Dr David Cliff, Gedanken
“Busy doing nothing, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do.”
The line comes from an old film song, but it could easily describe many modern organisations.
Few businesses suffer from a lack of activity. Emails fly across the organisation. Meetings fill calendars. Reports are generated. Dashboards are updated. Teams communicate constantly. Yet despite all this motion, progress can sometimes feel strangely elusive.
The problem is not always darkness. More often, it is fog.
Fog is different from darkness. In darkness we know we cannot see. In fog we can see just enough to convince ourselves that we understand what lies ahead, while much remains obscured. Shapes appear and disappear. Distances become distorted. Hazards emerge unexpectedly.
Organisational fog takes many forms. It can arise from excessive data, conflicting priorities, confused communication, unclear accountability, political manoeuvring or simple uncertainty about what comes next. Ironically, modern technology often increases the fog rather than reducing it. The challenge is rarely a shortage of information. More often it is the difficulty of distinguishing signal from noise.
One consequence is the phenomenon of being busy without being effective. Activity becomes a form of reassurance. We respond to emails, attend meetings and generate reports because these actions create the feeling of progress. Yet sometimes the most important question remains unanswered: are we moving in the right direction?
There is also a temptation to remain hidden in the fog. Clarity can be uncomfortable. Clear data may reveal declining performance. Honest conversations may expose unresolved tensions. Accurate feedback may challenge cherished assumptions. Fog offers a degree of protection from such realities.
The difficulty is that waiting for certainty rarely works. In business, certainty is often unavailable.
Entrepreneurs understand this instinctively. They rarely possess complete information before making a decision. Successful entrepreneurs are not fearless because they can see clearly. They succeed because they have learned to navigate despite limited visibility.
This is where leadership becomes less about certainty and more about orientation. The leader’s role is not to eliminate all ambiguity. Rather, it is to create sufficient clarity for purposeful action whilst acknowledging what remains unknown.
In my own work as a coach and consultant, I often think of coaching as a form of foghorn. When visibility is poor, a foghorn does not remove the fog. It provides a point of reference. It offers orientation. It helps people establish their bearings.
Reflection, challenge, supervision, mentoring and coaching can all serve a similar purpose. They create moments in which assumptions can be tested, perspectives broadened and priorities clarified.
Perhaps the goal is not to eliminate the fog altogether. Some uncertainty is inevitable in complex systems and human affairs. The real challenge is to resist becoming a friend of the fog.
Clarity is not the absence of complexity. It is the ability to act wisely within complexity. The fog may never completely lift, but with courage, reflection and honest communication we can still find our way through it.
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