I went to a CIPD meeting last night and during the presentation discovered an acronym I had never heard before – VUCA. VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, and originated from the military. The premise being that we are living in a VUCA world and this is what keeps executives awake at night.
Most of the reading I have subsequently done about VUCA focuses on the practical responses that organisations need to take to manage their business in this environment. This is obviously important but it got me thinking about the individual’s cognitive and emotional response to this environment.
One of those thoughts was; what is the difference between uncertainty and ambiguity? If something is ambiguous, then there is knowledge of it but not clarity. It could be seen in different ways. If a situation is uncertain, then there is less knowledge and more doubt. Going back to the premise about what keeps executives awake at night; does this distinction matter? It seems to me that ambiguity is a type of uncertainty. What both have in common, is an element of personal perception and therefore the likelihood of different reactions.
So why is uncertainty so disruptive? Uncertainty is associated with concepts such as: doubt, indecision, insecurity, lack of confidence, anxiety, risk, threat to security, lack of control…
As a leader we can speculate what thoughts and assumptions these may trigger e.g. I am not in control; people will expect me to know how to manage this; if I am uncertain of how to manage this then people will not respect me…
A common reaction to uncertainty – particularly when linked to complexity is the desire to simplify things and make them certain. The problem with this is that where uncertainty results from complexity of the situation or environment; this is unlikely to lead to an overall or long term solution as it will inevitably not consider the whole picture.
An alternative reaction is to be curious. While the immediate reaction may be to take responsibility or blame for a situation being curious instead, is about accepting that you will never know everything (and that’s OK). Curiosity leads to an environment of openness and opportunity rather than closing things down by trying to control and jump too quickly to a solution. “I wonder…” two very simple yet powerful words…
This approach requires sitting with uncertainty and increase your tolerance to it. It means being self-aware and recognising and managing the emotions that uncertainty evokes for you and others. This falls into the framework of Emotional Intelligence; learning to develop a mindset that focuses on opportunities and the ability to recognise emotions and develop a vocabulary and method for expressing and managing these appropriately. A topic for another blog no doubt.
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