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I saw a tweet during this year’s Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) annual conference that reminded me of the value in the acronym VUCA. It stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Wikipedia says VUCA was introduced by the U.S. Army in the 1990s. In recent years, it’s been used in strategic leadership conversations. Basically, it means the world is a little wild and crazy. I’m sure we’ve all felt that way about our business lives at one time or another.
SHRM has posted a framework for addressing VUCA situations. It’s worth checking out. There are several ways that VUCA finds its way into our professional lives:
V = volatility. The challenge is focused on making organizational change and the speed of change.
U = uncertainty. This is about lack of predictability and staying aware of what’s happening.
C = complexity. It’s understanding the cause and effect of issues facing the business.
A = ambiguity. It presents opportunities to misread a situation or confuse messaging.
The idea isn’t to use VUCA to replace strategy. It’s to consider it a part of strategy preparedness. A few years ago, Harvard Business Review published a series of articles on VUCA, outlining some of the activities you can do when faced with a VUCA challenge or situation.
In a volatile situation, communication is essential. The organization will be looking for knowledge and information. The more people know, the better they can process the change.
With uncertain situations, demonstrate flexibility. While the strategy isn’t predicable, it shows that it can be handled. And, seek out different perspectives which might help reframe the company’s point-of-view in managing change.
For complex situations, take time to think and process the dynamics of the issue. It might offer new insights or options. Also, bring in new collaborators to add a fresh perspective.
Lastly, when ambiguous situations arise, listen actively to the details then consider taking a scientific approach of hypothesizing and testing experiments. It can logically narrow options and surface discoveries.
VUCA might also be a great tool for employees to use in the operation and relatively easy to teach them (versus some other more complicated models.) Organizations could educate employees on VUCA in orientation or onboarding. Then employees can use it regularly as they’re going through problem solving and change.
Organizations can use VUCA to triage challenges that they face regularly. As in, we have Challenge A. Is it volatile? Yes. Let’s make sure we have a good communication strategy in place. The business world continues to move faster and change constantly. As business professionals, we have to find a way to process that organizational change. VUCA might help us understand that communication, flexibility, collaboration, and experimentation are the way.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Kansas City, MO
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