Journey VUCA to VUCA

We always use the term “VUCA” to explain how life is difficult to survive and how business is difficult to run. In the past we used to speak a lot about it, little experienced, however during pandemic, we experienced what “VUCA” means.

We all know, VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. 

Volatility: We are aware that everything in this world is liable to change, but what we need to understand is that the speed of the change is so fast that you can’t predict what will happen next. Sometimes the situation may get worse and extreme. The situation demands you to respond speedily so that it doesn’t go out of control. 

The best way to deal with it is to create the future based on certain assumptions, find out the purpose in life and create the vision. And be agile in everything. 

Uncertainty: In uncertain situations we get disoriented. We get a lot of information from different media but are unable to make the right decision. You are not sure what is there in the future for you. 

In such circumstances, you need to take the action without hesitation. If required take a pause, look around and try to understand what’s happening in the world. 

Complexity: With huge data around, different opinions and perceptions, it is difficult to take the right decision. There may be a lot of factors which are interdependent on each other. What you see, may not be the reality. 

You can't avoid the complexity but you can translate it. Find out some sense from the situation, understand patterns, take a decision and act.   

Ambiguity: Lots of situations and circumstances have different and difficult meanings and more than one interpretation. Perhaps you will get different answers from different people. The situation may be confusing. You get a lot of questions out of the syllabus in the exam of life. 

To deal with it, you have to navigate easily to get the right information. Understand who can help you and build the credibility within the organization so that people trust you. 

That's the key, replacing VUCA to another VUCA (Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Agility).

If you want to engage with VUCA, then following capabilities are crucial,

Sense Making: Sense making is the ability to determine the deeper meaning of what is expressed, said and listened. It is reading between the line and interpreting the suitable but relevant meanings. This is also an ability to filter the right and relevant information and understand how to maximise cognitive function using different tools and techniques.

Complexity translator: This is the ability to translate vast amount of data and information into abstract concepts and understand data-based reasoning.

Social Intelligence: Social intelligence is the ability to connect easily to others in a direct way to sense and stimulate the desired response and outcome from the networking.  

Novel Thinking: Ability to think differently and come up with novel solutions which are out of the box.

Design mindset: It is the ability to represent and develop task and work processes for desired outcome.  

If you are open to new ideas and willing to unlearn, learn and relearn, managing VUCA is the fun.

Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle, Vitality in Human Resource: Adding human dimensions in HR processes

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organization)    

Author's book are available on Amazon, Flipkart and BookGanga

Vulnerability and Blind spots

During my school days, I had a scholar friend. He was very studious, always wanted to be the first in the class in everything. His parents were very serious about his career. They had enrolled him in all types of classes. He was perfect in most of the things. He was the student who was the first person to raise his hand to answer, the first person to help teachers to bring their books, papers, etc. He was popular among all teachers but not among us. However, he was always in stress and under pressure. His mind was always occupied with questions like, “what if I don’t have the answer, what if I couldn’t answer first, why somebody knows more than me, why some others scored than me.” He wanted to be a performing and perfect student.

As a human being, we are not perfect. Even the most perfect person is totally imperfect. However, understanding the imperfection is crucial. Most of the time, competition makes us more active and we tend to be first in everything. Being first is very nice, however it does not necessarily mean we should have all the answers to everything.  

We also have people, leaders, employees around us who want to be perfect, strong, and performing employees. However, this is not helpful to anybody. This thinking is the major flaw in our development.  We lack that vulnerability which helps us to be wise people. A vulnerable person is comfortable with not having all the answers, engages perspectives and thoughts of their people and does not have to be the first with an idea or the first one to answer. Most of the time people consider vulnerability as the weakness, however lack of vulnerability creates blind spot in your life.

This “blind spot” exists not only in our collective leadership but also in our everyday social interactions. We are blind to the source dimension from which effective leadership and social action come into being.

As per the research, most of the leaders have those blind spots. This is because they have the pressure to prove that they know everything. As expected by followers, leaders should have all answers. Another important area is lack of self-reflection and inner space. 

In general, we know very little about this inner space. Inside Out approach is taken rarely to enhance the performance. Unfortunately, there are different tools & techniques seldom used. This lack of knowledge constitutes a blind spot in our approach to leadership and management.

We need to be reflective and take the inside out view to make the personal and professional life more effective and enriching. There are few techniques like Johari Window, where you improve self -awareness by interacting with other people. Another philosophy is Mindfulness where you make aware yourself with all your senses. When you use all the senses, you reflect more; by doing this you develop the Intention to cultivate awareness, attention to what is occurring in the present moment and attitude that is non-judgmental, curious, and kind.       

However, the most powerful method is “holding your inner space”. You can create or “hold” a space that invites others in. The key to holding a space is listening to yourself (to what life calls you to do), to others (particularly others who may be related to that call), and to that which emerges from the collective that you convene. But it also requires a good deal of intention. You must keep your attention focused on the highest future possibility of the group.     

Finally, it all starts with “you” and making yourselves aware what’s there for you in it. We should not shy away to take help from others if required.  

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organization)

Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle; Vitality in Human Resource