Moving out your comfort zone and embracing uncertainty can feel like jumping out of a plane and hoping your parachute works. Change creates uncertainty and moves us out of our comfort zone.
When we are out of our comfort zone and in a state of uncertainty we can feel anxious, uncomfortable, afraid, frustrated or even excited.
Our whole brain uses more energy than any other part of our body combined; with the Executive Brain being the most energy intense and literally drains our brain of energy when overused or used intensely. So from a survival perspective, maintaining certainty reduces brain drain.
Ways of increasing certainty can be achieved by communicating well, and build or maintain a high level of trust with the team.
Leaders must create or increase certainty during change to reduce the impact on the individual. Every person responds to change in different ways and if the change is too extreme or not lead well, teams can become change fatigued quickly (as our brains run out energy, we can start failing to cope, and our decision making ability may be affected).
As a leader what do you do to increase certainty for your team during change?