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Ready For Uncertainty? Adjust Your Personal Real Options

Hand of Cards | GETTY
Hand of Cards | GETTY

In turbulent economic times, one of the best ways through is to identify the certain uncertainties. For example, in a supply chain world rocked by uncertainty, what is certain? The need for flexible, agile supply chains. But how can we apply this concept in our daily work and personal lives? One approach research suggests can help is to rebalance our personal real options, or the portfolio of projects in our personal or professional life.


For example, most of us juggle multiple projects at work. Perhaps it’s time to reallocate our portfolio of projects by inserting a project that has more certainty based on what we know customers, or the organization will need: the certainty within the uncertainty. What can you foresee that your customers/users will absolutely need in the near term? For example, as the world becomes more digital, more data, especially tied to valuable business cases, will always be in demand.


On a more micro scale, skills in digital, AI, technology, and marketing will likely always be in demand. How do you choose projects, or tackle your existing projects, in a way that helps you develop these skills. So for example, if you have a project you are working on, carve out a bit of time to explore how you might experiment using new tools to get the task done, allowing you to learn in the process.

As you go about allocating your personal or team real options, avoid the trap of going all in on certainty! One of the great challenges of uncertainty is that we can collapse the portfolio too far, suppressing options that will be relevant when the current pressure lets up, leaving us unprepared for the future. For example, organizations desperately needing digital transformation may be tempted to cut all work, for the sake of existing budgets, but when the current economic environment improves—as it always does—they will be left flat footed in a world where data is the necessary fuel for AI. So there is always an element of asking, what is the path to the future, and how do I build on certainties today, so that I'm inching towards that future. In the case of the organization trying to increase their digital maturity, it may be a case of asking which projects will allow us to generate a turn but also step into the future, and how do we prioritize those?

With that said, sometimes there are no easy answers, and no easy solutions. Instead, we need to just create a bit more certainty in our own life, using uncertainty balancers, our habits, routines, rituals, and relationships that create an island of certainty in our own life where we can rest from the crashing waves of uncertainty. It's the right time to spend more time with family and friends, give ourselves more breaks to look forward to, and get out in the open air, recognizing that the real world, the natural world, has existed far longer than we have and will endure after us. The rising sun and the setting sun, the afternoon breeze, all of them will endure, and we can take some comfort in stepping out of our heads and remembering we are all part of this much bigger, much more powerful, much more enduring, and much more beautiful natural rhythm.


 
 
 

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