The Upside of Uncertainty with Nathan & Susannah Furr

Welcome to the What's Next! podcast with Tiffani Bova.

This week we journey into the unknown with innovation researcher Nathan Furr and entrepreneur Susannah Furr, who navigate us through the fear and stress of uncertainty to find the creative opportunity on the other side.

Nathan Furr is a professor of strategy and innovation at INSEAD in Paris and an expert in the fields of innovation and technology strategy. His bestselling books include The Innovator’s Method and Innovation Capital. Published regularly in Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Forbes and Inc., he is an Innosight Fellow, has been nominated for the Thinkers50 Innovation Award, and works with leading companies including Google, Microsoft, Citi, ING, and Philips.

Susannah Harmon Furr is an entrepreneur, designer, art historian, and contrarian. Her clothing line was inspired by her research into the intricate embroidery Dutch women painstakingly rendered on their plain uniforms—details often invisible to all but the wearer—and its significance in their daily lives. She has also founded a design services firm. Nathan and Susannah are the parents of four teenagers.

THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR... individuals who want to break away from the stresses of uncertainty to overcome their fears, adopt innovations, imagine the possibilities, set out on new adventures, and ultimately, embrace change.

TODAY’S MAIN MESSAGE... we are hard-wired to love the idea of control, but we have to accept that some things are outside of our control. For those who shy away from willingly bringing uncertainty into their lives, they recommend implementing “balancers” to create a sense of familiarity in your day to day life. The sense of security that comes from having a few routine choices - like standard lunches or outfits - can help keep us relatively stable when uncertainty creeps into our lives (or when we are ready to introduce it ourselves!).

WHAT I LOVE MOST... Nathan and Susannah have a starry-eyed optimism for the future, not because they know that everything is going to work out in the end, but because they know they will be able to handle it when something inevitably goes wrong. So they choose to imagine the best possible outcome for the future, while simultaneously creating a plan to manage their risk tolerance and address the worst case scenario.

Running time: 25:52

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Nathan and Susannah’s Book:

The Upside of Uncertainty