TLP472: Embracing Uncertainty with Dr. Margaret Heffernan скачать в хорошем качестве

TLP472: Embracing Uncertainty with Dr. Margaret Heffernan

Dr. Margaret Heffernan has written six books including "Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril" and "Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future," both widely recognized as top business books. Dr. Heffernan returns to the Leadership Podcast with insights from her new book "Embracing Uncertainty: How writers, musicians and artists thrive in an unpredictable world." Get the full show notes here: https://bit.ly/TLP-472 In this episode: [03:15] Dr. Heffernan reveals what's not in her public bio [04:55] Dr. Heffernan explains that leaders can reclaim intuition for better decision-making by absorbing quality information through everyday observations [10:50] Dr. Heffernan confirms that when you slow down, thoughts bubble to the surface - some mundane like "oh God, I forgot to feed the cat," others valuable like identifying the right person for a job that your brain was processing subconsciously. [12:49] Dr. Heffernan distinguishes between necessary ambiguity and harmful vagueness by explaining that decisions are always ambiguous because they're "hypotheses about the future," but harmful vagueness occurs when leaders don't ask clear questions or establish what decision needs to be made. [18:35] Dr. Heffernan describes transforming a board she chairs from having overly strict agendas to focusing on "what are the three most important things we need to be talking about right now". [22:19] Dr. Heffernan explains that "action is how you search". [25:08] Dr. Heffernan suggests that risk tolerance may actually be lower than ever before, but people's level of anxiety drives them to reduce risk, working with wealthy companies whose "risk aversion is almost tangible" despite having enormous resources. [26:49] Dr. Heffernan acknowledges that artists and musicians must be vulnerable to put themselves out there, but explains that most people she's worked with have high risk tolerance because "if you're going to do something meaningful and worthwhile, probably going to be something you haven't done before." [28:55] Dr. Heffernan shares that her book "Willful Blindness" initially seemed like a failure with only a couple of reviews after six months, but took off after making the Financial Times Business Book Award longlist and continues to have readers over a decade later. [31:22] Dr. Heffernan explains her motivation for writing "Embracing Uncertainty". [34:55] Dr. Heffernan outlines her ideal leadership retreat opening: "sending people out for a walk and coming back to report what they saw," explaining this practice "wandering around stuff" and would reveal amazingly different observations from different people. [36:50] Dr. Heffernan suggests the better instruction for the walking exercise would be "noticed" rather than "saw" because "you could notice in all sorts of different ways," allowing people to focus on hearing, feeling, or thinking differently. [44:49] Dr. Heffernan explains she's become "much less concerned about planning now," leaving more margins for things to go wrong and scheduling less frantically to create "space and time for things to happen." [46:50] Dr. Heffernan describes a transformative experiment where she appointed herself "the listener" in meetings, discovering that when you're not looking for moments to speak, "you actually are listening to the person who's speaking instead of rehearsing in your mind what you're going to say next." [50:46] Dr. Heffernan concludes that leaders should remember "what's uncertain is a whole range of things that are possible" and warns against "demanding too much certainty too fast" because "what's certain is what's known and something you've done before," while innovation requires exploring uncertainty rather than shutting it down. [52:00] And remember...“Uncertainty is a very good thing: it's the beginning of an investigation, and the investigation should never end.” - Tim Crouch This episode provides actionable insights for leaders who want to navigate uncertainty with confidence, make decisions with incomplete information, and create space for the unexpected insights that drive breakthrough thinking. You can find episode 472 on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts!