Passer de l’Incertitude à la découverte
Leading like a scientist begins with a fundamentally different relationship with uncertainty. While leaders traditionally view uncertainty as a threat, research shows (lien: Google study work) that teams that openly acknowledge what they don’t know consistently outperform those projecting false confidence.
An experimental mindset means approaching problems with curiosity rather than anxiety. When faced with unexpected results, scientists don’t rush to blame someone or hide the outcome. Instead, they lean in with genuine interest: “That’s interesting… what can we learn from this?”
Similarly, this mindset can transform how we collaborate. It creates environments where people actually test their assumptions and engage in what researchers call humble inquiry – asking genuine questions rather than providing ready-made answers. Their research suggests that when we lead with humble questions instead of solutions, critical information surfaces more readily.
However, for this to work, it requires updating our definition of success from achieving a desired outcome to learning something new. This perspective transforms the paralyzing fear of being wrong into an intellectual adventure, where uncertainty is a doorway to insights that linear goals might have never revealed.
Source: Anne-Laure Le cunff