Insights
Addiction to Certainty
The pressure is on to perform. And yet there is a performance blind spot that is common to many people and organisations.
It is a blind spot that shows up in the pursuit of excellence in a range of relationship focused business competencies:-
- Leadership, coaching and mentoring
- Sales and business development conversations
- Consulting and the provision of professional services
- Presenting and facilitation
- Customer service and conflict resolution.
In a nutshell, there is an over-dependence on certainty; certainty with respect to defining the parameters and performance measures of a given role, or the learning outcomes of a particular training program. It’s not hard to imagine why this is so. Businesses require proof that there will be return on investment and how better to make the case that to have the data to back it up?
However, there are significant, inter-related drawbacks with an over-dependence on certainty:-
• This creates an environment that genuinely worries about uncertainty; where individuals direct a disproportionate amount of time on trying to control the unknowable and lose sight of what is present around them
• In such environments people lean on what they know to establish and maintain credibility, rather that enter into conversations of genuine discovery
• This stifles creativity and collaboration. True creative partnerships can only perform when control is regularly relinquished; when partners are prepared to take risks
• As genuine creative endeavor is stifled, the gap is filled with yet more information or procedures. This leads to a less connected, less humane communication, resulting little or no leadership impact, little or no behavioural change, little or no client engagement.
By over-defining role expectations, training outcomes or facilitation techniques, a gap grows between what the data or the words are saying and reality. In reality, people and situations are in constant flux. Organisations are complex, organic systems that defy simplistic definitions. Professional development must take these into account or face achieving diminishing returns.
This does not mean that professionals should be endlessly “winging it”. Not at all. In fact, good preparation defines the purpose, vision and strategy of any project or professional development. However, preparation cannot completely cover that which may arise in the moment. A change in circumstances should not derail the process nor undermine the assurance of the person leading the process. Flexibility and resilience are now the order of the day. Certainty and uncertainty should not be regarded as being opposites. The task is to build one’s capacity to hold both certainly and uncertainty at the same time. This may show up in a statement like; I am confident that I have the skills and intelligence to handle whatever this relationship asks of me.
In the theatre, every performance should be fresh, new and uncertain. The performers’ disciplines and skills should be exemplary. They should be well rehearsed. But the performance should be found anew in the moment. Professional performers learn to embrace the uncertainty of the moment, because it is through doing so that their performance becomes real, compelling and powerful. Safe performance put audiences to sleep, like a safe presentation or risk-averse leadership fails to engage and inspire others. A formulaic sales conversation or consultation fails to build trust or a sense of genuine understanding in the relationship.
Consider the uncertainty you face in your business now. Do you long for a time when everything is absolutely under control; predictable to the nth degree? Perhaps not. Maybe that sounds boring. If so, good news. If you are in the people business, it’s never going to happen. People will be predictably irrational and that’s the way it will always be. (Send me an email if you can think of a current industry that is immune from change.) People, climate, financial markets – everything is changing, always. Get comfortable with that.
How?
Learn to improvise. I’m not just talking about Theatresports, Whose line is it anyway? or Thank God, You’re Here. These are examples of improvisation as entertainment, which may not seem so important in the cut and thrust of professional life. Yes, there’s a bit of energy, fun and creativity, but how does that make you money?
Instead, learn to master the skills that underpin both entertaining improvised performance and engaged, present and effective leadership, consulting and salesmanship. The skills of being present, open, available, attentive, quick-witted, resilient, innovative and charismatic; these are all skills that can be cultivated and strengthened through active, improvisation and performance training at coup. Through our knowledge and experience, we can access a body of creative, personal and interpersonal effectiveness training, which when translated into business-as-usual scenarios and transactions, provides the platform for vastly improved performance in the presence of uncertainty.
Call 02 9938 6933 or send us an email and we'll arrange time for a conversation with no certain outcome, apart from knowing more about what you can do to lift the performance of your leaders, consultants, sales and service people.
authorDavid McCubbin
