“Above the clouds the sun is always shining, above the clouds the sky is always blue.” Is it true? ‘VUCA world’ has become a buzzword nowadays. We keep hearing a lot about it. As we live in a VUCA world.
VUCA was introduced by the US Army War College to describe the more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world which resulted from the end of the Cold War. The acronym itself was not created until the late 1990s, and it was not used until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when concept and acronym really took hold. VUCA was subsequently adopted by strategic business leaders to describe the chaotic, turbulent, and rapidly changing business environment.
What does it mean? It means that our world is
- Volatile – Change happens rapidly and on a large scale.
- Uncertain – The future cannot be predicted or hard to predict with any precision. This provides a great challenge for leaders to draw up and communicate a compelling vision.
- Complex – Challenges are complicated by many factors and there are only few single solutions. Everything interconnected, we live and operate on a multiple systemic level, situations have so many variables, therefore, best teams, and best leadership teams are diverse teams.
- Ambiguous – There is little clarity on what events mean and what effect they may have. This haziness of reality is unfortunately a good place for misreading, misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and gives you a feeling of insecurity and doubt.
Today’s companies operate in a world where VUCA has become the norm. It look pretty cloudy.
“VUCA world is a bit like an amusement park: it’s full of thrilling rides – just not all of them are fun. It’s a world where stock prices swing wildly from one week to another and entire industries become features in larger ecosystems. A world where new competitors pop up out of nowhere and disruptive technologies wipe out very established business models overnight. A world where a political putsch or a tsunami on the other side of the planet can disrupt markets in surprising ways…..”
In VUCA world, organizations face constant surprises from all directions. By the time you think you’ve got an important market trend figured out, it’s already moved on.
- Which of the 4 can you relate to?
- How does it affect you?
- Create a list of practical symptoms you experience.
Lisa Bloom, who works with stories said: in this VUCA world we create our story of change. She pointed out that when we say that we don’t like change, what we actually don’t like is feeling out of control, and being afraid of the unknown. That is why we find change pretty scary. BUT as a matter of fact we, humans like change!
So let’s craft a different story of change, a likeable one by answering these questions:
- If you look at your answers to the previous questions how you can rephrase or reframe them in a positive or a compelling way?
- What are the positive aspects of VUCA world?
- What can you see if you rise above the clouds?
When I work with leaders on Transformational Leadership they learn how to be, think and live in a transformational way and get befriended with the continuous change. Because they play a significant part in role modelling and cascading down this mindset and attitude towards change in their organisations.
Source: Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations That Accelerate Change by Chris Ertel & Lisa Kay Soloman; Leadership Communication & Engagement in an Uncertain & Changing Business Climate with Lisa Bloom (CHN)