Research

Jon is currently a core member of ECCO, the Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), conducting research on leadership and human experience in complex, uncertain environments from a psychological/emotions perspective.

Uncertainty and personal development (slides)

Uncertainty has most frequently been associated with either the lack of complete information (or therefore lack of predictability) or as a driver for anxiety when referring to the individual experience of it. Meanwhile the former states that rational uncertainty is a consequence of our cognitive system and cannot be fully eliminated, the later has mainly focused on the human need to decrease uncertainty as a mean to well-being. Acknowledging that both capture part of the truth; on the one hand uncertainty is unavoidable and on the other hand that less uncertainty may offer more psychological comfort implies that human beings are thrown into a permanent struggle of wanting to be certain but not being able to guarantee that needed certainty.

However, the ability to embrace the unknown is a basic requirement for discovery and novelty. Uncertainty, from this perspective, is not only unavoidable but a source for learning and self-fulfilment. In this sense the hypothesis of this seminar is that anxiety is not the result of uncertainty. On the contrary it is anxiety which results in a negative experience of uncertainty; or curiosity which results in a positive experience of uncertainty. This individual appraisal is defined by three interrelated factors: the perceived level of uncertainty, the individual perceived competence and the novelty of the challenges faced.

Organisations are turning their eyes to coaching as the main tool for personal development. The identification and transformation of the individual appraisal to uncertainty is one of the sources to bring balance to managers in their leadership role.

Keywords: uncertainty, anxiety, curiosity, change, challenge, coaching
 

Leadership and human experience (slides)

In the last 20 years a new society structure is emerging; global, interconnected and informational. Its immediate future shape is beyond our knowledge today.

How are organizations and leaders experiencing this new society? The new economic environment is characterised for high levels of uncertainty and unpredictability, emptying the efficacy of the classical management tools and challenging the traditional understanding of organizations and leadership principles.

Evolutionary economists have pointed out the need to generate internal diversity in order to increase the chances for survival. With that in mind management science has turn its eyes towards human beings as the ultimate driver for success of organizations. However, structures and managers are still far away from enabling the necessary freedom to explore in order to stimulate the internal diversity and creativity. What is making it so hard?

In order to enable the discovery, it is probably time to abandon the search for the fundamental and absolute laws of management that detach themselves from the actual human beings experience. New leadership principles are needed based in an open-experience of approaching the world that enables a permanent focus on the unexpected, the unsaid, the unplanned and the so called anomalies amongst people and processes.

Keywords: uncertainty, leadership, organisations, personal development