Don't be an ostrich: get your head out of the sand and choose.

When I recently asked a board how organisations respond to all the turmoil in the world, I thought of the ostrich: head in the sand, waiting for the storm to pass. It is a very human reaction to uncertainty, and rarely stupid or lazy. The business is still running, the figures are still acceptable, the timing feels awkward. But waiting is a choice too. Standing still likes to disguise itself as prudence and good governance, while the world beneath your model is shifting.

In this article you will read why delay under uncertainty is often the biggest risk, and how a board gets its head out of the sand and makes sharp choices without chasing every hype.

This is the first part of the blog series Strategic bird guide: bird language in the boardroom, in which Jeroen Toet uses four bird metaphors to show how organisations deal with uncertainty and signals.

Want to read on? Download the full article below.

---

Jeroen Toet is a senior strategist at Jester Strategy and co-author of the book Scenario Planning in Practice. For over 10 years he has helped organisations in the private and public sector make future-proof choices using foresight methods, including scenario planning.

Questions about the article? Get in touch with Jeroen: j.toet@jester.nl or +31 6 11 45 13 11.