Mindfulness and VUCA
VUCA scenarios result in chaos, fear, and disruption. The COVID-19 outbreak is VUCA. The financial crisis of 1997 was VUCA. 9/11 was VUCA. The common link between each tragic event lies in the lack of control. Organisational leaders face some form of VUCA in every official decision, and employees cope with them accordingly.
VUCA leadership remains a priority as the world becomes increasingly sophisticated with digital advancement, globalization, and commercialization. An ever-changing climate means that leaders need to maintain their will and focus despite the changes surrounding them.
The solution might come in the form of a modernised Eastern philosophy — the art of mindfulness.
Mindfulness and its Role in VUCA
Mindfulness refers to the mental quality of living and functioning in the present. Vietnamese spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh pioneered the belief, which has become a fixture in secular lifestyles. Thich encouraged a simple yet effective mindset that anybody could master.
According to Thich’s teachings, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the mindfulness-based stress-reduction 9 (MBSR) technique and has helped leaders worldwide cope with highly stressful issues. Mindfulness involves three main characteristics that guide and enhance concentration.
VUCA creates tension and confusion — with multiple opportunities, urgencies, and problems that occur simultaneously. Organisations fail to respond successfully to VUCA due to the “fog” it carries. Through mindfulness, decision-makers can handle VUCA scenarios with greater confidence and without distraction — essentially dispelling that fog.
The Three Characteristics of Mindfulness
Mindfulness comprises three traits that help an individual undertake optimized measures in the present moment. These characteristics can help readers determine the best actions taken in VUCA scenarios, where current needs and considerations outweigh those of the past or future.
Non-judgmental Attitude
We label everything around us as it is part of human nature and an ancestral prerequisite for survival in the wild. Good, bad, safe, or unsafe; we sometimes depend on stereotypes, templates, and mnemonics to help us understand the world at large. The process mostly works under normal circumstances, but VUCA switches the playing field.
VUCA brings profound change at a rate that our internal labeling systems fail to keep up. Continuous judgment may lead to flagrant errors and pricey consequences.
Alternatively, mindfulness enables decision-makers to stay neutral in their viewpoints and open to improvements and suggestions without presuppositions or self-limiting beliefs (e.g., legacy systems and outmoded workplace routines).
Deep Observations
Mindfulness emphasizes reconnections with thoughts, feelings, and sensations that go ignored during VUCA scenarios. Observations relate to just that — merely paying close attention to detail without reaction. The exercise (of observation) helps decision-makers embrace clarity before they act by planning pragmatically. There’s a significant difference between thinking about and living in the moment.
In most cases, a VUCA situation might seem more dire than it really is. We need to trust our senses, to observe by interacting with immediate factors. There will be passing thoughts of doubt and insecurity now and then, but these should not linger in mind.
Observation is practicable anywhere, from ordering a meal in a restaurant to watercooler conversations and conducting an annual general meeting. The more we practise observation, the easier it becomes to assess a situation accurately.
We are so used to reacting that we forget the importance of observing and consulting the data before arriving at a decision — mindfulness helps us reconnect with the present without overreacting.
Cultivated Awareness
The awareness that arises from mindfulness should never be one-and-done. It’s necessary to affirm awareness by implementing everyday tasks and avoiding ruminations in the past or future. Cultivated awareness requires patience and a meticulous focus on individual tasks (while avoiding multitasking like the plague) without distraction.
Awareness from mindfulness is essential in combating the ‘’A” in VUCA, ambiguity. Ambiguity causes inactivity, resulting from a lack of direction or preparedness. By shifting thoughts away from the big picture and onto specifics, the VUCA crisis becomes more surmountable and less overwhelming.
Additionally, leaders with higher self-awareness levels possess the know-how on how their words, actions, and emotions affect others and lead more effectively through carefully coordinated responses.
Implementing Mindfulness
Mindfulness might seem purely philosophical to beginners, but there are many simple ways to apply the concept to reap its benefits practically.
Mindful Breathing
Dedicate a small portion of your busy schedule to mindful breathing, focusing on your breath, and shutting out any distractive thoughts. The exercise involves inhaling from the nose for three seconds and exhaling through the mouth for three more seconds (for about 2–3 minutes per session). The exercise draws attention to the present for clarity of mind and releases any mental burden that affects judgment.
Avoid Multitasking
Research shows that multitasking reduces productivity by as much as 40%. Picture the process as a CPU running with multiple open program tabs, which slows down the processor. Mindfulness requires complete focus on one task for 100% efficiency.
Engage in Active Listening
Active listening involves paying close attention to what someone else says instead of mentally planning a response. Non-verbal cues are as essential as their spoken counterparts. Nods, eye contact, and smiles are active listening characteristics that foster strong workplace communication that counteract VUCA uncertainties.
Mindfulness Against VUCA
Industrial experts and organisational leaders described VUCA in various ways (all in the negative) since its coinage in the 1990s. Some consider it the fog of war. Others deem it simply as chaos.
A VUCA world brings about a complicated landscape fraught with stress and frightful challenges — leading to poor decisions, ruined relationships, misdirection, and self-sabotage. Hence, mindfulness might serve as the perfect antidote to VUCA.
According to Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, “The message of mindfulness is an invitation to everybody to wake up to the true dimensionality of who we all are, and to move in a direction of maximizing the good that comes from our activities and minimizing the harm both to ourselves and others.”
We live in an increasingly VUCA landscape, but answers lie within reach by tuning out from the white noise. Mindfulness reminds us that change is a constant, and we have the power to progress by avoiding fixation on things beyond our control — and for everything else, we can resolve with an open mind.
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.
