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Being Agile in a VUCA (Volatile,

Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous)
World

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those
who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” ~ Alvin Tof er

I have a client who was on track for a 150% increase in revenue for 2020. Then within 2
weeks almost the entire events industry went bust and they lost 98% of their business.
They needed to have agile leadership immediately.

As we all know, the world has changed dramatically over the last few months. We’ve had a
perfect storm of the Covid-19 pandemic, oil uctuations, economic slowdowns, protests,
riots and more! We have also had rapid technological advances, innovation, and lots of
pivoting.

And yet, we still don’t know how long it will take to pull out of this, if our schools will be
open in person or virtually, if our businesses can survive in this, how the economy will be if
we have to shut down again. This time is full of volatility and uncertainty. How do we lead
when we don’t know what’s coming?

What is VUCA?
This type of environment can be described using the VUCA acronym. VUCA was rst used
by the US military after the 9/11/2001 attacks when the US was in the middle of a lot of
unknowns. And now the whole world is in a VUCA environment.

Volatile – change is fast and unpredictable

Uncertain – we are unclear about what is happening now and we don’t know what’s

coming in the future

Complex – many different factors are interconnected and can affect each other

Ambiguous – a lack of clarity or awareness about situations

I believe this particular VUCA environment is a HUMAN issue.

As Patrick Lencioni says in The Advantage, we need to have both smart and healthy
teams. Smart teams focus on the output, the strategies, goals, execution. And this is

absolutely needed! But a company needs to be more than just smart to be successful in a
VUCA environment. They need to pay attention to their people. They need healthy people to

run the business – and not just physically healthy!

Lencioni describes healthy as leaders who are aligned on the vision, feel like they “have

each other’s back” (support each other rather than point ngers and blame each other),
and they do not allow for gossip.
A company must be both smart AND healthy. If your people aren’t healthy, you won’t
achieve your vision! Ask yourself:

How am I taking care of my people and their needs in the midst of this uncertainty?
Do our leaders have the skills to think creatively during chaos, the unknown,

disruption?
Do we have the agile thinking skills to determine what is controllable, execute on

today’s priorities, see what changes could be coming around corners, synthesize the
overwhelming amount of data into meaningful and actionable intelligence, as well as

manage and in uence relationships up, down, and across the organization?
What can I do to help them gain these skills?

Here are 4 skills you can hone to lead in a VUCA world:

1. Build Trust

2. Embrace Change
3. Understand Systems Thinking

4. Ask Questions and Learn Quickly

1.     Build Trust

Healthy teams are built on strong, trusting relationships. In a VUCA world where what we
believed to be true is being challenged every day, having a reliable and accountable team in

place is a tremendous asset.

A rapidly changing VUCA environment often forces teams to shift their priorities because of
unexpected setbacks, all while trying to recover from the disruptions. By building up

trusting team relationships, agile leaders are given more grace to fail (forward) by the

team. The people are more willing to follow the leaders into the unknown. They can

promote accountability and resilience to ensure their team members will be able to adapt
quickly and pull together in the face of adversity to deliver high-quality results, no matter

the circumstances.
How can you build this skill?

Promote collaboration. VUCA situations are often too complicated for one person to

handle, so, build teams who can work together effectively in a fast-paced,

unpredictable environment.

Reward team members who demonstrate the opposite of VUCA – they show vision,
understanding, clarity, and agility (CCL article). Reward the behavior you want to see

more of by highlighting innovations and calculated risk-taking

My client had to lay off most of her workforce. She chose the 10 most versatile people in her

company to stay – the creative, loyal, problem solvers. They trust each other implicitly.

2.     Embrace Change

Holding on with every last ngernail to the status quo in a VUCA world is a recipe for

falling behind, if not the outright demise of your company. You can’t assume that we will

“go back to normal.” Normal is gone. Today’s organizations must confront disruption by

becoming more dynamic and adaptable to change.

