Here are some scrambled sentences for you to refer to:
- Uncertain have jobs become
- Dark future hazy Egypt’s is
- Is soil London grey
- Can anxiety cause unfamiliarity
Can you spot something common in all these sentences?
Uncertain, Hazy, Grey, Unfamiliarity = Ambiguity
Black and White is easy! Life is all about shades of Grey!
Personal or Professional life, ambiguity follows you everywhere.
- You invested in real estate thinking that the market will boom. But!!
- You opted for offline training but due to a pandemic, everything was moved online.
- You studied the most important topics for your exams based on last year’s paper. But the question paper was completely different.
What’s common in all the above scenarios?
Ambiguity!!
Fun fact: the word ‘ambiguous’, at least according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is ambiguous between two main types of meaning: uncertainty or dubiousness on the one hand and a sign bearing multiple meanings on the other.
Ambiguity cannot be ignored. It is a part of life.
So the question is how do you deal with ambiguity?
Change is inevitable. But to stay at the forefront of the corporate world you must be able to adapt to change and deal with ambiguity. Ambiguous situations often come with a lot of question marks and unknown territory. It is natural to feel stress when presented with these situations. However, the difference between success and failure lies in your ability to deal with ambiguity.
Dealing with ambiguity is an essential skill for Career Development too.
For all you freshers, the only tip is to be ready to unlearn and relearn.
You have to align yourself with the market demand which is always changing.
By definition, someone who is able to deal with ambiguity “can effectively cope with change, shift gears comfortably, decide and act without having the total picture, and handle risk and uncertainty.” Those with a strong ability to deal with ambiguity are often described as adaptable, flexible, and comfortable with uncertainty.
The ambiguity comes in several forms in the workplace. Here are a few to-dos to be tolerant to ambiguity:
- Calm your nerves and embrace the situation
- Every action doesn’t need an equal and opposite reaction
- Find the cause
- Leave Rigidity
- Look for alternative solutions
- Communicate
Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment, and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.
-Gilda Radner
