Ask Sanyin: How Do You Build for an Unpredictable Future?

While the pandemic was a wild ride of uncertainty for me and many of my peers in leadership, it feels like we never regained our footing.

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Now, we are being hit with events in our industry that we never anticipated, plus a huge wave of hype around new technologies. How can I ground my thinking as we go into another strategic planning cycle with so many unknowns?

SO MANY OF US WERE BLINDsided five years ago by the global pandemic, which brought home the fact that you can’t predict the future. It’s not only uncertainty that has increased, but also the pace of change sure has — and that makes it hard to get your bearings while also adding more variables to consider. So first, acknowledge that as a leader, you get to live in uncomfortable places that are never going to get comfortable. Uncertainty about the future is one of those places, and you will be a better leader for admitting the limits of your knowledge — and the limits of risk management and probabilistic thinking.