Any disruption of these patterns or this bottom anchor can be profoundly disturbing and can be a source of sheer panic. Our polystatic predictions are disrupted. New predictions of disorder and chaos lead our body to engage in defensive biology. Focus turns to our internal state and away from our external state. We may freeze in a state of inaction. Or we might act in a frenzied and often ineffective manner. Our body is acting in an appropriate manner. It is preparing for fight or flight. However, our mind is messed up, for there is no battle that we can win and there is no safe place to which we might flee.
Other anchors operate like sea anchors. They can be moved in direction or orientation, and they may shift gradually with the tide or the wind. These are the organizational variations. We are challenged, but not profoundly threatened when invited to reflect on and consider changing our predictions based on the direction or orientation of these organizational sea anchors. We thoughtfully determine whether a battle is really required and if it can be won. Rather than flee, we find a way to remain calm and slow down our thinking.
One of the critical roles to be played by an Essential Lens is that of discernment: in this case, discerning the difference between bottom and sea anchors.
From Uncertainty to Curiosity
VUCA-Plus issues associated with Uncertainty (and Surprise) pose a major, multi-tiered challenge for leaders and other decision-makers in contemporary organizations. As Joe Berkowitz (2024) notes “uncertainty is a critical driver of stress.” Yet, Berkowitz cites research evidence suggesting that uncertainty can also be aligned with curiosity. Curiosity may, in turn, “be humanity’s brightest, most powerful spotlight for illuminating the unknown.” Berkowitz illustrates the motivating feature of curiosity by citing Albert Einstein:
“In a letter Albert Einstein wrote to his biographer in 1953, the brilliant scientist claimed to possess no special talents other than being “Passionately curious”. False modesty aside, it was only through pursuing his interest in the world’s mysteries during his time on this plane that Einstein managed to reveal so many hidden secrets about the universe.”
Significant Essentials-based transformation occurs when we discern the nature of an issue that our organization is confronting. We then become particularly curious about those issues that are not simply addressed. That which is Essential will change depending on the type of issue we confront. Certain types of issues evoke our curiosity. Others do not—either because these issues are routine and boring or because they are unexpected and overwhelming.
I briefly describe each of four types of issues and suggest why some of these issues elicit our curiosity. I also propose ways in which each type of issue has been (or could be) most successfully addressed—especially when the issue is critical and Essential. It is in the identification of issues about which we have some control and the issues about which we have no control that we find the capacity to transform uncertainty into an appropriate level of “passionate curiosity.”
I begin with issues that serve as routine puzzles and rarely elicit much curiosity.
