If the past five years have taught us anything, it’s that change is still the only constant in business. We’ve had to navigate a global pandemic, geopolitical crises, supply chain disruptions, a shift to hybrid work, and the rise of generative artificial intelligence. As former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would put it, we’re facing many more “unknown unknowns” than “known unknowns” nowadays. But in our daily work lives, it’s often the smaller-scale unpredictabilities that threaten to derail our projects and decisions, particularly under unfamiliar circumstances brought on by macro events.
A version of this article appeared in the January–February 2025 issue of Harvard Business Review.
