VUCA World
“Ambiguity is not, today, a lack of data, but a deluge of data.”
Paul Gibbons
Some time ago I attended a workshop dedicated to communication in a VUCA world. Through the prism of my profession, I heard about the subject for some time and I found the situation sad, interesting and equally current.
Talking to some friends later, I received the question of what the VUCA world means, and I promised myself then that I would write an article on the subject. But… it didn't happen, so today when I'm still recovering from an exploratory intervention and I promised myself I wouldn't get out of bed so I'm recovering in the workshop area. And I remembered the promise, I paused at the one I was watching: "Coaching in a VUCA world" and I started writing this article.
But let's start with what VUCA means - it's the abbreviation for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity. The term was first used in 1987 and is based on the leadership theories of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus. The use of the term was like the American response to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, when suddenly there was no longer a single enemy, resulting in new ways of seeing and reacting to things received from abroad. Basically we are talking about VUCA when people are aware of the conditions under which they make decisions and analyze the risks or solve problems and move on. Often, you will find references in close connection with their organizations and teams. And in recent years in connection with upskilling and digitization of organizations and teams. This is because when it comes to VUCA it can be described as follows:
Volatility - we are talking about rapid and unexpected changes
uncertainUdine - changes that are happening - know (prepare) the unknown
Complexity - multiple key decision makers - to be prepared by the above
Ambiguity - too many "unknowns unknown"
But what does that mean in 2020? The whole year is the definition of VUCA if you ask me: the pandemic is still hitting us from all sides, violent mass movements are the order of the day, economic organization barely exists and stability has long been an easy word to use in any context . If you look around, each of us finds resources to overcome obstacles, no matter what gets in our way. Now extrapolate this in coaching or leadership and how people who have positions of internal coaches or managers need to look for these resources in teams to grow organizations and get over this period. Awareness of external stimuli, conditions, resilience can make a manager make good or bad decisions for the team / company. But what about us as well? To know our abilities, to invest in ourselves to be balanced, to learn new and future things (at least the near one), and to develop our resilience. That's because the only thing in our power is our reaction to what's going on around us.
I invite you to watch the short film about what VUCA means nowadays and what leadership skills you need to be a positive vector in this world:
