As organizations become successful and grow, uncertainty is generally the enemy. Thriving organizations seek to eliminate variation and increase efficiency. They identify best practices and policies, and design standard operating procedures. Such efforts can make a business wildly efficient at what it does, but they can have a serious downside as well: a dearth of variation, creativity, and innovation.

As a lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt working for several large and medium-sized organizations, I’ve always been taught to strive for efficiency, standardization, and predictability. These were my guiding principles, and it made perfectly good sense to follow them in that environment. But now that I’ve started my own process improvement consulting practice, I find these principles don’t readily apply. Instead of seeking stable, predictable processes, I’m actually embracing the uncertainty that’s required in a startup. How ironic! The ability to create, improvise, adapt, and innovate is proving to be my best ally. I’m learning to embrace uncertainty in terms of how I develop my service offerings and grow the business.

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