Tom Peters' Gem

Yesterday was a good day. I love boxes and packages from the mailman. This little box had an amazing gift in it. It was Tom Peters’ latest book, Re-Imagine! Business Excellence In A Disruptive Age, on CD. Well, more specifically, 7 CDs and over 8.5 hours. The whole text, unabridged, all read by Tom. This would be a great roadtrip! As I listened to CD 1 on my drive home from the office, Tom hit a nerve with his version of the difference between “uncertainty” and “ambiguity.” I liked it so much that when I came to the office this morning, I looked it up in the book and re-typed it. I hope I don’t get my butt sued, but here it is:

“Uncertainty: You work in an exploration department at Exxon Mobile. You punch a hole in the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Knowing what you know about geology and geophysics, you can predict that the odds of finding hydrocarbons where you drill that hole is between 57.5 and 64.5 percent.

That’s uncertainty. You don’t know everything, but you know something, and you know how what you do know relates to what you don’t know.

Ambiguity: You find yourself asking: Where’s the Gulf of Mexico? What’s a hydrocarbon? Who cares? That’s Ambiguity.

You don’t know enough even to know if you are asking the right questions. And that’s where we are now. Back at square one.”

Awesome.

If you want the link for where to by this 7 CD set, here you go: http://www.nmaudio.com – it’s on sale for $27.97 from New Millennium Audio & Press