Embracing Uncertainty:

A Co-Created, Licensed Program That Finds Clarity in the Unknown

Abstract

Whether faced with constantly shifting circumstances or simply trying to stay ahead of the curve, leaders often become “stuck” without knowing how to succeed. Insight Experience partnered with Unstuck Minds, which provides learning solutions, consulting services, and executive coaching, to create a simulation-based learning experience that is designed to help leaders rethink their challenges, broaden their perspectives, and leverage resources they have previously overlooked. The program, now in its third year, has been positively received and has successfully engaged nearly 200 participants.

Challenge

Leaders are perpetually tasked with overcoming obstacles; anticipating business challenges, threats, and opportunities; and staying one step ahead of the competition. However, they increasingly find themselves in unfamiliar situations that breed uncertainty. In addition, their information-gathering may be restricted as they often resort to familiar and comfortable sources. As a result, this reliance may lead to them making critical decisions based on incomplete information, potentially impacting their effectiveness. Adopting a more flexible and comprehensive approach to information sourcing, as well as embracing ambiguity, is essential.

Solution

To address these challenges of uncertainty, the consulting company Unstuck Minds collaborated with Insight Experience to develop an immersive learning experience designed to help leaders and teams break free from status-quo thinking. The program, Embracing Uncertainty, equips participants with a method to “SCAN” their environment, enhancing their awareness of personal biases, increasing their comfort with the unknown, and broadening their understanding of their options. The program teaches leaders to seek out well-balanced information and overcome their own biases and assumptions to unlock meaningful insights. Using Unstuck Mind’s “SCAN” approach, learners are equipped with the tools to develop their thinking and strengthen their decision-making. The simulation portion of the program presents participants with a business challenge over two rounds of decision-making. The simulation is meticulously designed to align with the content provided by Unstuck Minds and serves as a practical experience that enriches the content taught, offering participants a cohesive learning experience.

Learning Objectives

As a result of the Embracing Uncertainty program, participants develop and learn skills to:

• Identify their own assumptions and biases.
• Challenge their own thinking.
• Look across a well-blended set of information when assessing a situation.
• Feel comfortable with complexity and ambiguity.
• Productively challenge the status quo.

Design Highlights

Unstuck Minds and Insight Experience designed the program to help leaders think better and connect better in uncertain times so that their strategies and solutions can be more creative and compassionate. Participants leave the program with an understanding of the type of information they prefer when dealing with complex and uncertain situations; an understanding of how blind spots and threats limit and misdirect our thinking; the ability to use four thinking disciplines to form insights and generate options when strategizing or problem-solving; an increased ability to think critically; and instructions for using Unstuck Mind’s SCAN tool with their teams.

The design incorporates work done in advance of the program, including the completion of an Unstuck Minds Profile and the review of a case study. Program participants also receive access to an online toolkit and an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant trained on the SCAN framework.

Insight Experience specifically crafted the simulation to align with the content of Unstuck Minds, who license the program. After each of the two decision-making rounds in the simulation, Unstuck Mind facilitators conduct debrief sessions in which they discuss outcomes, explore the approaches teams took and the insights they gained, provide targeted feedback, and discuss the ways in which participants might apply these new understandings to challenges back on the job. In this way, the facilitators foster for participants a deep understanding of the foundational concepts of the Embracing Uncertainty curriculum.

Program Design

The Embracing Uncertainty program can be delivered as two 2-hour virtual sessions or as a one-day classroom workshop.

• The first half of the program includes an overview, a discussion of how we get stuck, and an introduction to Unstuck Mind’s SCAN framework through the first round of the simulation.
• The second half continues with a session that focuses on improving questioning techniques, the second round of the simulation, and the application of these learnings to participant-specific challenges.
• Before the end of the program, participants learn to use the SCAN Profile⁺ Platform and AI assistant for ongoing support when facing uncertain and complex challenges on the job.

Program Content

Unstuck Mind’s content includes models and information about Mental Quicksand, attention agility, embracing uncertainty, the SCAN Framework, and more.

Simulation Overview

Teams are placed into a two-round simulation in which they represent a business development leader for a large fitness corporation called Perfect Fit. Participants immediately learn that they are on the verge of losing a key account to their competitor. In the first round of decision-making, the Discovery Round, teams collect information to craft a proposal to reclaim the account and prepare recommendations for the Perfect Fit CEO. However, the primary educational value lies not in an exclusive focus on winning back the account but in the types of information teams seek to better comprehend the situation. Each data point that teams gather corresponds to part of the SCAN framework. At the conclusion of the Discovery Round, teams assess whether they have collected a well-rounded set of information.

In the second round, the Response Round, teams utilize the information obtained in the Discovery Round to develop a proposal for the departing client and advise their boss on the company’s next steps. This stage allows teams to observe how more balanced information contributes to improved customer relationships and a more strategic approach to action planning.

History and Results

The program has been active for the past three years and has reached nearly 200 participants. Here is what some participants have said about this program:

• “Embracing Uncertainty sessions were insightful, engaging, and provided a framework to navigate uncertainty that I am confident will be a benefit for our team. A very well thought out scenario and simulation is provided to the teams to work through together to practice the framework. Feedback we received included the insight that the simulation was one of the most thorough and well-developed of any they have experienced.” — Project Management Office Team Leader
• “The Embracing Uncertainty workshop was well-balanced between theory and practice, addressing a theme that is very relevant and essential in a leader’s day-to-day responsibilities. The workshop effectively blended theoretical concepts with practical applications.” — Program participant
• “I used SCAN to figure out a major issue. I was able to ask the right questions, and to think outside of the box to come to a solution.” — Program participant