I learned a new word recently: Epoché.
It’s from ancient Greek philosophy, and it means suspending judgement – holding off on deciding, affirming or denying, until you actually need to.
This strikes me as a core part of improvisation. We will decide, but not rush to certainty as a comfort blanket.
Two kinds of not deciding
There’s a version of ‘not deciding’ that is pure avoidance. You don’t choose, you drift at the mercy of the tides, even if you call it being open-minded.
Epoché isn’t that.
It’s closer to what good improvisers do on stage and sports stars in the stadium:
- you notice what’s there
- you stay available to what’s emerging
- you delay commitment until it’s useful
You grant yourself time to see what’s developing before you interpret it.
Decision-timing
Epoché is the skill of staying with not-knowing long enough to make a better move. It’s a practical embrace of uncertainty.
When we’re under pressure, we often do the opposite. We decide early, not because the time is ripe, but because uncertainty feels unbearable, and the early decision gives quick relief:
- A label (‘This is a motivation problem’)
- A plan (‘We’ll roll out a new process’)
- A story (‘They’re resisting change’)
And once we’ve chosen, we start defending it. We stop noticing and narrow the field.
In improv terms, we commit to the first offer as if it’s the only offer, and now the scene is perhaps too tightly constrained.
What works better
Epoché gives you a middle space: I’m not deciding yet – and I’m not drifting either.
It’s an active, engaged practice of:
- Observing
- Testing
- Keeping multiple hypotheses alive
- Collecting the next piece of information that improves your options
Here are a few practical ways to use epoché – in a meeting, in a decision or in a difficult conversation.
- Be aware what you’re not deciding yet
- Bracket the tempting explanation
- Replace ‘What should we do?’ with ‘What do we need to notice?’
- Make a small, reversible move
Epoché doesn’t mean inactivity. It means low-stakes action while the picture forms. Think:
- A pilot
- A test conversation
- A prototype
- A short time-boxed experiment
Choose a decision point You can still re-assure yourself with a boundary:
- ‘We’ll gather data until Friday, then decide.’
- ‘We’ll decide once we’ve heard from the two people closest to the problem.’ Improvisation trains us to stay composed when we don’t yet know where the scene is going. And It’s surprisingly calming, because it replaces ‘I must know now’ with ‘I can proceed with uncertainty’.
This week, notice where you’re tempted to decide too soon. Pause. Stay with uncertainty and emergence a little longer. Let the next piece of information arrive. Then decide not from urgency, but from awareness.
Best wishes,
Paul & the team
