Seven Mindsets for Unknown Futures

The future is unknown

It always has been and always will be

We sometimes create the grand illusion of 'knowing' through being in familiar patterns and routines. Their predictable rhythms build feelings of reliability and certainty. However, if you search inside yourself you already know certainty is an illusion.

The world as it is at the moment is shining a light on unknown futures. And yet, it was always so.

The problem can be that we confuse safety with certainty

Distinguishing more clearly between that which genuinely keeps you safe, and your drive for certainty, allows you to move towards safer uncertainty. Simply put, you do not have to be certain to be safe. You can read more about that in this article called The #1 Thing You Need to Know About Uncertainty.

Being safer in uncertainty allows you to better navigate and lead through unknown futures. It requires a deliberate mindset and practice.

Unless you are genuinely unsafe, you have choice. Mindset is a choice. Try some of these Seven Mindsets for Unknown Futures on and see how they fit.

Mindset

Your attitude to uncertainty can lead to creativity and possibility, or to fear and paralysis. Your mindset determines which.

Author and psychotherapist Barry Mason created a framework outlining 7 mindset positions that you can choose when moving towards positions of safer uncertainty, and therefore positions of creativity and possibility. Here they are (Adapted):

Mindset positions

1. Authoritative doubt: Hold your beliefs and knowledge with ‘authoritative doubt’. A balance of your expertise and your uncertainty.

2. State of flow: Nothing is fixed. Everything is always in a state of flow. 'This too will pass.’

3. Respectful, collaborative and evolving: The narrative of your life (and work) is respectful, collaborative and evolving. You are in a constant state of impermanence (The paradox isn’t lost on me!). You remain present and with reality, rather than in a story about what should be. You look for what is required now. You adapt and respond respectfully, collaboratively, and you keep evolving.

4. Alongside: New explanations are viewed curiously and add to, rather than replace existing thinking. You think ‘As-Well-As’ and look for ‘And-Both’ possibilities. For example: How do we support flexible working AND commit to connecting and building relationships as a team.

5. Enquiry: When unexpected things happen, you get curious. You choose enquiry over grasping for definition. You recognise that fixating on definitions and 'being right' are what we sometimes do to feel safer (to feel like we know). In exploring new and emergent realities, grasping for definitions can blinker us to possibility. It can make you miss more information than you see.

6. Meaning: You explore meaning and messages rather than argue about facts. You see dilemma’s not as problems to be fixed, but as messages to learn from.

7. Dilemmas: You see ‘solutions’ as dilemmas that are simply less of a dilemma than you had before. You know that a problem often doesn’t have a simple resolution and there doesn’t always have to be an answer.

Coaching Questions for Leaders and Teams

Are you struggling to comprehend what the future is going to look like for yourself, your team and your organisation? Here are some Coaching questions that embrace the unknown futures mindset.

What would enable you and your team to progress with authoritative doubt?
Could you use authoritative doubt as an approach to provide ‘just enough’ direction?
What might you have to accept about what is changing?
Could you reach agreement that you might have to undertake work that may never be realised or even utilised?
Could you reach agreement about how your skillsets and capabilities might need to be flexible, and differently deployed?
What understanding and agreements might need to be in place to make this approach easier for all involved?
Does your organisation culture currently support this type of approach?
If not (and you think it would be beneficial), what needs to shift?
What might make that shift possible?
What conversations are required and with whom?

Want to learn more?

Our communities, organisations and planet seem to be asking for a shift. This shift requires leaders who have made the transition from independence and competition, to inter-dependence and collaboration. You need to solve increasingly complex problems, and you do so through the delivery mechanism of relationships and communication. This is next tier leadership.

Matt Lock Leadership is running a retreat in November. It's called Space to Lead and it's designed to help you make this shift. We’ll take you on a journey that provides you with deeper psychological insight, increases your capacity for leadership communication, and expands your optics for navigating an increasingly unconventional environment.

Space to Lead is a three day residential for those who lead, and for those who develop leaders. It will take you into spaces beyond ordinary and conventional. It will take you to next tier leadership.