“Gosh! This project is driving me nuts” cried Sonia. “Things seem to be constantly changing, I rarely have information to make a sane decision. Even my boss doesn’t have answers to most of my questions. What do I do?”
For most people, ambiguity is not just frustrating, it is deeply frightening.
What is ambiguity? In simple terms, it’s about not having clear picture or constantly changing view on what needs to be done. It’s like driving through dense fog. You know your final destination, but, you can barely see 100 meters at a time.
We live in times that are ambiguous in many ways. While few people are lucky to be born with an innate ability to deal with ambiguity, many have learnt it through life experiences.
I have learnt four lessons as I worked through ambiguity.
Develop clarity on the larger purpose or goal you are working towards. Clarity on this will act like a guiding star.
Be comfortable with incomplete information or lack of clarity on actions to be taken. Have faith that you will find the path as long as you follow the larger purpose, your guiding star.
Accept that you will hit blind alleys or wrong turns. Question is how fast can you realize that you are lost? How soon can you get out of it?
Experiment, fail small, fail fast.. but quickly learn from mistakes, make changes and move forward.
“Learning to live with ambiguity is learning to live with how life really is, full of complexities and strange surprises”
At the outset, I would like to thank you for stopping by my Blog.
I believe that there is nothing right or wrong in this world. What’s right in this moment and context may be wrong in another moment and context. This belief has inspired me to name my blog ‘Perspectives’.
Perspectives is a platform for me to share my experiences, thoughts and perspectives on various subjects. You may have a different point of view. I look forward to hearing them, these are the triggers for rich and deep conversations.
On personal front, I live in Mumbai, India. I love to read; Somerset Maugham and Nevil Shute are my favorite authors. My favorite books are The Razor’s Edge, Mrs. Craddock, Chequer Board and Gone with the Wind. I am thankful to my father who inculcated the habit of reading in me early on.
I am also passionate about traveling, I have been to most parts of India and to several countries across the globe.
On professional front, I work in Human Resources function. Over two and half decades, I have worked across multiple industries and cultures. I focus on Leadership Development, Talent Management, Visioning and Culture, Large-scale change, Employee Listening & Engagement, Employee Well-being, Inclusive work culture, HR effectiveness, Behavior and Mind-set shifts through sustained interventions
I currently lead Organization Effectiveness Function for Aditya Birla Group, a $44.3 billion conglomerate with 120000 employees across 35 countries.
I sincerely hope that you will enjoy reading my blog. I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions.
Thank you!
View all posts by Padma Rajeswari Nandi