The Antidote for Turbulence

Sitting on a smallish plane bumping out of Wellington the other day, I reflected on the absurdness of my situation. To quote David Bowie: sitting in a tin can far from the world. And realised that in order for me or any one of my fellow passengers to be here in the first place took a level of trust in technology and those who built and maintain this container as well as those that fly it.

Going through turbulence requires even greater trust, as it does when organisations increasingly and repeatedly encounter strong headwinds. We need trust in the vehicle we are in (our organisation), trust in our past and current colleagues, partners, and customers that co-created this and most importantly trust in our leaders. Not just to know where we are going but more importantly how we are going to get there. With all the talk of boundaries blurring among industries, within sectors, and between roles we forget that as human beings our brains are wired for a level of consistency. And, while neuro-plasticity and or adaptive intelligence has been critical to our capacity to learn and evolve, we simply cannot give our best if too much of our world is experiencing turbulence and flux.

The child traveler asks: Are we there yet? The adult worker’s equivalent question is: How are we going to get there? And, as the myriad of options for that journey expands so does our desire for our leaders to confirm the general direction of travel. We don’t need to know the exact route, but we do need to have confidence that those we are following broadly know where we are going or least understand how to survive in the terrain through which we are moving.

Most of us are okay with the fact we don’t have all the answers or that the path may need to change at some point. But we quite rightly need to know what success means and how what we do will contribute to that success, so we know how we collectively are going to get there. How confident do you or your people feel about the direction of travel?