4 Secrets to Planning For Uncertainty
Updated: Mar 12, 2021
Written by: Florence His, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Are you feeling stuck and anxious these days, staring at a blank page when trying to put together your business plan for the next 12 months, let alone coming up with your 3-year, 5- year, 10- year vision for your company? How to plan and forecast anything in the midst of raging uncertainty and the accelerated pace of change?
I often get this question from the entrepreneurs I coach and can personally relate. So keep smiling, you are in good company!
I have found over the years that entrepreneurs who ace the exercise keep 4 main secrets :
They don’t confuse clarity with certainty.
They let go of the egotistic tyranny of being right to embrace an experimental mindset and ease into what is trying to emerge to serve the world.
They are gifted at holding paradox and being uncomfortable so that unconventional solutions may arise and redefine outdated standards.
They have faith in the evolutionary purpose of life and are connected to an infinite field of possibilities coupled with a strong sense of agency.
Clarity versus Certainty: They cultivate moment-to-moment clarity about their mission, goals, and strategic orientations. No one can ever be certain about any result. There are just too many external moving parts outside of anyone’s control, let alone internal factors that could derail the course of action from within the organization itself. Decision-making, mindsets, and behaviors exhibited in the face of uncertainty and change are the only way through. Uncertainty is pervasive at all times, but we seem to take notice only when uncertainty levels vary abnormally, compared to our base-line everyday banal experience. There is nothing more pernicious and dangerous (for a frog) than very gradually boiling a frog …
Letting Go of the need to be right: They are more interested in developing business frameworks and processes that allow them to test hypotheses, get feedback from the market, and course-correct until they find what works and can accelerate at the inflection point. They operate like scientists, develop portfolio strategies of growth that mitigate risk, and are unattached to outcomes so that the most suitable one (and not the one they are attached to) may flourish.
Holding Paradox: They naturally dance with paradox and discomfort to facilitate birthing what the future holds and simultaneously bring their awareness onto their organization, the ecosystem it is part of, and the greater macro-order picture (the spirit of time as some call it). The World we live in is complex, and value creation hardly ever comes from simplistic, aligned positions; but rather arises at the point of divergence in a system where antagonistic intrinsic, as well as external forces converge and force the system to a new point of equilibrium, where they may co-exist, inside of newly formed paradigms.
They Have Faith and Agency: In general, they believe in the evolutionary purpose of life and are deeply connected to an infinite field of possibilities, coupled with a strong sense of agency. Such postures enable them to steer their teams and companies to unknown territory, innovate to solve problems, imagine solutions, create products and services that did not exist before and could not be envisioned from purely analytical mental models. Whereas uncertainty can stifle action and undermine faith, it can also be considered a key driver of evolution and harnessed for its creative qualities.
The good news is that the traits depicted hereabove can be cultivated with awareness and practice to boost your inner-momentum. So if you feel called to work on mastering your inner-game so that you can nurture your outer-momentum and grow your business, we would like to invite you to consider the opportunity to join our Entrepreneur Inner-Journey program.
Florence His, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Florence leads Business4People, an advisory, marketing, coaching, and investor relations platform she founded in Paris (FR) to support Mission-Driven Founders and Impact Investors internationally.
She serves as Director of Marketing and Head of Impact Investment at Crito Capital, a boutique Placement Agent headquartered in New-York with a presence in London and focused on providing advice and capital raising services to small/mid-cap Private Fund Managers and Companies in the US, Europe and Emerging Markets. Finally, she is also active as a Mentor and Global Partner at the Entrepreneurs Institute on their GeniusU online-education platform.
Florence spent over 17 years in the investment, private equity, M&A, and risk management functional disciplines leading multi-disciplinary teams before embracing the entrepreneurial path.
She holds an undergraduate degree in organizational psychology from Yale University, an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business Administration, a Masters degree in Sustainable Studies from the International Institute of Management in Paris, and speaks six languages.
