The Case for Embracing Uncertainty

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For many of us, uncertainty is nerve-wracking. However, many of our best achievements and meaningful experiences come from a trying time of ambiguity. INSEAD professor Nathan Furr and entrepreneur Susannah Harmon Furr argue that uncertainty and possibility are two sides of the same coin. By learning to welcome and cope with the gray area, an individual can reach better outcomes. They reviewed research and interviewed innovators and changemakers to share best practices of stepping proactively into the unknown. They wrote the new book "The Upside of Uncertainty: A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown" and the HBR article "How to Overcome Your Fear of the Unknown."

Transcript

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0:00.0	So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New
0:08.1	Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for
0:13.8	free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!
0:30.0	Welcome to the HBR IDA cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickiff.
0:42.1	In 1978, Steve Lank was a young engineer sent to San Jose, California on a work assignment. He
0:56.0	opened the local newspaper to find page after page of job listings. Right then in there, he
1:01.6	decided quit his job and moved there. His colleague on the trip was shocked and flew home without him.
1:08.1	For Blank, the decision was simple. What was the worst that could happen? For his coworker,
1:13.4	it was just too risky to give up your job without a new one in hand. Well, it paid off for Blank.
1:19.3	He founded several successful companies there in Silicon Valley. But our guests today have sympathy
1:25.3	for his coworker. It's natural to avoid risks. Still, fear of uncertainty can also block us from
1:32.5	opportunity, from changing careers, from starting that business, from pitching that project,
1:38.2	from acting on that dream. Today's guests spoke to hundreds of entrepreneurs and innovators and leaders,
1:45.2	and from those interviews, they have learned strategies to embrace uncertainty and to change your
1:50.3	thinking, so you go after the possibilities hidden in the unknown. Nathan Furze, a professor of
1:56.4	strategy and innovation at INSEAD, and Susanna Harmon Furze and entrepreneur. Together, they wrote
2:02.0	the new book, The Upside of Uncertainty. Susanna and Nathan, so nice to speak with you.
2:08.2	Thanks for having us. Great to be here.
2:09.8	Just to clarify, from the get-go, if people wonder about the names, you are a married couple.
2:25.4	One of you studies entrepreneurship, the other is an entrepreneur. Both of you are inspired by it,
2:31.8	right? Do either of you suffer from the fear of the unknown more than the other?
2:37.0	I definitely do. My advisor at Stanford, when I was doing my PhD, always used to say, you study
	...

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