Honing VUCA Habits Through Everyday Life
We are all creatures of habit. Chances are, how we behave in our leisurely lives will have some influence on our professional selves. The same thing applies to VUCA leadership. When we start to view daily situations through the VUCA lens, we become accustomed to its cadence and have the tools and mindset to scale it when an organisational crisis strikes.
By assimilating VUCA personally, leaders will become more confident in guiding employees through novel situations and inspiring action. However, to successfully implement VUCA in daily routines, leaders must first understand each VUCA component’s core characteristics and how they manifest in unexpected and somewhat mundane ways.
Volatility Outside the Office
Volatility refers to frequent and rapid change. At work, this could mean keeping up with the latest cybersecurity updates in response to increasingly sophisticated hackers or keeping up with service quality standards. Volatility can be highly stressful, especially when failing to keep up with the pace could result in heavy losses and missed opportunities.
Away from work, volatility exists in practices such as trading collectibles or selling property. The market always fluctuates (that’s how the economy works), so there’s a need to stay vigilant to ensure maximum profit. Volatility also exists in popular culture through fads, trends, and memes. Viral content may lose traction the next minute as customer demands change and society steers their interests to other pursuits.
Hence, an established vision will help you navigate the ups and downs of a volatile scenario. VUCA leaders consider multiple case scenarios, contingency plans, and alternatives to ensure that the organization runs without a hitch despite unforeseen changes.
Unseen Uncertainty
In VUCA, uncertainty refers to any situation where existing knowledge doesn’t shed light on what’s going on. For organisations, this could mean that SOPs may fail to provide answers or work as well as they should. Decision-makers tend to panic during such situations, where there seems to be no feasible solution in sight.
Open communication can help co-workers sort things out through differing perspectives that cover more ground.
Andres Lares, Managing Partner at Shapiro Negotiations Institute, a training, and consulting company, shares, “Every Monday we meet with everyone on the team, and I meet with a core group of managers one-on-one twice a week. It’s time-consuming, but it’s been very helpful. It gives people a platform to share concerns and helps us craft plans with our managers to employ across our company.”
The truth is that uncertainty permeates every aspect of life. There are many reckless (and unpredictable) drivers on the road as you commute, so safety is always a gamble. You don’t know if a box of cereal has turned bad until you’ve made a purchase and opened it. There is no foolproof statistical method that determines errant motorists or spoilt grain.
Uncertainty is a significant reason why lifelong learning remains prized in modern organisations. What works today might not work tomorrow, and employees and leaders need to keep themselves versatile, transparent, and adaptive to thrive regardless of uncertainty.
Contemplating Complexity
The VUCA definition of complexity relates to intricately connected and overlapping relationships between roles, processes, and everything in between. A lack of clarity results in miscommunications, poor work practices, and a drop in productivity.
Complexity is everywhere. Every atom connects to form the universe — each multiplex issue comprises simple elements. Every relational concept ranging from the six degrees of separation to fractional distillation reveals the complicated relationship between simple (separate) elements.
Therefore, getting through complexity requires identifying various relationships and understanding how they work. A classical oil painting appears elaborate to the untrained eye, but an expert painter can dissect the work down to its simple brushstrokes. Similarly, VUCA leaders understand complexity by figuring out relationships and ways to optimise them.
Armed for Ambiguity
Ambiguity in VUCA means there aren’t right or wrong answers. There are two ways to look at the situation — endless creativity or doubt. Many organisations rely on fixed structures that solve predictable issues, but there are multiple (creative) ways to get ahead in reality.
Sticking to a fixed solution or method might severely restrict an organisation’s progress in a dynamic, rapid-paced world.
Ambiguity also exists in everyday life. A person’s expression during a conversation may convey multiple meanings. Illusions like the Necker Cube or Rubin Vase represent no “one solution” in a dynamic world. As the proverb goes, “there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
Sometimes variation and deviation take courage for the individual to emerge from restrictive comfort zones. But it’s often for the better — gradually developing a habit of constant thinking and planning, where decision-makers find themselves less dependent on a preset pattern.
By doing so, organisational leaders and employees will feel less afraid of taking calculated risks and making decisions in the face of adversity. Most times, it’s okay to make a move even with the paucity of information. Some of the most outstanding leaders in history made milestone progress on a hunch, intuition, or premonition.
In the early 1900s, Henry Ford faced an ambiguous issue of failing sales and a high employee turnover rate. No manual or textbook provided Ford with an answer. Instead, the entrepreneur trusted his instincts and doubled his workers’ wages, which reversed the situation. Ambiguity in VUCA requires a similar take, assessing the situation and implementing a solution even if it seems difficult or counterintuitive.
There’s an Answer to Every Quandary
VUCA might seem uncontrollable, leading some individuals to use the excuse that there isn’t any way to predict or prepare for a surprise scenario — but that is far from the truth.
Essentially, there’s a response to every seemingly troublesome aspect of VUCA situations. Namely, vision over volatility, understanding against uncertainty, reacting to complexity with clarity, and tackling ambiguity with agility.
While VUCA may seem obvious at the workplace or within the industry, it exists in everyday situations, often escaping notice. The core response to VUCA remains the same whether you’re handling a big-ticket company decision or solving a family dispute at home. The answer lies in managing expectations and adapting to immediate environments without hanging tightly onto preconceived notions.
StrengthsAsia has helped many individuals and corporate clients empower leaders throughout the region by enabling breakthrough experiences for both leaders and followers. If you wish to learn more about the Strengths Leadership Program, please reach out to us here.
