Managing Uncertainty and Your Reputation

No matter what industry you work in, it is fair to say that this has been (and continues to be) a very challenging year.  Throughout 2020 we have been in one of the most significant societal, cultural, and economic revolutions in this country’s short history—quite possibly in most of human history.  We have all felt on occasion a bit like the mythological Sisyphus, continually rolling the boulder uphill…only to have it roll back down again…over and over.

As is often the case at the beginning of any given year, industry prognosticators lay out lists of where they think the greatest emerging business challenges will be during the next twelve months. Not surprisingly, those lists for 2020 contained many predictable, while still legitimate, repeats from prior years. 

Cybersecurity and privacy protections, reducing operational expenses, deepening customer relationships, finding new sources of revenue, attracting and retaining new employees, et cetera. Once again, all very familiar to us.    

Then, thanks to COVID-19’s devastating surprise arrival, the resulting new combination of challenges began to seem overwhelming. Many businesses around the world experienced losses in income, staff and general day-to-day operations.  Many had to shut down, either temporarily or permanently.  Few industries will be unscathed heading into 2021.  

We have all had to quickly adapt to not only rapidly evolving changes in the manner which business was being conducted, but also the changing nature of the workplace itself. While advancing technology continued to leave leaving its fingerprint on how work was being done, we now were also being faced with the added dimension of where.  

Many capabilities that could have allowed us to start making these shifts earlier had been there already for some time, just waiting for us to capitalize on them. Yet, sometimes it seems to take adverse events to accelerate innovative opportunities and responses.  

This year we found such a catalyst. A recent Atlantic Council survey of 100 technology experts indicated they believe our responses to the coronavirus pandemic will significantly accelerate innovation regarding the future of work, especially concerning issues related data and data ethics, AI, trust and supply chains, and health/medicine.

Yet, there is one challenge that overlays all of the other priorities outlined in our initial 2020 “list”, and its criticality cannot be overstated. 

This year has been a clear reminder that proactively managing uncertainty and risk, as well as remaining constantly and proactively vigilant concerning its potentially looming effects, is a huge “must do” for all of us. 

We are surrounded with examples as to why. Within today’s hyper-connected digital world, widespread cybersecurity threats are now omnipresent, and we can expect them to continue to increase in sophistication, frequency, diversity, scale, and scope — not only this year, but also well into the near future.

Extending that thought, new web-based technologies aimed at creating the efficiencies and increased connectivity between people and places that we are seeking are also helping to proliferate cyber threats and risks. As more interconnected devices go online within our “Internet of Things” environment, our “attack surfaces” are increasing both professionally and personally. 

Within any unsteady changing environment, bad actors will find new vulnerabilities to exploit, thus making more and more people and business entities susceptible to cyberattack.

Yet, among all of these individual examples, technologically or otherwise, perhaps the ultimate threat here is not accepting the urgency in addressing the enormity of these risk mitigation challenges. 

Without devoting adequate time to looking forward and managing the broader risks along with the goals, business organizations can be setting themselves up for being victimized by the surprise arrival of the next large scale disruptive impact,…whether it is economic, political, technological or operational.

One huge take-away from 2020 is that an increased level of urgency in more effectively and proactively thinking, planning, preparing and executing will be even more critical in 2021.  

Forward-thinking companies must always be re-analyzing the landscape to detect upcoming threats to their existence within an influencing environment that continues to actively evolve around them, and then proactively begin to put the proper protections in place. If you feel you and your company need help in doing that, seek out a provably credible resource to assist you or mentor you. The alternative in not doing so could be game-ending.    

Do yourself a favor and begin to ask yourself frequently, “How am I thinking, planning, preparing and responding now to make a positive risk-resilient impact later on my enterprise and its customer relationships?”