A high-potential leader participating in the Business Acumen program was very upset. She just couldn’t reconcile her understanding of why the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) didn’t go down despite the fact her business simulationteam “increased their Production Team budget by 1.5%” (which in the context of the simulation was really not that much). I carefully explained that the COGS is also a function of 3 other dynamic variables including raw materials, R&D, and labor costs. She responded by saying, “I just don’t understand…how can all of these things be happening at the same time? How would I know what is more important if nobody is telling me the answer?”

I explained that just like in the real world of business, there is always going to be a certain level of Ambiguity and many times in business things are never going to be black and white, that there are many areas of gray such as understanding how the COGS of a product is derived. At that point, you could physically see the hopelessness on her face as she receded to the background not knowing what to do next.