Maggie Jackson

And a great group of them were very sure about what was going to happen.

This was going to be good for their company or this was going to be bad for their company.

They were sure.

But a third group in the mix, they were ambivalent.

and they weren't quite sure of whether it would result in more customers or higher prices, et cetera.

A year later, the business school professors came back.

The ambivalent CEOs had been more resourceful and they had been more inclusive.

They listened to more voices.

In other words, they actually inhabited and explored and investigated the space of uncertainty.

In other words, uncertainty is about possibility.

Well, uncertainty is a signal.

And as I mentioned, it's good stress.

It means you're on your toes.

It means you're alive to the circumstances.

And one of the most important points is that it's not just a preface to good thinking.

It's actually an accompaniment.

So for instance, experts.

Let's just take the example of expertise.

We gain expertise by accruing knowledge, putting in those 10,000 hours, so to speak, and we gain mental models of just what to do.

The doctor thinks chest pain, that means heart attack.