How can you manage a team with high ambiguity?

To manage a team amid high ambiguity, establish a clear vision, and ensure open, frequent communication to minimize uncertainty. It's essential to cultivate a resilient and adaptable team culture, embracing diversity and valuing collaborative efforts. Regularly providing support, resources, and constructive feedback will help the team navigate ambiguity. Encourage sharing diverse ideas and innovations and celebrate collective achievements to maintain morale. I'd like to point out that addressing concerns quickly and leveraging various strengths within the team will facilitate an environment conducive to productivity and positive engagement amidst uncertainties.

The short answer is with great difficulty. In my experience people generally don’t like uncertainty. I would try to find ways to reduce the uncertainty and ask why ambiguity needs to be there.

Usually ambiguity come from TOP. If the information or requirement and the REASON for doing certain task / project, is not clarified then people will do it but they will not know WHY. If the ambiguity is at the early phases of the project is easy to correct it because clarifications, if asked for, will be given. If its in the middle of the project then its clear that they haven't understood WHY they have to do it but they are still doing something just because "my boss said so". There is a catch... If it's not clarified or corrected, due do ambiguity there are high chances that the project will not be completed or it will get stuck right at the end.

I find that in efforts towards brevity, the curt nature of giving direction via a technology means can directly induce the ambiguity. I find value, even over video chat, in seeing the body language of the team (or client), an observant manager can pick up on these cues and provide the necessary clarification. As always, genuinely invite feedback and input so that you are confident the team has what it needs to move forward successfully. Doing this can save you time and energy in the long run.

Ambiguity often coincides with change, and a successful manager must be adaptable. Encourage your team to see ambiguity as an opportunity for growth and innovation rather than an obstacle. Highlight the significance of ongoing planning and learning from successes and failures. This can foster resilience and creativity within the team.

In ambiguous situations, team members need autonomy and trust to navigate complexity effectively. Empower your team to make decisions and solve problems independently. Create an environment where open communication and collaboration are encouraged. When team members feel trusted and supported, they are more likely to take ownership of their work and exceed expectations.

In QA, embracing the "shift-left" approach is key to effectively manage ambiguity. By incorporating testing earlier in the development lifecycle, potential risks are identified and mitigated promptly. Engage in continuous dialogue with developers to clarify uncertain requirements. Regular team training ensures alignment and readiness for evolving priorities. Cultivate an environment where ambiguity is seen as an opportunity to refine processes and bolster innovation, with shift-left at its core.

Communication with transparency is key. Open lines of communication can help clear up some of the ambiguity, but can also lead to acute risk mitigation via the daily addressing of any concerns or roadblocks. Failure is always a possibility, and should be expected from a leadership perspective. As long as the team knows they can report anything without fearing repercussions, issues can be addressed, discussed as a group, and new direction pursued.

As a manager of a team that has a lot of ambiguity, the need to provide a safe place is amplified. There will be setbacks and at times it will look like you are going backwards. Setting the expectation that this will happen and focusing on the learning rather than the action will allow the team to overcome the challenges and continue to move forward positively. Treat the wins and the losses in the same manner, breaking down what happened and teasing out the learnings. Allowing these learnings to direct your next action, you and the team will be able to reduce the ambiguity and find the correct path to solve the challenge.

Let's face it. Change and ambiguity are not what people actively seek. Nobody likes surprises. Therefore, it is important to set that expectation at the start, that there are pieces of the puzzle that are unknown and that there are changes coming along. Secondly it is important to prioritize and chunk work if it all possible so that all the effort doesnt have to be thrown out. Work on pieces that are clear and wait a bit on the ambiguous areas. You have to appreciate the time and effort of the team in such situations and try your best to put it to good use. Review frequently, communicate everyday, appreciate people for their patience and contributions regularly, call out they were stellar at change management in their performance review!