If I had to pick one word that would summarize the last 15 or so months for me, it would be uncertainty.
I find it interesting the impact uncertainty has on different individuals. Do you know that sensation that most people feel when there is a long, awkward pause in a conversation – that feeling of the need to feel the void with any noise to make the awkwardness go away? That’s how it seems most people try to deal with uncertainty. Especially when uncertainty is prolonged with no end in sight.
In real estate, the best way to deal with uncertainty is to minimize commitments. Short-term deals become the new mission with limited investment going out the door. It’s impossible to deliver long-term real estate when the near-term direction is unknowable. What will grow? What will shrink? What opportunities will the business go after that could lead to step-function change?
Filling the empty time with “stuff” is the single most common way people try to deal with uncertainty. They create unnecessary work for themselves and convince themselves that this work is actually useful and productive. Real estate pros chase small projects that seem to have more than typical certainty about them. They end up spending 100 hours on projects that only need 20 and go deeper in the weeds than is useful.
Time, entropy, and uncertainty have this strange connection that is hard to grasp. It seems as if every day that passes should bring new decisions and more certainty. But the reality is that each day brings more questions than answers. Every day introduces new innovations that have unpredictable impacts and shifting consumer and industry dynamics. Chaos increases over time, it doesn’t decrease.
For me, uncertainty brings time for reflection and thought. It is a chance to pause and bring together the pieces of the puzzle to define a new way to move forward.
The framing we used yesterday to understand the world around us does not always apply after a period of change passes. Yet, most people try to hold on to the framing they brought to their world. They don’t take the opportunity to stop and simply fill their time with things to do until it’s time to “get back to normal.”
It is hard to deal with periods like this, particularly when it’s a prolonged time with no end in sight. But it will always be easiest when filling the time with self-reflection rather than busywork. You will always come out the other end stronger by taking the time to figure out better ways of doing things when the world comes back around rather than going back to how it used to be.