Uncertainty

Uncertainty is an inherent part of being in business.

Of course, it runs directly counter to what we want to do, which is planning. And in a previous career, I was directly in this dilemma, creating disaster plans and alternative scenarios and backups.

Unfortunately, business results come from doing stuff, not from planning. So how do you deal this this?

I’ve found that one of the most useful approaches is to transform uncertainty into flexibility.

Let’s imagine that you’re worried about losing a key employee. You could be in a world of hurt when their knowledge and high productivity walks out the door.

If you get stuck on worrying, that will just stress you out. So let’s shift that into how could we flexibly handle that situation? Well, we could focus on cross-training others. Documenting processes so that others could execute them. Having interns shadow more experienced people.

Guess what? This is highly valuable for everyone – not just that one employee you’re worried about. It’s going to help when someone goes on vacation or get sick. It’ll provide backups when people get overloaded. It may even help identify potential process improvements.

And this all stemmed from that conversation you had last week where that key employee left you nervous about whether they were thinking of leaving.

So think about transforming your uncertainty into a flexibility issue. You can do something about that.