willowbl00Mar 6
Folks who have had to learn to navigate ambiguity, who see complexity in most things, can you tell me about your approach and what skills helped you do this? #management
Show threadHein Ragas

@willowbl00 I always ask questions. Also the ones that "everybody" knows the answer to -- there might be someone in the room that didn't know. Increasing the shared knowledge is very valuable.

I am aware that my privilege of assumed competency as a middle-aged white dude helps me do this -- other demographics have to navigate this more carefully. I try to use my privilege to normalize asking questions in the groups I find myself in.

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Mar 7 at 9:02pmWeb
Show threadHein RagasMar 7

@willowbl00 Then when I get the answer, I rephrase it back to the person who answered, usually something like "So if I understand correctly, then..."
This allows the group to catch any misunderstandings.

And then I draw a conclusion and take that to the extreme, usually phrased as "So it NEVER happens that..." I am fond of seeking edge cases, and words like 'never' and 'always' are very useful.
This allows the group to catch any weird edge cases where the stated rule _doesn't_ work.

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Show threadHein RagasMar 7

@willowbl00 If you progress from there, you can usually make the pertinent knowledge explicit, for all to inspect and learn from.

Of course, this requires having an expert in the group. If nobody knows, then the first order of business is to find who _does_ know. Gathering information is always worthwhile.

(And when I say "the group" I also mean "myself" because there are a lot of things I don't understand but I am very inquisitive. Being inquisitive helps.)

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