Embracing Uncertainty: The Key to Team Innovation
Embracing Uncertainty: The Key to Team Innovation
Introduction: Why Embracing Uncertainty Fuels Innovation
When was the last time you or your team said, “This might not work”—and genuinely wore it as a badge of honor? If I’m honest, even I sometimes pause before voicing those words. For most organizations, that phrase can sound downright risky—maybe even reckless. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: it’s exactly this willingness to wade into the unknown that unlocks real innovation.
Seth Godin captured this perfectly: “It is impossible to innovate if it has to work.”
I’ve seen firsthand how the myth that progress requires certainty still runs deep in corporate culture. Yet, more often than not, it’s the single biggest obstacle separating good teams from their greatest breakthroughs.
All meaningful progress begins with uncertainty. As Nathan Furr observes, uncertainty and impossibility are two sides of the same coin. We crave possibility, but achieving it demands facing the unknown with resilience. Neuroscience reinforces this point—our brains are wired to feel anxious when we encounter risk. And that’s easy to forget—especially when we celebrate only the polished end results. Every celebrated innovation you admire started with someone brave enough to step into discomfort; you can learn more about embracing uncertainty.
A mental model I find useful here is the ‘Exploration-Exploitation Tradeoff.’ Teams must balance exploiting what they already know with exploring new territory. If you want real innovation, there’s no way around it—you have to lean into exploration. That means welcoming uncertainty not just as a byproduct, but as an essential ingredient for creative leaps.
And let’s clear something up: embracing uncertainty isn’t about being careless or reckless. It’s about recognizing that meaningful change rarely comes with guarantees. If your team never wonders whether a new approach could fail, you’re likely following a well-worn trail—not forging your own.
So, let’s dig in. Why is uncertainty the bedrock of breakthrough ideas? How can leaders foster a culture where smart risks feel normal (and even safe)? And what practical steps can help your team turn “this might not work” into an open invitation?
The Innovation Paradox: Certainty Versus Breakthroughs
There’s a paradox I see again and again in inventive organizations: the more we demand certainty, the less likely we are to make anything truly new. Incremental improvements thrive under predictability—but game-changing ideas? Those rarely show up fully formed or risk-free.
When outcomes must be guaranteed, creativity shrinks. But when teams have permission to fail, imagination expands. It’s a bit like following a recipe versus inventing a new cuisine. Recipes offer certainty—you’ll get an edible meal. But culinary revolutions? They start when someone asks, “What if we tried this…?” That leap into uncertainty is where innovation truly lives.
I’ve seen teams stuck on repeat—endlessly iterating on yesterday’s solutions—because they’re afraid to risk a flop. And honestly, who hasn’t been there? The urge to play it safe is strong, especially when stakes are high and resources are on the line. But you can’t script every variable if you want something extraordinary.
Consider Post-it Notes at 3M. The project didn’t start out trying to create sticky notes—they were aiming for a super-strong adhesive! The experiment “failed,” but instead of tossing out the unexpected result, the team explored its oddball potential and ended up creating a whole new category of office supplies. Proof that breakthrough innovations often spring from uncertain beginnings and open-minded experimentation.
If your team wrestles with ambiguity, you might also benefit from how uncertainty fuels growth in engineering, which explores why clarity isn’t always required for meaningful progress.
Leadership’s Role: Fostering Calculated Risk-Taking
If uncertainty is the soil where innovation grows, then leaders are the gardeners tending it. Great leaders know that demanding certainty suffocates creativity before it even gets started. Instead, they normalize uncertainty and make it clear that exploring unproven ideas isn’t just tolerated—it’s actually expected.
In my experience, this means evolving from managing for incremental improvement to leading with vision and purpose—the kind that inspires teams to aim higher. You can read about visionary leadership for insights on inspiring teams beyond mere optimization. This isn’t about wild gambles; it’s about supporting calculated risk-taking: experimenting with thoughtful guardrails so failures become informative, not catastrophic.
It’s a subtle but vital shift—from “Did this work?” to “What did we learn?”
Most people overlook this part: when failure is reframed as valuable insight (not incompetence), teams get bolder and more resourceful. Leaders who model vulnerability—admitting when they don’t have all the answers—signal that uncertainty isn’t weakness; it’s simply part of doing meaningful work together.
Over time, this creates an environment where risk-taking is routine and learning accelerates.
The ‘Fail Fast, Learn Faster’ framework is especially powerful here: leaders encourage rapid prototyping, quick feedback loops, and open discussions about what went sideways. This removes stigma from failure and cultivates teams that are ready to pivot and adapt as needed.
For practical tips on walking this line as a leader, explore 5 ways leaders can embrace risky ideas without losing trust—a guide for supporting creativity while maintaining your team’s confidence.
Building a Culture of Psychological Safety
Even the most visionary leaders can’t drive innovation alone. For teams to embrace uncertainty, they need to feel safe doing so. Psychological safety—the belief that you can speak up, challenge ideas, and take risks without fear of embarrassment or retaliation—is foundational for unlocking collective creativity.
