The Road Less Traveled: Into the Unknown

It’s almost time for a transition. A quick calculation has alerted me to the fact that I will be graduating in a little over a month’s time, and many of my friends at other schools have already done so. This means that every event that my peers and I share is prefaced by the words “the last time we will ever” and hearing Pachelbel Canon causes my eyes to water in a bizarre imitation of Pavlov’s dog.

Mostly what makes the whole experience upsetting is the element of uncertainty. Even though many of us have already secured employment for the next period of time, we have no experience with a full time occupation, as our full time occupation (as my parents constantly remind me) has been student-dom for the past 19 years of our lives.  We’ve had partial experience with “real life,” as we call it–that is, paying bills, doing our laundry, and cooking for ourselves–but most of us have had our parents to fall back on should our cash flow not keep up with our demands. Our safety net will no longer be quite at the ready.

Rich McLaughlin, president of the McLaughlin Community sent Monar a monthly thought yesterday that read:
“Most managers are trying to design variance out of the system, and it cannot handle a process which starts off not knowing where it will eventually get.  Poor design briefs are not normally the ones with too many constraints, but the ones that take all opportunity for discovery and surprise away.  The design thinker has a stance that seeks the unknown, embraces the possibility of surprise, and is comfortable with wading into complexity not knowing what is on the other side.”  –Roger Martin, The Design of Business

It’s easy to focus on “what is” within your organization, because “what is” is a sure thing. It’s what you’ve always done; it’s what you know works. It’s what you’re good at. But what if you’re risking the possibility of losing added value because you won’t risk moving away from what has always been? It’s true that there is a chance that innovation won’t yield success, but as Wayne Gretzky (via Michael Scott) said, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

There are so many unexplored avenues for improving your organization. Think to yourself, “am I adding value to my company, or am I just helping it run?” In case this entry wasn’t already chock full of clichés, “if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

I am clearly the first to say that the world of the unknown is something that marks the end of what you believe your knowledge to be able to handle. But it also marks opportunity, and more importantly, the opportunity to learn and grow. Whether it be your organization or yourself, embracing a path whose end isn’t automatically clear at the outset has benefits that are often overlooked for fear of even taking the first step.

To our readers: what is your attitude toward the unknown? How do you get over the fear of the possibility of surprise?