Everything’s under control
You employ various processes, job descriptions, procedures and guidelines to strip uncertainty out of your organization, convincing yourself you’ve got everything under control. Of course you do. Except you don’t. It’s an illusion. And a reassuring one at that; but it’s still only an illusion.
In everyday life, the profusion of standards and procedures is far from being a good thing and providing the expected efficiencies. And they can often lead to contradictions and absurdities: “I’ve got two incompatible instructions, and I’m the piggy in the middle”. They also generate a feeling of disempowerment or excessive zeal, along the lines of: “I followed the instructions to the letter, so it’s not my fault (I knew it was daft).”
Even though you really hate them, gray areas are not all bad! They mean you have to adapt, cooperate and use your smarts. So, bring uncertainty and instability under control. Even though this fuzziness is, of course, uncomfortable, it does promote growth – not just for your organization but also for your colleagues and yourself!
But watch out for the booby trap: leaving your team in an uncertain state won’t be enough to turn them into a first-rate, invincible unit! This type of vagueness only works when there’s already a genuine climate of trust, where everyone has permission to dare to use their independence and take decisions… in the dark.
To go further
“Managers, n’ayez plus peur du flou”
by Éric-Jean Garcia (The Conversation, March 25, 2024).
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