Let’s get honest about FOFO. No, not fomo, the fear of missing out (not even jomo, the joy of missing out).
We’re talking about FOFO: The Fear Of Finding Out. The fear of finding out what’s actually going on.
The fear of finding out what’s actually going on rather than how it should be happening according to all of your policies and procedures and theories and rule books. As helpful as they’re meant to be, looking at those is not the same as gaining insight into, and dealing with, the real situation.
The fear of finding out the bigger picture. The fear of finding out the real-life details.
Staying in a seemingly safe comfort zone, the deceptive side of not knowing.
Getting honest and overcoming FOFO can take the shape of rewarding people for actual impact in your field, department, organisation. Of listening up when someone is actually pointing out what is going on in a situation or in the organisation, rather than blindly wanting to stick to procedure. Or of connecting the dots of what’s happening structurally, rather than discounting individual occurrences (and gaslighting).
The funny thing is, it’s really just the fear of finding out, it’s not the fear of what’s actually on the other side of finding out. Because once you get honest and find out, it may be less scary than you thought, easier than you thought, or even be incentivising and motivating you to make a change that needs to happen.
Think about what may be more important to you than FOFO, what is that?
Sure, you can be scared, and you can also just go ahead and do it anyway, see what’s actually on the other side, and lead with curiosity. Having the courage to be with fear is a massive (personal) leadership skill. Then prepare to be genuinely, deeply curious.
Let’s try to move past the FOFO and actually GO-fo!
Referenced in this episode:
More about us:
Lisa Dempsey
Marjolijn Vlug –
Reach us both at PeopleImpactPodcast@gmail.com
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