Research Paper: Craig Morton Reasons For Uncertainty

Research Paper Assessment
Name: Craig Morton Date: June 24, 2012 Student ID: 265912 Email: mortcraig@gmail.com
Complete your 2000 word research paper and insert it in the space below. Then email this document as an attachment to assessment@icoachacademy.com
Research Paper
Craig Morton (Student Number 265912)
Using uncertainty as a tool for creation

By Craig Morton (Student Number 265912)
Introduction
Being uncomfortable with uncertainty is a common reaction. This discomfort, be it mental or physical, is a signal that something is wrong and if used correctly, can be used as a tool to address what it s causing the discomfort. However, in modern society, we are taught to avoid, mute and quickly run away from those experiences, thoughts and situations that create friction in our lives to some form of feeling good. This complete rejection of pains and a feverish clinging to pleasures has not only deprived us of valuable learning tools but has also created a dependency on the quest for feeling good all the time. The focus of this paper is to look at what causes the discomfort of uncertainty in the lives of our clients and how we can use it as a tool rather than an obstacle to create sustainable, profound, positive action in their lives.
Copyright 2006 International Coach Academy Pty. Ltd. Use is governed by the Terms and Conditions at http://www.icoachacademy.com Last updated Feb 2006
Research Paper
Reasons for uncertainty
Coaching poses an interesting duality. On the one hand, the role of the coach is to help the client become more certain about moving forward with action. Yet, what has often brought a client to a coaching relationship is a great deal of uncertainty on how to proceed in one or several areas in their lives. Therefore, it is vital for a coach to not only help a client get from point A to B, but to also be aware of what has caused (and currently causes) uncertainty in their clients lives. This awareness of their uncertainty triggers can then be used for creating a deeper awareness of actions in their lives but also a very powerful tool for profound and sustainable action rather than frozen inaction.
The idea of uncertainty alone provokes implications of the unknown, a changing present reality, and, in some cases, weakness. We look to leaders to provide certainty, jobs to provide an unchanging sense of security, and large endeavors to be forever (marriage, where we live, etc). However, to quote an overused yet accurate cliche the only thing that is certain is change itself.
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So if change is inevitable and if with it comes uncertainty, why is it not embraced? Why do we work so hard to try and keep things the same and ourselves away from the experience of uncertainty?
1. Uncertainty is uncomfortable
Often clients, despite being unhappy in their current situations and being in a state of inaction, feel justified in their realities because at the very least, their status is predictable (Fields, 2010). Clients may not like their surroundings, but they are familiar with the situation and the emotions that are evoked. Taking steps to change them will create a temporary disruption, change of routine, and touch emotions that may be unexpected. As well, the question that often looms is I know Im unhappy now, but what if Im even more unhappy after? It is the classic argument in ones head between the devil they do know vs. the one they dont.
When clients feel these feelings caused by uncertainty like fear, anxiousness, panic, and impending doom, they run the other way and try and create some sense of certainty. For example, in a case study done in the book Uncertainty: Turning fuel and doubt into fuel for
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brilliance, Jonathan Fields (2010) outlines a client call that highlights this very reaction of trying to quickly extinguish uncertainty for a perceived safer and more certain path: _____
I feel amazing, said the voice at the other end of the phone.
Its like that tightness in my stomach is gone. I can breathe again. And I slept like a baby for the first time in months. Really? I replied. What gives? Well . . . Ive decided to pull the plug on the business, and the moment I did, everything got better. I wasnt anxious anymore, I felt like a weight had been lifted. Like after struggling and working like crazy for months, I finally got my peace of mind, my life back. I feel totally free again. Unencumbered.
The voice belonged to a client, Anne. It was a call Id taken before from many people and in many different variations. After six months of planning, hundreds of hours of preparation, site building, design, asset creation, product development, copywriting, casting, filming, editing, system testing, and marketing prep, shed launched a new business. The plan was to grow it aggressively over the following two years until it was successful enough to support her.
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So, I asked, do you trust me? Implicitly. Why? Because Im about to ask you something thats going to make you angry at me. And very likely kill your free as a bird buzz. I need to know whether walking away from this venture was genuinely a good call or whether it was born out of your inability to handle the uncertainty, the exposure, and the risk that rides along with the birthing of any deeply meaningful creative endeavor. Put another way, we need to figure out whether youre confusing genuine peace of mind with the passing lack of angst that follows the demise of a dream but precedes a mounting wave of regret.
