaptive challenges and technical problems on a regular basis. It comes with the territory. But on the days that it feels overwhelming, we need to remember three things. First, no problem can be solved by the consciousness that created it. Second, change changes us as much as we change change. Third, the development of a shared consciousness becomes a line of continuity and a force multiplier, which can generate effective solutions. In short, clarity and shared consciousness always trump the need for maintaining inner status quo and external control.
This week, seek to expand your consciousness and to share it with others along the way. The outcome of this line of thought and action will be helpful for all involved on so many levels.
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