Yet another tradeoff
I’ve talked before about how every career choice comes with an implied tradeoff: control or certainty? These are inversely proportional to each other. The more you have of one, the less you have of the other. Though it’s usually an implied decision we make when we choose a job or project, if we make it more overt and visible when making career moves, it becomes easier to navigate tougher decisions — or at least easier to live with a choice once we make it.
In times of societal crisis, when we run organizations that don’t typically discuss society directly, we face another tradeoff: stay the course or address the issue?
Of course, these aren’t quite as diametrically opposed like control and certainty are, but maybe it’s worth treating them as such, just for a moment, just for our own sanity.
Will you keep doing good work consistently, the way you did before this crisis began (maybe with a gentler tone to acknowledge the situation)? Or will you start to comment more directly on what’s happening?
Either can be worthwhile. The trick is to understand the tradeoff we make, being overt about it to ourselves, our teams, and those we serve outside our organizations.
Say you decided against commenting on this crisis in your work. It might be worth telling your audience why you’ve made that choice, acknowledging the tradeoff to them the way you acknowledged it to yourself. Imagine putting a little tagline at the bottom of your articles, for example: “We recognize the reason people come to us is XYZ. We think the best way we can serve you is to stay the course and provide that kind of value, perhaps to also provide some comfort and consistency during otherwise uncertain times.”
Just admit what you’re doing, either way. Be honest with yourself and your team, and be honest with others. You won’t please everyone, but then again, you can’t do that in normal times either.
Make a choice. Be overt about it. And recognize the inherent tradeoff. There is no correct answer. There are pros and cons either way. The sooner we accept that, the sooner we can make decisions and communicate them in clear, concise ways.
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