VUCA, short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, and a catchall for “Hey, it’s crazy out there!” It’s also misleading: VUCA conflates four distinct types of challenges that demand four distinct types of responses. That makes it difficult to know how to approach a challenging situation and easy to use VUCA as a crutch, a way to throw off the hard work of strategy and planning—after all, you can’t prepare for a VUCA world, right?
Actually, you can. Here is a guide to identifying, getting ready for, and responding to events in each of the four VUCA categories.
Authors: Nathan Bennett and G. James Lemoine
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Via Deb Nystrom, REVELN
VUCA is a term from the military, put into popular use by futurist Bob Johansen in 2010, as mentioned in his book, now in a its second edition, Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World. The quadrant model depicted, by authors is handy for thinking through what you can learn and do to be fully prepared and agile enough for this VUCA world. ~ Deb
The world of work is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. As a result it is time to view surprises as the new normal and steady state as the exception. The difference over the past decade is the increasing speed at which leaders need to address multiple challenges, often at the same time.