I’m a consultant, author, and professor. I specialize in designing organizations and products that are resilient to and benefit from uncertainty.
I advise businesses and non-profits as a consultant and board member, working at the intersection of innovation management, product strategy, and organizational design. My expertise is in designing (or redesigning) organizations to be more innovative and resilient to uncertainty in the operating environment. Find out more about my consulting work here.
My first book, The Uncertainty Mindset (2020), is about how uncertainty can be used to drive innovation and adaptability. It’s available worldwide from Columbia University Press, and you can get a copy here. I cover some key ideas from the book in a 15-minute talk that you can watch below:
I also unpack them in more detail in an 80-minute conversation that you can listen to below:
I make a training tool for productive discomfort called idk which is based on the research in The Uncertainty Mindset. You can get idk here.
I’m working on a new book project about being in a state of not-knowing and what to do about it. You can read it as it takes shape here.
Since 2013, I’ve been an assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at University College London’s School of Management. Learn more about my research and teaching here. I’m on leave from UCL in 2022 to work on solving some major problems in collective action.
To chat, find me on Twitter @vaughn_tan. For consulting inquiries, email me@vaughntan.org. For my strange photos, find me on Instagram @vaughn.tan.