By Janna Pearman Jacobs

I enjoy hearing Founders speak about their journey – the likes of local St Louisans Dan Lauer, Water Babies, and Maxine Clark, Build-A-Bear. I’m usually left with the same question: how did they know when to push past “this is a bad idea” feedback and keep going vs. stop and pivot?

I often use Uber as an example. Imagine the first time someone pitched the concept – I have an idea about creating a platform that connects random people with random drivers to transport them to random places and monetize it.

If you’ve had the privilege to hear Maxine speak, she talks about people telling her no one will buy stuffed teddy bears. But they did!

So, what’s the ‘it’ factor that tells you to press forward or pivot? I wish it were black-and-white, but it isn’t. I’m going to list what I consider to be some essential attributes. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list.

• Having a mindset for managing risk and not being fearful of change

• Having confidence with the ability to overcome obstacles

• Being resilient

• Being able to see potential; visualize a new future

• Cultivating intuition and listening to one’s intuition

• Being realistic about what happens if you don’t move forward

• Having an orbit of people around you that will be honest, listen, and can filter feedback

The ‘it’ factor is the culture and habits of risk-taking change. How your organization navigates “you know what you know, you know what you don’t know, and you don’t know what you don’t know,” to avoid analysis paralysis.

Organizations that adapt and change have cultivated a risk-taking culture. They’ve made taking calculated risks a habit.

The world is ever-changing around us; if you wait for 100% clarity, you’ve missed the opportunity. Organizations can be part of shaping the future or have the future shape them. As we all know, there is no middle ground.

Know you are not alone in creating a risk-taking culture. If you need help building a framework and strategy to navigate these decisions, this is the work we do. Visit RKCMANAGEMENTCONSULTING.COM to schedule an appointment.