How To Win More Battles In A VUCA Landscape

For many of us who are planners, strategists and coaches for the betterment of business operations, it can be fascinating to hear from someone in the military whose plans and strategies are often life and death propositions. I recently heard one such example at a Cornell Smith Family Business Center event featuring retired four-star General George W. Casey, Jr., a man who spent 41 years – most of his entire adult working life – in the U.S. Army.

In the “regular” world, our very lives may not be on the line based on what we do, say and recommend, but we do find ourselves in a market that couldn’t be any scarier. It is volatile. It is uncertain. It is complex. It is ambiguous. In fact, those four characteristics describe a VUCA (taken from the first letter of each) environment.

Is there any way out of this most intimidating maze of VUCA to find clarity? Thankfully, as Casey suggests, it is a resounding yes.

If we can break down our considerable challenges in a VUCA world into smaller pieces, we can more easily identify where we need to go from our current position. We can look at things from an entirely new perspective, effectively “hitting the reset button” on how we approach the situation and evaluate what’s changed (and what hasn’t).

Staring at this newly formed landscape with smaller challenges, ask yourself:

• What are my objectives now? Are the existing ones still relevant?
• What are the milestones along the way? Have those changed? Do they still have any bearing at all?
• How will I go forward knowing what my objectives and milestones look like?
• What do these changes mean for my present environment?
• What’s my plan for today and tomorrow – literally?

Where you were going yesterday may not be where you’re going today as a result of these questions. You have to be ready for that adjustment. And that’s OK because, in a VUCA environment, change usually happens and even may be an excellent outcome.

Remember, Your Team Is Watching Your Every Move.

If you say one thing and do another, they will take note of it. They will wait to see what you do, as exemplified by your behavior. Therefore, the leader, regardless of being in times of crystal clarity or times of uncertainty, needs to be able to say, “This is what we’re going to do and this is why it is that we’re going to do it.”

At that point, the leader needs to lead the charge – and by the way, I’ve also talked about the fact that sometimes you can lead from the back too. But the transparency about what and why while leading by example is paramount.

What Worked For You May Not Work For Others

People on your team need to continue to grow and receive opportunities to learn and experience. So, you must understand that what took you to where you are in your career is not necessarily what will get the next set of leaders to where they need or want to be.

Consequently, use your lens and filter to listen for things that have changed over time so you can help your team grow by virtue of the opportunities available today. Put what you personally have experienced in growth and in learning temporarily to the side if necessary.

To this end, General Casey spoke about one of the primary traits of an outstanding leader, which I happened to describe in my book, “Becoming An Insightful Leader.” Namely, the insightful leader is always learning how you can lead and be adaptive in your leadership. Use what the people around you know and the sum of the parts will hopefully be greater than the individual parts will be.

For example, some think that you can only learn from senior levels of the organization and not from all levels. As you ascend in the organization, keep in mind that you can get exceptional insights from all levels, especially those on the front line. In doing so, as you go up, you will continue to grow both for yourself and for your team. And the team will learn and grow as well.

One of the critical traits of successful leaders is that they are never at too high of a level to learn more about themselves.

Thinking Through A VUCA Situation

As you’re thinking about the future in a VUCA landscape, you can go through assumption by assumption and talk about what the probability is of each one of these assumptions actually happening. In doing so, ask yourself: What is the volatility of the present situation? Does the assumption I’m evaluating have a 50% chance or greater of happening? If so, you can plan accordingly based on it happening. If it does not have a high probability of occurring and I need to bring our opportunities back on course, is that actually the right thing to do? As we arrive at the answer to such a question, we can confront the challenge of uncertainty head-on and make better decisions – or, at the very least, have more clarity on the factors that influence our potential decision.

Next, let’s talk about complexity. If you had set yourself up to do something based on the assumption that it was going to happen, and B happens instead of A, then you have to figure out if you have precisely the same objective as before. If you want to get beyond what happened, that’s not typically a straightforward exercise. There’s a hell of a lot of complexity that goes into saying, “OK, instead of needing resources here, I now need these resources over there. Instead of needing X, I now need Y.”  

Another piece of the puzzle is when ambiguity comes into play and things are not necessarily straightforward in terms of how you get to where you want to go. The further out you go continuing down a course, the less direct – and more ambiguous – it’s going to be. You’re now stuck on a boat wondering what to do and how to execute in changing conditions.

What’s The Only Sure Thing You Can Count On In All Of This?

Easy. The only sure thing is what is happening right now. In this instant. The present moment. As soon as you go to the next moment, you don’t know what is going to happen. Consequently, when you act as an Insightful Leader and understand that you’ve got to be continually moving the ball forward, what are the elements you need to make things happen right now and the immediate next step after?

That’s it. While you need to think about your longer-term goals and objectives, what you can attempt to control, whether in a VUCA environment or otherwise, is happening now.

How do you use a model like this and prevent yourself from falling into a very reactive mode? After all, it’s one thing to adapt, be flexible and move as an Insightful Leader. But when you take a framework like this and in a world where we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, one of the best ways to instill confidence at the company is to be transparent about current events, what we as a company are doing to adjust to it and what we believe is coming up ahead.

And that’s not all.

If you think a dramatic change is coming right around the turn, communicate to your people that you plan on going full force into it and accelerating before the corner, not just plan for it.

Gut Check: Are We Still On The Right Track And Same Page?

It goes without saying, but it’s essential to take stock of the following as you progress forward in a VUCA landscape:

1) You continuously have to view your surroundings and understand what’s going on around you, while assessing whether the goal still works or a new one is needed.

2) You’ve got to react to what’s going around you, but you still are moving toward your objectives.

3) You’re still attempting to achieve a goal, whether it’s the one you started with or a new one.

4)  The steps to get to the goal are the same, whether it is the original one or a new one, still make sense.

By thinking through your challenge via the lens of VUCA and employing this approach, you can position yourself for the flexibility and adaptability of an Insightful Leader.

Stability, even in the most unsettling of times, is still within your grasp.

Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity can easily cause a closely-held and family owned-business to do, well, nothing. That’s the equivalent of analysis paralysis, which can be a flaw that’s challenging to come back from. Find your way through the confusion with the help of Spitulnik Advisors, a leader who has weathered many storms.

Together, we can create not only alignment but a continuous pattern of steps forward. Don’t look now, but some would call that unstoppable momentum. To experience what that feels like, contact us today at 312.593.3181 or email [email protected].