The acronym VUCA was introduced in the 1990s by the US military following the collapse of the USSR to describe a world that has become multilateral, more volatile (volatility), uncertain (uncertainty), complex (complexity) and ambiguous (ambiguity). It became popular in France in 2005.
New constraints must be considered:
the globalization of the economy,
the market saturation,
the finitude of our natural resources,
the market volatility and customer behavior,
and new influencing factors such as environmental and societal issues.
The consequences of our VUCA world:
Volatility : situations change rapidly and fluctuations are difficult to control, in other words everything changes very quickly,
Uncertainty : situations are not predictable (technological breakthrough, unexpected competitor, pandemic). Lack of understanding of the present makes it difficult to imagine the future,
Complexity : situations are difficult to read and understand (multiplicity of elements, relationships and interconnections for decision making),
Ambiguity : the situations encountered have no antecedents to refer to and the chain of cause and effect is not clear.
The COVID 19 pandemic is a perfect example of our VUCA environment.
It can result in a loss of meaning (why do we do things?) and value (neither the right focus, nor the right decisions), a disengagement that has consequent impacts on people, organizations, business, and the environment.
Companies must evolve their management methods and business models. For example, Airbnb, Uber or Netflix have been able to adapt to ever more complexity and unpredictability.
How to answer to these challenges?
Making sense of work and action to reinvent itself through a systemic approach.
If we use the acronym in terms of solutions, it could lead to:
- V for Vision: define a clear vision and share it with employees, organizations, customers...
- U for Understandable: active listening at all levels with the intention of understanding, not “giving your point of view”,
- C for Clarity: organize creative sessions to respond to unknown or innovative situations in co-construction. Put customers and employees at the heart of processes and organizations,
- A for Agility: act with agility to adapt, question, accompany.
The systemic and collaborative approach is a response to having timely and fair decision-making and reconciling long-term vision and short-term results.
In a VUCA world, you can’t predict anything, but anything can become an opportunity!
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