Moving towards Uncertainty

We need to find a way of moving forward without certainty, without prescribed courses of actions or existing best practice.— Dan Hill

We plan too much for the short term because it’s more certain. Let’s take a longer view — so we are not held hostage to change, but are friends with it. This means doing things slightly differently:

1. Looking at a 5–10 years horizon with multiple scenarios — reality is a sludge of possibilities and the future will be a mix of all these scenarios, but at least you will be prepared for them

2. Creating strategy with a cross-functional team -so you aren’t moving forward with blinders on and after all everything we do affects something else, more minds means more awareness of the situation, causes and effects

3. Build more prototypes — iterate and evolve as new information comes in so you aren’t playing catch up — it’s harder to start than to speed up

Planning for uncertainty brings resilience to your organization, processes, products, services and ambitions.

At ClearSky we have a rock solid approach for doing this with trendspotting, systems thinking and scenario planning and it integrates well with marketing, transformation and sustainability development. Give us a shout if you are even mildly curious.