Oh. I want you to close your eyes and visualize something. Imagine, just for the moment, that you didnt make the call to shut down the business. Yeah, I know, youve made your decision. You feel really good about it. Just humor me. Now, place yourself forward in time. Its two years from today. Everything you dreamed of making happen in your business has happened. Youve succeeded beyond your wildest imagination. Every goal has been met, every team formed, every product and service launched and embraced, a vibrant culture grown.
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Youre earning enough to live well in the world, impacting people on a deep, meaningful level and building a real legacy. Maybe you dont have precise clarity about any of those things; thats not unusual. So think about the experiences you want to create, both in your life and in others. See it, feel it, hear it, smell it, taste it . . . drink it in. Okay, now answer me these two questions . . . One, where are you feeling it? Does it stop in your mind, or are you feeling it in your whole body? Your heart, your chest, your gut? Everywhere, she said. I can barely breathe. Okay. Second question. That scenario I just laid out, do you still want it? Silence. Thirty seconds go by. Yes. Id kill for it. That moment changed everything. It was an end transformed into a beginning. Her willingness to sit with the discomfort of not knowing how it would end was the difference between a future that continued a joyless decline into the void and an entirely new direction defined by substantially more creativity, fulfillment, freedom, and, yes, money. ________
This above example illustrates the need for comfort often over the need to fulfill life long ambitions. This reaction by the client in the
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above example is further supported by Daniel Ellsbergs (1961) experiment where subjects were given two choices:
Choice A: Make a prediction of what color ball they drew from a large urn of 100 balls where they knew the ratio of black to white was 50:50.
Choice B: Make a prediction of what color ball they drew from a large urn of 100 balls where the ratio of each was unknown.
Undoubtedly, the vast majority of subjects went with Choice A. This has been named the Ellsberg paradox where people steer away from the unknown option. There is no mathematical or logical reason but their adversity to uncertainty is what drives their decision. Despite commenting after that the ratio may have been 90 to 10 or even 100 to 0 in favour of one colour, they still went with the known odds of 50:50.
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2. Fear of Judgement
Clients stepping out of their comfort zone and into the shaky ground of uncertainty, puts them out there to be criticized by others. Ideas of what will others say? and, if I fail, will everybody know? can dominate their thoughts to the point that they remain in their certain, yet inactive environment.
This can be illustrated by Stefan T. Trautmann, Ferdinand M. Vieider, and Peter P. Wakker in 2008 who modified the Ellsberg experiment. They found that if the subjects could choose either Urn A of a known ball ratio of 50:50 of a 100 white and black balls or Urn B of an unknown ratio of white to black balls in secret (i.e. without the fear of scrutiny of others knowing their choice), the subjects choose Urn B this time over Urn A. Knowing that their decision would not be made public to others, the subject choose the uncertain option over the certain option.
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Harnessing uncertainty to use it as a tool
Learning to deal with the discomfort and the fear of judgement created by uncertainty as mentioned above are two skill sets that the client needs to begin to develop in order to allow them the ability to move from inaction to action. Challenging situations will continue to show up in life that push clients out of our comfortable and certain environments. Therefore, the question of working with uncertainty is not how do clients eliminate situations that create uncertainty, but rather how can clients be comfortable and even lean into uncertainty and harness it as a tool?
1. Dealing with discomfort of uncertainty: Finding a daily anchor
Learning a new skill requires practice. A client needs to practice dealing with uncertain thoughts, emotions and situations in controlled settings in order to develop the ability to be with difficult emotions caused in challenging situations. Creating a daily activity that allows the client to be with deeper thoughts creates an anchor and a point of
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reference as they move deeper into an uncertain situation. Examples of activities could be meditation, yoga (and/or physical activities that require focus while being with physical discomfort) and prayer.
A daily anchor is an activity that allows the client be alone with their thoughts and analyze what is going on in their heads. Everyday, clients can become bogged down in actions and thoughts that revolve around their simple survival such as work, commuting, parenting, worries, home maintenance and of course, leisure time. As Steven Covey puts it in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989) clients become lost in the thick of thin things.
