Ambiguity
The Fog We All Pretend We Can See Through
The other morning, I was walking through the streets of Porto before sunrise. I was under the spell of time warp, having traveled from San Francisco just a few days ago.
The light was soft. The air had weight. The fog hadn’t decided whether it wanted to stay or lift. It was that suspended moment when visibility is both there and not there. You can see the outline of the river, but none of the details.
That is what ambiguity feels like in real life. You can sense a direction. You can feel a pull. You can almost make out the shape of what is happening around you, yet nothing is sharp enough to trust.
In organizations, ambiguity isn’t poetic. It is costly. It is exhausting. And it is everywhere right now.
NOW: Living With Mixed Messages
Ambiguity shows up in the gap between what is said and what is meant.
Between what leaders intend and what people hear. Between the future someone imagines and the one they quietly fear.
Teams pick up the vibrations of uncertainty long before leaders acknowledge them. Conflicting priorities. Vague directives. Strategic fog.
Everyone feels it. No one names it.
In a 2024 MIT Sloan study, sixty-four percent of employees said they spend more energy “trying to interpret leadership signals” than doing the work itself.
That is the tax of ambiguity.
The invisible energy drain no budget captures.
And ambiguity has a personality.
It whispers. It distorts. It fills the silence with stories people write on their own, because no one gave them one to anchor to.
Ask yourself.
~ Where are people guessing because you have not clarified?
~ Where do they feel the chasm before you see it?
NEW: When Ambiguity Becomes the Default Operating System
We live in a moment that rewards speed but punishes imprecision.
Leaders are making decisions with incomplete information. Teams are working under shifting conditions. Expectations change by the hour.
AI accelerates everything, which means ambiguity accelerates with it.
The result is a kind of organizational vertigo. A loss of footing. A scramble for signals in an environment that keeps moving the landmarks.
But here is the hidden truth: Ambiguity is not the enemy. Ambiguity is the reveal.
It exposes the cracks in narrative, the fractures in intention, the missing pieces in communication.
It forces the conversation you’ve been avoiding.
Who are we now?
What are we actually trying to do?
How do we want to show up for each other?
Ambiguity is the pressure that turns vagueness into truth. If you let it.
Ask yourself.
~ What part of your narrative gets blurry under pressure?
~ What expectations have you left for others to interpret?
NEXT: Narrative as the Antidote to Ambiguity
A clear narrative will not eliminate ambiguity. It will give you a way to navigate it.
Narrative is a compass when information is murky. It is the internal script that tells your team how to move in the fog. It is the shared understanding that closes the chasm between intention and interpretation.
Narrative is also identity.
It is what keeps leaders grounded when the external signals contradict each other. It is what gives teams confidence when the path is not yet visible.
It is what holds culture together when ambiguity threatens to pull it apart.
The leaders who thrive in the next era will not be the ones who eliminate ambiguity. They will be the ones who can articulate clarity inside it.
The ones who can stand in the fog without losing their center.
The ones who have done the deep work to know their story well enough to lead from it.
Ask yourself.
~ If everything around you was unclear, would your people still know how to move?
~ Would they still know who you are?
THE PAYOFF: A Call to End Interpretive Leadership
In the Now, ambiguity erodes trust.
In the New, it magnifies every weakness in your communication.
In the Next, it becomes the reason people follow you or drift away from you.
This is the call.
Stop outsourcing clarity to chance. Stop letting teams reverse-engineer your intentions. Stop leading through implication.
Your narrative is not a tagline.
It is the stabilizing force that carries others through uncertainty. It is the way you end guesswork. It is the way you prevent the chasms that ambiguity creates.
If you do not define your story, people will fill in the gaps with one of their own.
And they rarely write the version you want.
So clarify your narrative.
Speak your truth before the fog speaks for you.
Because ambiguity is not going away.
But your ability to lead through it can get sharper.
If you choose to do the work.
“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.” — Ursula K. Le Guin
I’m Tobin Trevarthen. I am a Narratologist. I am a fusion of coach, mentor, and practitioner. My purpose is to enable you to shift your story from who you are to who you are becoming. Welcome to ShiftStory™.
ShiftStory™ is my evolved idea for building narrative agency in a rapidly changing world, where yesterday’s containers and approaches are no longer valid. I fundamentally believe we are entering a new Renaissance, and owning your story will become more paramount than ever before.
My ShiftStory™ is an intentional evolution: I am building a company and a life where relationships are consciously cultivated through reciprocity. Every connection is formed with purpose, and every decision is guided by mutual support and shared value.
My narrative is not just for those I serve; it is the story I am choosing to live, moving away from the pursuit of scale and toward a future defined by meaningful, reciprocal relationships.
Follow me on LinkedIn. DM at tobin@spatialshift.com or sign up for the ShiftStory™ here: https://shiftstory.co/
This resonates for me: "The leaders who thrive in the next era will not be the ones who eliminate ambiguity. They will be the ones who can articulate clarity inside it. The ones who can stand in the fog without losing their center. The ones who have done the deep work to know their story well enough to lead from it."