from business consultant Morrie Shechtman's October newsletter:
"The New Normal – Unending Unpredictability" For a number of years now, I've heard people talking about how unpredictable business has become; with the implied assumption that one of these days, the unpredictability will finally end, or at least, level off, and we'll return to a generally predictable environment. Well, from everything I see and experience, that ain't ever going to happen. Unpredictability is here to stay, and the implications are sobering. First and foremost, is the fact that we have unequivocally entered the Age of Self-Doubt. I have never, in my professional life, worked with and encountered so many talented, highly skilled, and successful people, who are haunted by self-doubt. People, who prior to these times, made one decision after another, with a great sense of clarity and certainty, now second-guessing almost everything they do. Everyone, at times, has some doubts; but now the experience seems to have become endemic and epidemic. It has become a part of our daily lives and our ongoing personal and professional experiences. So how do we deal with and come to terms with it? First, we need to realize that we are not alone with this feeling. It is shared by all of us, and has become a part of the global consciousness. Second, we need to look at and assess our inventory of life skills to determine what personal assets we have that will help us do well and flourish in this environment, and what deficits we're going to have to work on. In terms of the skills, here are some of the most important: We need (and we need to surround ourselves with) people who can live in and perform in, the moment. We can no longer accommodate colleagues who live in the past, or are always anticipating the future. This requires the ability to grieve well – to be able to say goodbye to what we used to do, and who we used to be – and the ability to realistically assess the present and come to terms with what it is, not what we'd like it to be. In other words, we need to give up our "hope trips." We need to be life-long learners and come to terms with the fact that we'll never be "finished' with working on ourselves. To be able to do this, we need to be open to feedback, and open to constantly increasing our self-information. One of the things we need to stop doing is to defend our position, and act like we're on trial. We need to get a lot better at listening to the feedback we get about who we are; and to ask ourselves if what we're hearing makes sense, and how we can use it to improve ourselves. We need to develop an emotional compass that allows us to stay centered and focused, in the face of ambiguity, uncertainty, and unpredictability. That is, the ability to stay with the task at hand, knowing that there are no guarantees in the near or distant future. We need to look at our need for control, and our level of trust; and work to establish the best ratio between the two. In an Age of Self-Doubt, the temptation to increase control is heightened, and the tendency to lower one's trust is increased. What we need, however, is just the opposite. High control and low trust dramatically inhibits our ability to grow and increases anxiety and tension. Low control and high trust allows us to mediate in this "new normal," without driving ourselves crazy. We need to be able to talk about our feelings, in real time. Especially when those feelings are about our worries and concerns. It's hard to convince people (especially business people) that talking about things that worry us, or situations that suck, helps us get through them, and defuses the anxiety associated with them. We don't need to always fix or change things that bother us; but we do need to talk about them, in order to feel better and get things done again. Complaining is fine; as long as that's not all you do..."
"The New Normal – Unending Unpredictability" For a number of years now, I've heard people talking about how unpredictable business has become; with the implied assumption that one of these days, the unpredictability will finally end, or at least, level off, and we'll return to a generally predictable environment. Well, from everything I see and experience, that ain't ever going to happen. Unpredictability is here to stay, and the implications are sobering. First and foremost, is the fact that we have unequivocally entered the Age of Self-Doubt. I have never, in my professional life, worked with and encountered so many talented, highly skilled, and successful people, who are haunted by self-doubt. People, who prior to these times, made one decision after another, with a great sense of clarity and certainty, now second-guessing almost everything they do. Everyone, at times, has some doubts; but now the experience seems to have become endemic and epidemic. It has become a part of our daily lives and our ongoing personal and professional experiences. So how do we deal with and come to terms with it? First, we need to realize that we are not alone with this feeling. It is shared by all of us, and has become a part of the global consciousness. Second, we need to look at and assess our inventory of life skills to determine what personal assets we have that will help us do well and flourish in this environment, and what deficits we're going to have to work on. In terms of the skills, here are some of the most important: We need (and we need to surround ourselves with) people who can live in and perform in, the moment. We can no longer accommodate colleagues who live in the past, or are always anticipating the future. This requires the ability to grieve well – to be able to say goodbye to what we used to do, and who we used to be – and the ability to realistically assess the present and come to terms with what it is, not what we'd like it to be. In other words, we need to give up our "hope trips." We need to be life-long learners and come to terms with the fact that we'll never be "finished' with working on ourselves. To be able to do this, we need to be open to feedback, and open to constantly increasing our self-information. One of the things we need to stop doing is to defend our position, and act like we're on trial. We need to get a lot better at listening to the feedback we get about who we are; and to ask ourselves if what we're hearing makes sense, and how we can use it to improve ourselves. We need to develop an emotional compass that allows us to stay centered and focused, in the face of ambiguity, uncertainty, and unpredictability. That is, the ability to stay with the task at hand, knowing that there are no guarantees in the near or distant future. We need to look at our need for control, and our level of trust; and work to establish the best ratio between the two. In an Age of Self-Doubt, the temptation to increase control is heightened, and the tendency to lower one's trust is increased. What we need, however, is just the opposite. High control and low trust dramatically inhibits our ability to grow and increases anxiety and tension. Low control and high trust allows us to mediate in this "new normal," without driving ourselves crazy. We need to be able to talk about our feelings, in real time. Especially when those feelings are about our worries and concerns. It's hard to convince people (especially business people) that talking about things that worry us, or situations that suck, helps us get through them, and defuses the anxiety associated with them. We don't need to always fix or change things that bother us; but we do need to talk about them, in order to feel better and get things done again. Complaining is fine; as long as that's not all you do..."
