A Leadership That Embraces Uncertainty and Emergence

What we need more than shouting our answers out loud is a quiet confidence in not knowing. We need better questions and most critically a practiced tolerance for allowing the new to arise from the old. From the perspective of neuro-science, not knowing is an intentional choice to inhibit the part of the brain wired for certainty, predictability and control. Not knowing doesn’t mean we ignore what we know. It means we hold what we know lightly so something new can emerge. We listen to voices other than our own, seek to understand the system we are part of, and bring to light underlying assumptions limiting our thinking. When addressing the value of uncertainty, I like to reference the concept of “negative capability,” a term initially articulated by the poet John Keats in 1817. He described it as the capacity of being in “uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” Organizational theorists were drawn to its implications for leadership. They observed how leaders, when encountering situations of great ambiguity, moved into defensive behaviors that only made things worse. And they noticed three specific defensive postures. The first was to become overwhelmed, reflected in behaviors such as avoidance, postponement, or the inability to come to a decision -- not because of the uncertainties but because they were in a state of fear or overload. The second defensive behavior was hyper-intellectualization; going into an explanatory mode that sounded good but resolved nothing and often was associated with becoming emotionally unavailable. The third defense– maybe the most common of all - was moving directly into action without thoughtfulness or consideration of consequences. The linguistic root of the word “capability” is associated with holding or containing. I just bought pots for bamboo and was told to buy ones with thicker walls because bamboo can crack through the thinner pots. In the same way, our emotional and conceptual containers need to be strong enough to hold discomfort and large enough to cultivate new ideas. By negative, Keats was not referring to pessimism or destructive thoughts but the rare ability to be empty of pre-conceived solutions. By naming this ability a strength, he was shining a light on a leadership skill necessary for encountering volatility, ambiguity, and complexity – a skill we need now more than ever.