Tag: ambiguity

Taking Steps Forward Through Ambiguity (6-10-26)

We are now on week 3 of lessons I’ve learned from working in a central role.  Last week was about leadership and power.  This week is about the importance of taking steps forward when you’re mired in ambiguity.

I’ve been in a few central roles in my career.  Generally, these roles are pretty ambiguous.  For example, in my career role I’m supposed to lead innovation and lead us to the future.  Let’s be honest.  I have no idea what that means.  I can’t say with certainty what will happen.  Recently, I’ve been sharing thoughts on what a future agentic insights ecosystem could look like.  If more than 40% of that ends up being true, I’ll consider that a miracle.  All of this complexity and ambiguity can feel overwhelming.  It can stop me from taking action.

Let’s make some connections.  Have you ever felt paralyzed by ambiguity?  It’s easy to get stuck thinking and thinking and overthinking every possible angle and every possible contingency.  While that thinking might make us feel like we are doing something, the truth is that thinking isn’t always the same thing as taking action.

I don’t with certainty the exact coordinates of where we need to go in the future.  I do have a north star though.  I do have things I believe will likely continue to be true.  The value of data will continue to increase in a world of AI.  Getting data AI ready will continue to grow in importance.  Having tools to help get the most of the data will be critical.  As there are more and more tools, being clear on the tool and the problem they solve will be more important than ever. 

I know that if I take action toward solving those problems, I’ll likely be walking in the right direction.  I’m humble enough to know I can always redirect along the way.  Instead of being paralyzed, I’ll keep taking steps and keep taking steps and keep taking steps until we finally get to that future.

The challenge- How will you keep taking steps forward through ambiguity?

By the way, the picture is from a Tough Mudder last year.  I crawl through mud as a hobby, which explains a lot about how weird I am 😉

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Spider-Man: Miles Morales- Milestones and Unclear Paths (2-3-21)

This week we are going to kick off a series inspired by the video game Spider-man: Miles Morales.  We will focus on video games, milestones, and unclear paths.

In this game you play as Miles Morales as he embraces his role as Spider-man.  In case you aren’t familiar with Miles, he is biracial with a Black dad and a Puerto Rican mom. (You should also watch Into the Spider-verse).  He is new to his powers and just coming into his own as a superhero.  When you start the game you know that you’ll ultimately have to save the city, but you have no idea the path you will take to do this.  While you don’t have a clear path that shows exactly how you’ll beat the game, you do have milestones you need to reach.  For instance, a dot will show up on your map telling you to go there.  You go to that destination and learn about what is going on in the game.  After you complete that objective, you gain more insight into what the next step is.  You go to the next dot on your map and repeat the process.  As you complete the series of objectives you gain new powers and momentum that aid you in your quest.  By the time you get to the final battle you’ve achieved a series of short-term goals that have set you up for ultimate long-term success. 

What does this have to do with anything?  I’ve come to accept that dealing with ambiguity will be one of the few constants in life.  Things are more complex and changing faster than ever.  It’s impossible to always have step by step instructions on how to reach your goals.  This lack of clarity on a precise path forward makes it easy to freeze up and feel lost when facing a messy situation.  Have you ever felt this way?  In times like this, I think we have to take the video game approach.  Instead of being paralyzed because every step isn’t laid out in front of us, we need to be willing to look at the situation, identify a few milestones, and start moving in their direction even if we don’t have every other step perfectly laid out.  Similar to the Spider-man game, making progress on our first objective will give us the learning and momentum to better define and progress along a path toward our ultimate goal.  It just requires us to be brave enough to keep moving forward even if we can’t plan out every little step.

The challenge: When faced with ambiguity, how will you find a way to move forward? 

Bonus thought: Whenever I’m faced with an ambiguous situation I tend to ask myself these questions to try to bring clarity:

  • What do I believe the end goal is?  By the end of this, what should people think/feel/do?  Who can I bounce this thinking off of?
  • What is the from to for this?
  • What are 3 major milestones I’ll need to hit between now and the end goal to be on the path toward success?  I’ve found I can always identify 3 milestones.
  • What is an immediate step I can take right now to move things a little bit forward? This could be anything from scheduling time with someone to connect to pulling together rough thoughts to show someone.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry