The Beauty of Ambiguity: What Comms Can Learn From Science

As communicators it is deeply embedded within us to bring clarity to situations, to avoid ambiguity, to leave no room for doubt. But is that always possible? And if not, how can we deal with it?

Turns out that our friends in the world of science can teach us a lot about why unclarity is actually a-okay, and how we can approach using it as a chance to get creative and find new solutions – without giving in to fear of the unknown.

First off, science is often complex and not fully understood. Expressing uncertainty or being unclear reflects honesty, acknowledging the limitations of current understanding and underlining the need for further research. Within organizations, topics such as AI can be given the same kind of treatment. Nobody is 100% sure on how things will go in the future and organizations have to be comfortable with acknowledging this truth while offering assurance that the topic is in hand – and providing the space for people to get involved. (Our White Paper on this topic offers some great strategies for this!). In addition, being honest about where you are rather than trying to have all the (impossible) answers provides an opportunity to gain trust and foster a culture of transparency and openness ( i.e., the holy grail).  

Science is also an iterative process that involves repeated experiments, observations, and refinements. As research progresses, clarity improves, but the early stages may necessarily involve some level of vagueness. Comms teams can take this idea of iterations rather than finished products and apply them to all manner of projects, opening up the floor for agile working, employee feedback and more team effort. All of which creates the space for engagement and using the ideas and creativity of your people to end up with something even better. We’ve recently helped a client launch the first iteration of a new intranet using exactly this approach. The result? They have a new tool which has been collaboratively designed by their people and will only improve as they collect feedback and add to it over time. And don’t be afraid of experimentation. Here at COSYN we have taken things a step further and set up our own Lab to allow us to try out new ideas and technologies. 

And what about that all important critical thinking? Scientists all know that ambiguity only stimulates further investigation, questioning of assumptions and opening the door to exploring alternative explanations and ideas. It also offers a chance to promote discourse and debate that includes multiple viewpoints, again leading to new ways of thinking and unexpected solutions. Comms teams can take topics that lack clarity and mobilize people to offer their thoughts and enter into discussions via workshops and other liminal spaces, where day-to-day hierarchies are dissolved, and people are free – and encouraged – to voice their opinion.

In summary, when faced with uncertainty and a lack of clarity, perhaps the first thing we can do as Comms experts is to slip on our metaphorical white coat and see how we can use the ambiguity as a space for engagement, experimentation, and an opportunity to try something new. 

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