Disambiguation

Instead, we want to leave room for doubt. As Karl Weick, an educational psychologist at the University of Michigan, advises in the second opening quote, wisdom is finding the right balance between having confidence in what you know and leaving enough room for doubt in case you are wrong.32 That’s the balance we are looking for here. When we treat t

Today’s huge levels of uncertainty – climate change, inflation, the nigh-impossibility of shared societal goals, the rampant polarisation making political moderation very difficult – have truly brought out the very worst in us. Yet if uncertainty is a feature of the world, and not just a story about the limits of human knowing, then we’d better fi

We humans are uncomfortable with ambiguity, especially when everything feels so out of control already.

and be with not knowing. It encourages us to show up ready and eager to meet whatever arises. Perhaps most important, it demands the mental and emotional agility to be comfortable with the paradox of simultaneously holding two or more points of view with equal attentiveness.

To embrace a new story, safe uncertainty is the mindset we need to cultivate not just as individuals, but as organisations, institutions, and indeed whole societies. This demands honesty, acknowledgement of the challenges, and a commitment to facing them together.