We have spent the week discussing the strategic practice of negative visualisation, which is the deliberate, controlled practice of actively rehearsing worst-case scenarios, failures, and unwanted outcomes.
It is very important to know that your ability to perform negative visualisation depends on how well you can practise negative capability.
Negative capability is the ability to tolerate uncertainty, doubt and the unknown without rushing to find an immediate fix or grasping for any solution.
When you are skilled in negative capability, you are able to sit with uncertainty without rushing to fix the situation, jumping to conclusions, or seeking quick and easy answers.
It is no use teaching yourself to imagine the worst-case scenario if you don’t have the emotional and technical skill to sit with that uneasy feeling until the correct solution comes to the fore.
To put it differently, if you practice negative visualisation without practicing negative capability, you may put yourself at risk of preparing solutions or responses that are premature or based on panic. Let me illustrate by example.
You may spend some time assessing your worst possible scenario financially such as losing your job or having your bank account defrauded. That is negative visualisation.
What you should not do is prematurely seek to resolve this possible scenario by resigning or by withdrawing all your cash.
As drastic as that may sound, that is precisely what a lack of negative capability can cause a person to do. Do not panic just to bring comfort to the uncertainty by grasping for whatever solution seems closest or most reassuring.
That is not wise. The correct sequence should be as follows. Negative visualisation asks “What could go wrong?”. Negative capability responds that you don’t need complete certainty about that instance right now.
Strategic planning then seeks to prepare a rational, realistic, data-led plan for these scenario.