Agile leaders have the exibility and creative thinking skills to innovate, iterate, and explore
new possibilities for how their company can pursue its goals. They understand the value of

taking risks and aren’t afraid to experiment, to fail forward. AND they strike a careful

balance between stabilizing the company while also pursuing growth.

How can you build this skill?

Accept and embrace change as a constant – you can’t escape it. Don’t resist change,

use it.

Create a strong, compelling vision of the company’s future, company values, and team

objectives and ensure they are shared with all.

3.     Understand Systems Thinking

A key competency of agile leaders is their ability to see how the complex systems in their

companies, industries and environments interact with one another. Understanding how

changes to one of these systems could have an impact on others is critical when it comes to

minimizing negative or unintended consequences.

In addition to consequences, identifying where the systems link up can also show

opportunities. This allows agile leaders to respond quickly to changing circumstances

rather than sitting back, feeling stuck, and waiting to see what happens, how others will

respond.

How can you build this skill?

Promote exibility, adaptability, creativity and agility. Plan ahead, absolutely, and also
build in some contingency time so you are prepared to alter plans if necessary as

events unfold.

Encourage your people to cross train, learn more, increase their knowledge and

experience while on the job. This only helps the individual and the company, as well as
improves team agility.

I have another client who makes luxury leather goods. They went from almost losing the
company (who’s buying luxury items right now?) to thriving beyond all expectations

because they saw the infrastructure of the supply chain they already have in place. They

were able to guide everyone in that supply chain to pivot together to create PPE’s, Personal

Protective Equipment, which are serving the greater good of the world. They are serving
the world and making money as well.

4.     Ask Questions and Learn Quickly

Information is vital to leaders in a VUCA world. Their ability to adapt and think critically

depends upon their ability to recognize and interpret what is happening around them.

Since so little can be taken for granted, it’s important for agile leaders to constantly be

asking questions and gathering data. This helps them keep their nger on the pulse of their
organization, understanding what’s happening, ensuring they know their people, their
numbers, and their current and potential issues. This enables them to make good, quick

decisions.

How can you build this skill?

Pause to listen and look around. This can help you understand and develop new ways
of thinking and respond rather than react.

Develop a collaborative environment, and work hard to encourage debate, dissent,

participation and then consensus from everyone.

Make investing in, analyzing and interpreting business intelligence a priority so you
don’t fall behind. Stay up to date with industry. Listen carefully to your customers to

nd out what they want.

Review and evaluate your performance. Ask for feedback (it’s scary, I know, but so

worth it!). Consider what you did well, what came as a surprise, and what you would
do differently.

Anticipate possible future threats and determine how you could respond.

The CEO of one of another client routinely appoints a “Devil’s Advocate” in every executive

meeting. That person’s job in that meeting is to ask tough questions and try to show that
the proposed solutions won’t work. This ensures that they look at things from more
perspectives and not just all agree with the CEO because he is CEO!

So, the 4 skills agile leaders use to

navigate a VUCA world are:
1. Build Trust
2. Embrace Change

3. Understand Systems Thinking

4. Ask Questions and Learn Quickly
Agile leaders are well suited to the challenges of managing in a VUCA world. Their ability

to connect, adapt, implement, build relationships, and inspire others enables their teams to
work within an uncertain future by balancing competing priorities and executing strategies

without compromising performance.

Ask another of my clients. 18 months of working with my rm, and the CFO said that they

had a $677k operating pro t difference for the rst time in years. And the CEO said she
truly believes they would have been out of business in this pandemic shut down, if they had
not put the infrastructure in place that gave them the right leadership team who are able to

work together to make the right decisions into and through this crisis.

To learn more about what my rm does to help business owners and their leadership

teams, go to ApexCatalystGroup.com. Here’s to your success!

This blog comes from a speech I gave at the Women’s Economic Forum July 26, 2020,
based in Bengaluru, India. Here’s a clip from that speech.

By Sandi Mitchell | Blog, Featured | 0 Comments

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