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VUCA, which stands for
Volatility, Uncertainty,
Complexity and Ambiguity
is a mnemonic coined by
the US Army War College in
the early 90’s, is becoming
ever more commonplace and
popular. In leadership and
management circles it is used
to describe environments
or contexts which have
qualities that make traditional
ideas and approaches to
leadership unsuitable. Having
language to classify these
complexities ought to enrich
our understanding of which
frameworks and approaches
are most effective for
leadership in VUCA contexts.
B
ut within a VUCA context there
are a number of leadership
tensions.
Firstly many of our leaders in
organisations have been taught
business tools, models of thinking
and leadership approaches based on
decades of research into…non VUCA
problems. While these methods
still have a great deal of utility, by
many accounts the prevalence
of VUCA environments are more
commonplace than in the 60’s,
70’s, 80’s and 90’s when much of
foundations of the modern leadership
was written. Therefore many
groomed in these approaches and
ideas are trying to apply solutions
developed for different problems.
So when ‘learned’ approach or
behaviour (unsurprisingly) doesn’t get
the desired or expected outcome, the
leader can unjustly direct that anger
inwards; despite ‘doing the right
thing’ they are left with frustration and
anxiety.
Secondly leading in a VUCA
environment challenges many of our
learned assumptions about the way
organisations and people within them
operate. In organisations leaders are
typically expected to provide a level
of clarity and certainty about what will
happen. So they create strategies
and outcomes to be achieved. In a
VUCA environment, leaders can find
themselves in the situation where
followers complain as the leaders
are being too prescriptive on how
that strategy is to be achieved and
are inhibiting the discretion wanted
to ‘work things out’. The leader may
then change ‘tack’ and allow the
freedom requested...only to be met
with more complaints that objectives
and targets aren’t clear! Which is
the correct approach? The paradox
that creates the next tension is in
many ways both are. In VUCA
environments people can need clarity
and freedom because their might
never be a ‘right’ answer, only the
least wrong.
Transforming
knowledge
into action
Leadership Resilience
in a VUCA world?
This time it really
is all about you.
By Drs Ido van der Heijden and Paul Hughes