RUNNING HEAD: Leadership, Learning & VUCA 1

Leadership, Learning & VUCA: Facilitating mastery with change and development

Andrea Carter
Department of Psychology, Adler University
SJP-516-A: Social Justice Practicum
Dr. Jim Brown
Leadership, Learning & VUCA 2

Abstract

When exploring leadership roles, transformations from one department to the next, budget

constraints, and training and development, it is easy to see the increasing demands of

operating under volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) conditions. Research

shows that traditional leadership roles such as command-and-control are often ineffective in

these VUCA situations, lending to the requirement for leadership to understand VUCA prime

(vision, understanding, clarity and agility), transformational leadership and personal mastery.
Leadership, Learning & VUCA 3

Leadership, VUCA and Personal Mastery

In a VUCA world, transformational leadership and personal mastery are the foundations

for learning agility and successful organizational change. Kotter and Heskett (1992) stated

that "The single most visible factor that distinguishes major cultural changes that succeed

from those that fail is competent leadership" (Kotter & Hesket, 1992, p.84). While many

factors denote competent leadership, transformational leadership is often associated with

learning agility and personal mastery. As one explores the Kryotech Case Study, it is

apparent that converting from VUCA to VUCA prime, transformational leadership, and

personal mastery is imperative for Kryotech. This paper will outline the suggestions and

evidence-based practices that consultants would draw from to facilitate positive change and

foster urgency and action.

Counsel for Kryotech’s organizational leader - Jefferson Holland; Countering VUCA

with VUCA Prime

To begin, Jefferson Holland is a leader who has been with the organization for over a

decade. It is likely his seasoned time at Kryotech has enabled an adopted viewpoint that

employees should make sacrifices because he has likely had to do this numerous times over

the years. It would not be shocking that the company growth, while on a positive pattern, has

occurred with tight budgets and sacrifice. However, due to the VUCA world organizations

are faced with, his leadership style likely needs an update after years of transition. The

organization is faced with volatile, unstructured, complex, and ambiguous changes. For

Kryotech to compete against its competitors, Jefferson Holland needs to understand how he

can best be in service to his direct report, Diana, and the organization as a whole.

To begin, this transformation can commence with a simple refresher of the VUCA prime

and its benefits. VUCA prime stands for vision, understanding, clarity, and agility. In order

for Jefferson to lead the education and training of the organization successfully, he needs to
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recruit, develop and nurture his talent to learn within VUCA environments. To do so, his

vision must intersect with the overall business strategy and be communicated effectively and

often. In the 2013 interview with Bob Johansen, "Navigating the VUCA World," Johansen

states that, "in a VUCA world, if you're not confused, you're not paying attention. Confusion

is part of the game. And actually being frightened is part of the game, too… You have to be

able engage with the confusion and fear and flip that into opportunity" (Johansen & Euchner,

2013, p.10). That is similar to the state that Jefferson is in because while this is not stated in

the case study itself, one might wonder how connected Jefferson's vision is. What is the

organization's current state, and, more importantly, what are the results they want to see?

The vision Jefferson establishes will rise above the volatility of the markets and enable

Kryotech to remain focus on its desired targets and vision (Castillo & Trinh, 2017).

Understanding is the next factor to explore, specifically with Diana and her ability to learn

from Jefferson. When uncertainty is encountered, as is the situation with Kryotech,

experimenting and exploring help increase understanding. Since Jefferson is likely finding

the organization's results static, this is a good time for Jefferson to begin experimenting and

exploring. That includes how he supports Diana in her new role and how they co-create new

hires' education and training platform. By co-creating the strategy, using understanding

(which could also include surveying and interviewing the current employees in the marketing

and accounting departments), Jefferson and Diana can counter the current uncertainty they

are faced with (Burke, 2016).

"A critical managerial skill is clarity. Getting that clarity right is not easy...but clarity that

is compelling, clarity that is biting has traction. It pulls people in; it motivates them

(Johansen & Euchner, 2013, p.11). In many ways, Jefferson's clarity of his own role, what he

expects from Diana, how he supports the recruitment, onboarding, and training of new hires
Leadership, Learning & VUCA 5

with training and education is critically important. It is the clarity he develops that will

inform the decisions, and from these decisions, the actions and training itself will be born.

Finally, in reviewing VUCA prime, agility is the counter approach to ambiguity,

something it seems that Jefferson might be experiencing at present. Burke (2016) deems that

organizational agility is achieved by adopting the practice to collaborate, reflect and improve

against agreed-upon metrics. By involving Diana in the co-creation of the training and

education for new onboards, agility can be achieved. Adapting approaches, for example, that

will likely evolve through discussions from Diana's skill and success within the Accounting

and Marketing departments, is one way they can achieve the desired outcome they establish

together. Another example of this would be to adopt an "adaptive capacity" approach

(Castillo & Trinh, 2019). Adaptive capacity occurs when the leaders change to more fluently

fit with the environment in which they operate. This can include changing existing

procedures, updating knowledge and skills to meet new situational demands, and adjusting to

new circumstances (Castillo & Trinh, 2019). For Jefferson, adaptive capacity is an element

of transformational leadership that would serve him well at this point. For the new project,

this is an excellent time for Jefferson as a leader to learn, change and keep a flexible mindset.

