Home » Uncategorized » Uncertainty, innovation and internal communication

Uncertainty, innovation and internal communication

Date: Oct 09 2024
Uncertainty, innovation and internal communication
Sharing

How can internal communication help us tolerate uncertainty and innovate in our work?

Just 5% of us feel positive about uncertainty. These people are the natural innovators, creators and entrepreneurs of this world, the ones who see the opportunity in uncertainty.

Whilst 85% of us feel negative about it, and 10% feel rather mixed. When we experience uncertainty we can feel the fear, the fog or freeze state where we’re just stuck.

Uncertainty comes in all shapes and sizes for us as individuals according to Sam Conniff of the Uncertainty Experts who I heard speak at Thriving in Uncertainty hosted by Matt Desmier.

Most of us experience uncertainty around:

  1. Work and career 30%
  2. Finances and money 26%
  3. Relationships 22%
  4. Health 18%
  5. With a tiny proportion stating climate, conflicts and things like AI as causes for uncertainty

Our emotional responses to uncertainty can stop us from progressing and achieving success. When we’re in an emotional response state to uncertainty we don’t do our best work and it can be a barrier to innovation.

Some of us would rather experience pain than uncertainty.

We all have a different level of uncertainty tolerance and different coping strategies.

Whilst we can’t change uncertainty, as individuals we can change our relationship with it through our mindset and emotional awareness.

In response to all of this I can see that intentional internal communication can support colleagues at work and leaders to better tolerate and succeed in uncertainty.

After all, if much of our anxiety as individuals about uncertainty centres on our work and careers, then there’s a job to do in our businesses to help colleagues to have a better experience at work and to be able to cope better with uncertainty.

Add to that, the much sought after innovation and improved productivity desired in businesses.

If your people are in a state of fear, fog or freeze they are not going to be pushing boundaries and innovating. That comes at the edges and in those places of uncertainty, but you need to feel psychologically safe to push outside of your comfort zones and test your ideas without the fear of failure.

Helping our colleagues and leaders tolerate that uncertainty makes sense to elevate our organisations.

 

How does uncertainty make you feel? Image from Thriving in ~Uncertainty, stats from the Uncertainty Experts

How does uncertainty make you feel? Image from Thriving in ~Uncertainty, stats from the Uncertainty Experts

So what can internal communication do?

  1. Set the narrative and tone. Language leads changes in culture. It can demonstrate openness and create the safe environment to express ourselves. How we communicate really matters. Taking an approach and use of language that is transparent, open and honest throughout the internal communication eco-system builds trust and encourages involvement.
  2. Create an open communication eco-system. One that creates the spaces for forums and sharing ideas, feedback and involvement. Acknowledgement and recognition of participation is also important, showing others what’s being discussed and done, and that it’s ok to fail in safe spaces. The ability of individuals and groups to keep moving forward with new ideas and innovation, beyond their failures and setbacks that inevitably arise through experimentation, innovation and experiencing uncertainty, create resilience and will more likely lead to improvements than staying put or doing the same as you’ve always done.
  3. Truly valuing the diversity of people, their experiences and their thinking in your organisations. Showing that diversity and inclusivity in your organisation and your communications is vital to creating and perpetuating a culture of inclusivity, and in turn better able to tolerate uncertainty.
  4. Leaders set the tone and culture through their behaviour. What leaders do and pay attention to matters. When they set the expectations clearly, show humility, practice inquiry by asking questions and listening intentionally, they show their people that they matter. Helping leaders connect, make time for conversations and intentional listening reaps long term dividends in culture and how a business operates.

Internal communication can be used to shape culture and drive business when strategically designed and delivered.

I think it can really help people trough times of uncertainty and to be feel more comfortable in uncertainty too.