Subsequently, these activities and thoughts prevent the time and space for the client to scratch deeper and explore more meaningful thoughts. Setting up a daily activity to be alone and unplugged from the clients reality, allows them to explore and think their way through many situations that are initially very uncomfortable. Being allowed to spend time with these emotions and even lean into them can lead to greater understandings, a clear perspective, and more importantly, positive action to help them improve either the actual situation or if that is not possible, their reaction to the situation. The more time they
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spend with uncertainty, the more refined their skill set becomes in dealing with it.
David Swenson (2009), a renowned Ashtanga yoga teacher explains it like this:
When you put your body into the different postures, you are making yourself uncomfortable. What you are doing is producing uncertain feelings, emotions and reactions in your brain. However, if you stay with it, and breath into it, your brain learns to deal with those emotions. And as you grow in your practice, you can take those skills off the mat and when you are in situations that make you uncomfortable, your brain now has the skills in place to be with the discomfort. And the longer you stay with it, the more perspective you develop. I like to think of it as a bubble around me. When I practice, this
invisible bubble inflates around my whole body and as I move throughout my day, things first go through the bubble before they hit me: bad news, a speeding ticket, a death, traffic, etc. They dont hit me so raw. I have time to slow them down, be with the thoughts and feelings that I dont like and choose my reaction to them. However, on the days that I dont practice, I feel that there is no bubble and the
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world hits me very raw. It is much more difficult to be with the feelings of uncertainty.
To further echo Swensons point of learning to be with uncomfortable and uncertain situations as a means for growth, Pema Chodron (1997) writes:
When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something. We might realize that this is a very vulnerable and tender place, and that tenderness can go either way. We can shut down and feel resentful or we can touch in on that throbbing quality.
2. Dealing with the fear of judgement: Determine if you have a fixed or growth mindset
The big difference between having a fixed or growth mindset is that a person with a fixed mindset believes that they either have it or they dont, whereas a person with a growth mindset believes that through hard work, results can be improved. This is vital distinction when dealing with how a client moves forward with action into a realm of
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uncertainty. For example, if a client was looking at losing weight and on their first attempt found themselves unsuccessful, a person with a fixed mindset would be quick to harshly judge themselves as a failure or that the achievement was impossible for them. However, a person attempting to lose weight with a growth mindset, despite a setback, would then regroup and implement more hard work or a different strategy and push forward. This subtle shift in clients gives them
permission to move forward into uncertainty knowing that challenging times are not a result of their immovable shortcomings, but rather very fixable through hard work.
Conclusion
A client wanting to implement action and get from point A to B, first needs to understand their relationship with uncertainty. A client may have hesitations about how they will be judged by either themselves or others, and/or lack the skills of dealing with the discomfort that uncertain situations create. Providing clear strategies that help clients
develop skills to be with uncomfortable emotions and shifting their mindset from that of a fixed to a growth mindset, will not only help
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them get from point A to B in much more efficient manner, but also create a blueprint in their lives for creating action. In conclusion,
Pema Chodron (1991) sums up the importance of action despite our perceptions of how uncertain our lives may seem :
There is a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs and runs and the tigers are getting closer and closer. When she comes to the edge of a cliff, she sees some vines there, so she climbs down and holds on to the vines. Looking down, she sees that there are tigers below her as well. She then notices that a mouse is gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging. She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to her, growing out of a clump of grass. She looks up and she looks down. She looks at the mouse. Then she just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly. Tigers above, tigers below. This is actually the predicament that we are always in, in terms of our birth and death. Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life; it might be the only strawberry well ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life.
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References
Chodron, Pema. (1991). The Wisdom of no escape and the path of loving kindness (Kindle Edition). Shambhala Publications, Boston, USA.
Chodon, Pema (1997). When things fall apart: Heart advice for difficult times (Kindle Edition). Shambhala Publications, Boston, USA.
Covey, Steven. (1989). The habits of highly effective people: Restoring the character ethic. RosettaBooks LLC, New York.
Ellsberg, Daniel (1961). Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 75, No. 4. pp 643-669.
Fields, Jonathan. (2011) Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance (Kindle Edition). Penguin Books Ltd, USA.
Swenson, David. (2009). A personal conversation. Goa, India
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Trautmann, Stefan T., Ferdinand M. Vieider, and Peter P. Wakker (2008). Causes of Ambiguity Aversion: Known Versus Unknown Preferences. Journal of Risk and Uncertainly, Vol 36, pp. 225-243.
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