Counsel for Diana regarding her role in creating a learning organization: How might

personal mastery play into this responsibility?

Diana is in a new role, training coordinator for education and training. She has a leader

who has not shared vision, understanding, clarity, or agility for the project that she has been

asked to develop. Presently, Diana has not made much progress in developing the education

and training content that marketing and accounting new hires will use for onboarding. Since

she has just started in the education and development field after recently transferring from

marketing and accounting, the skills required in this new role are also in transition. Before

Diana can effectively begin strategizing, developing the focus, and identifying the processes
Leadership, Learning & VUCA 6

and practices she will use in the project, Diana must first recognize her change process.

Likely, due to the resistance and frustration, she is experiencing, Diana might be experiencing

ideological resistance. Burke (2016) notes that when change occurs, and the change is more

complicated than what one had planned for, people can believe that it is ill-fated and will not

work. In this situation, where Diana has been told there is no money for training for herself,

it is logical to see that Diana's perspective might feel that this role is ill-fated (Burke, 2016).

Furthermore, because people spend mental and emotional energy trying to resolve situations

that seem "unfinished," as it does when there is no money in the budget for training, there is a

need to help Diana move forward from her resistance to change.

For Diana to effectively cope with this change and transition into a way of thinking where

she can use her own experience to help frame the training she will be developing, the

framework developed by William Bridges is useful. Burke (2016), in Levels of

Organizational Change, identifies Bridge's (1986) work that distinguishes that people in

transition move through three phases of ending and letting go; (1) surrender, (2) reorient, (3)

vision. For Diana, these are useful in helping her move forward. For example, Diana's first

step to surrender to the lack of budget and skill is by giving up her old role, where she was

already successful. When Diana can surrender to a new opportunity for learning, she can

effectively change her ideological resistance. Next, by understanding she has entered 'no

man's land,' she can logically think through the ambiguity, confusion, and despair that is

likely preventing her from progressing in the project. Finally, by creating a vision for her

future and using her own experience as a way to derive the processes other onboarding

employees will need, she can effectively use her current circumstances to her advantage

(Burke, 2016). The other benefit of being guided through the transition phase is that she can

stop using mental and emotional energy on the challenges instead of using that energy for the

project.
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While Diana will need to remain grounded in her competence and skills that she acquired

from the five years she worked in the accounting and marketing departments, she can also

begin to foster personal mastery and proficiency by approaching the project from a creative

and curious perspective (Senge, 2006). For Diana to thrive in her new role, Senge (2006)

suggests that using passion, inquisitive thinking, truth-seeking, and resilience in learning

helps individuals create the results they want to see in their lives (Senge, 2006). Using this

perspective will allow Diana to foster her mastery process and create a climate for mastery.

She can replicate within the training and education for new hires onboarding into the

accounting and marketing department.

Finally, the last concept that Diana can use for personal mastery is to adopt a vision of

co-creation for this project. Together with Jefferson, they can derive the vision of where they

want to be from where they are today. In this state, it will be necessary for Diana to be aware

that often people can confuse creative tension with emotional tension that can stem from

frustration or anxiety surrounding the change. By collaborating with education leaders such

as Jefferson, the creative tension can be honored and separated from the emotional tension

that otherwise keeps people stuck. Only divulging the information around this misplaced

tension is often enough to shift it and become productive again.

Conclusion

In conclusion, in the VUCA world, organizations are all facing, VUCA prime,

transformational leadership, and personal mastery are the foundations for learning agility and

successful organizational change.

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References:

Burke, W. W. (2018). ​Organizational Change: Theory & Practice​ (5th Ed). Sage
Publications.

Castillo, E. A., & Trinh, M. P. (2019). Catalyzing capacity: Absorptive, adaptive, and
generative leadership.​ Journal of Organizational Change Management, 32​(3),
356-376. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.adler.edu/10.1108/JOCM-04-2017-0100

Johansen, B. & Euchner, J. (2013). Navigating the VUCA World. ​Research Technology
Management.​ Jan/Feb2013, Vol. 56 Issue 1, p10-15. 6p. DOI:
10.5437/08956308x5601003.

John P. Kotter and James L. Heskett, ​Corporate Culture and Performance​ (New York: Free
Press. 1992), 84.

Senge, P.M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization.
New York: Doubleday/Currency.