Research shows there are three key dimensions to team psychological safety: collaboration and understanding, information sharing, and give-and-take balance. Each has significant positive impact on how innovative employees feel—and behave; see research on psychological safety and innovation for more details. When psychological safety is present, people surface bold ideas and challenge groupthink. They ask uncomfortable questions and admit when something isn’t working—all crucial ingredients for true innovation.
Without it? Even well-intentioned risk-taking fizzles as people retreat into silence or simply go along with the group.
Leaders play a pivotal role here: they need to model open-mindedness, listen actively, and respond constructively—whether things go right or sideways. Team members contribute by respecting diverse perspectives and treating mistakes as opportunities for growth. When everyone does their part, psychological safety becomes both a shield against fear and a launchpad for progress.
And here’s why this matters for everyone: when psychological safety is high at work, retention increases dramatically—especially for women, BIPOC employees, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ staff; see BCG’s findings on inclusivity and retention linked to psychological safety. So fostering safety fuels both innovation and inclusivity.
Importantly, psychological safety doesn’t mean avoiding accountability or tough conversations. Quite the opposite—it creates the trust needed for honest debate and healthy disagreement. These are qualities that accelerate both innovation and team cohesion in diverse organizations.
If you’re interested in practical frameworks for building trust, the 8-part playbook for building trust within teams offers actionable strategies any leader can implement.
Turning Failure Into Fuel: Measuring, Learning, Iterating
High-performing teams don’t treat failure as a dead end—they turn it into fuel. Instead of hiding missteps or pointing fingers, they treat every experiment (successful or not) as data to learn from.
The key is being objective: What happened? Why did it happen? What should we try next?
Iteration isn’t just about trying again—it’s about refining ideas based on real-world feedback. When failure is normalized and learning comes first, teams adapt quickly and improve their approach each time around.
A great example comes from Canva. CEO Melanie Perkins puts it simply: “We really try to foster a culture of experimentation and learning from failures.” By openly embracing trial and error within a psychologically safe environment, Canva has built an engine for ongoing innovation.
You can borrow from agile methodology too: the ‘Retrospective Prime Directive’ sets the tone for blame-free learning—’Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe everyone did the best job they could given what they knew at the time.’ This mindset transforms post-mortems from fault-finding exercises into opportunities for collective growth.
For engineering leaders facing tough setbacks, consider 4 ways engineering leaders rally teams after a project fails for actionable approaches to bounce back stronger together.
I’ll admit, I’ve wrestled with this myself—it isn’t always glamorous or easy. There have been moments when sharing a failed experiment felt like exposing a personal flaw rather than offering something useful to the group. But over time, I’ve learned that teams who measure outcomes honestly and mine failures for lessons develop a growth mindset that accelerates both individual and collective progress. Innovation becomes a habit—not just an aspiration.
Practical Steps to Embrace Uncertainty With Your Team
Knowing why uncertainty matters is one thing; putting it into practice is another story altogether. Here are practical ways you (and your team) can make “this might not work” your rallying cry for creative progress:
- Challenge the Comfort Zone: Once a week, invite your team—or yourself—to pitch at least one idea that might not work but could have big impact if it does. Make exploration part of your routine.
- Reward Learning Over Success: Celebrate insights gained from experiments no matter how they turn out. Share stories about lessons learned from what didn’t work just as enthusiastically as you share wins.
- Build Psychological Safety: Start meetings by acknowledging uncertainty or voicing doubts. Encourage questions and welcome dissent. When someone takes a risk or owns up to a mistake, thank them for their courage—not just their results.
- Iterate Openly: After any project (win or lose), hold debriefs focused on learning: What surprised us? What would we do differently next time? Capture these lessons so they aren’t lost in the shuffle.
For example, Atlassian’s ‘ShipIt Days’ give employees 24 hours to tackle any project they want—regardless of whether it seems likely to succeed. Many ideas born during these events have become core features.
It’s proof that structured opportunities for safe experimentation pay off in real innovation over time. - Model Risk-Taking: As a leader (or role model), make your own experiments visible—share stories about projects that didn’t pan out but taught you something important along the way.
- Promote Growth Mindset: Remind your team regularly that skills grow through effort and feedback—not because of fixed talent or past performance.
If you want even more ways to cultivate resilience during change, the change resilience playbook for engineering leaders provides a hands-on approach to transforming obstacles into opportunities.
Want more real-world insights on engineering leadership and creative strategy? Subscribe for weekly frameworks on growth mindset and team resilience.
Get Weekly InsightsIn the end, fostering innovation isn’t about eliminating risk—it’s about making smart risk-taking second nature. If you want your team to stop playing it safe and start making real breakthroughs, make “this might not work” the most exciting phrase in your organization’s vocabulary.
Embracing uncertainty isn’t just a strategy—it’s a mindset that transforms teams (and whole organizations). By seeing ‘this might not work’ as an invitation rather than a warning sign, you create space for courage—the courage needed to pursue bold ideas and shape tomorrow’s breakthroughs.
The next step is yours: dare to lean into uncertainty—and watch your team’s true potential unfold.
Enjoyed this post? For more insights on engineering leadership, mindful productivity, and navigating the modern workday, follow me on LinkedIn to stay inspired and join the conversation.
You can also view and comment on the original post here .
