The Business of "Uncertainty"

Bestselling author, Daniel H. Pink, states in his most recent book, A Whole New Mind - Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future:

“We are moving from an economy and society built on the logical, linear, computer-like capabilities of the information age to an economy and society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what is rising in its place, the conceptual age.”

There has never been a time of greater uncertainty in the world. And the business you are creating and growing is going to ride through waves of those awkward stages between the two trapezes.

I believe it is most important to be in touch with where we are in order to create the future we individually and collectively desire. Over 25 years ago, I had a vision of this shift occurring, but really did not know how or when it was going to take place. It will take many thousands of folks like you and I to assist others in making this transition. For instance, I knew that we would reach a time of critical mass when authenticity and integrity would become more supported, and duplicity would be exposed sooner. Just the fact that honesty and integrity in business will bring about tremendous change could not even be imagined some 10 – 20 years ago.

Thank goodness we are finally here; a time when we can all put our right brain to good use, especially in the businesses we are creating and growing. And it is those very times of uncertainty in your business that are the golden opportunities for creativity.

For some 50 years now, I have been creating business ideas and concepts resulting in 20 business establishments integrating this right-brain approach with my engineering, linear perspective. In 1990, I decided to go on hiatus from leading seminars, giving speeches and consulting business owners for the simple reason that the business community was not yet ready for integrating this creative mode.

I intuitively knew things were going to change. The structures and systems that had worked in the past needed to fall apart so that they could restructure into something different…more powerful. We are in a time when they are doing just that. Look around at all the systems that are in the process of failing; systems that no longer serve us. Religious institutions (where individual value/faith is sacrificed on behalf of the religious system), legal systems, the educational system, medical profession, and business.

For the entrepreneur, the structure of business, and the market place is where we can have the greatest impact. Change, uncertainty, is going to happen whether we like it or not. Our small planet is shifting and we had better shift with it or fall off, so to speak.

We are definitely in an age of transformation with massive doses of uncertainty around every corner. Changes in business will tend to occur more quickly than in other professions because we have large numbers of innovators and inventors in the business realm. These creative entrepreneurs do not have to wait for change. They are the change. You are the change! And because of this, it is a most exciting time in our history to be an entrepreneur.

I can recall a time in the 50’s and 60’s (yup, I’m that old), when if you had a new product or service for a business project, it would often take years before you could potentially bring it to the market place. Not so today. Today we have accelerated that process where you can start a business in days, even hours.

Many of these changes are for the better. We are now given more time to experiment and fail, many times over even. Science has led the way in this. When working on a new discovery, scientists create a huge space for trial and error by calling their day-to-day failures hypotheses and experiments. They make it permissible to fail repeatedly until they come up with the result they want.

We need that same kind of tenacious spirit in business: to make it ok to fail many times over until we create the results we have envisioned. We are now at a place in history where we can speak openly about our mistakes. I compare this term to the process of film-making. When a film director is in the process of making a movie, they have many ‘takes’ until they get it right or “mis-takes”.

I refer optimistically to some of the businesses I have created as ‘wind tunnels’. They were the establishments that devoured funds without producing any, or very little return, on an investment. Their value, however, was in serving as hypotheses in my on-going experiment to introduce a valued service or product, with integrity and quality, into the market place. Innovation in business is available to us as entrepreneurs more now than at any other time in our history. This age of transformation, this age of “uncertainty”, is built for this kind of trial and error process. It is the very climate that will enable us to create a market place that will simultaneously bring profitable results while serving, with integrity our employees, customers and nurturing our planet…the triple bottom line.

The conceptual age we are now entering gives rise to a business model that is evolving at an accelerated rate. In a very short while, we will no longer be able to use the term “business as usual”. New terms are emerging on the market place horizon and will soon become the norm, such as “business magic”, “business transformation”, and “conceptual age business”.

It will take a whole new way of thinking and a whole new way of perceiving business. We are gradually moving into an era where we are integrating as the norm ‘right-brain’ characteristics in predominantly left-brain, linear structures and systems in the market place. This transformative business with greater right/left brain integration will become an art form in much the same way as music, dance, photography, sculpture and painting are seen as art forms.

Each of us already has this ability. It is a matter of putting what we already have to a greater good for humanity. Right now the market place provides us with abundant opportunities to practice and even master this new way of business. In fact, even in this next week, in the guise of “uncertainty”, there will be multiple opportunities for you to combine creative ways of thinking in transforming your business to the next level. Be on the look-out for them. I assure you, they will be around every corner!