VUCA as a Source of Strength

VUCA + PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY = Strength

Over the last couple of weeks, we have discussed some challenges of today’s ‘VUCA’ world, marked by unprecedented volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. And although we’ve talked of these conditions as presenting challenges to overcome, this week let’s see how, in a psychologically safe team, they are actually sources of strength, growth, improvement and, most important, team resilience.

Let’s look at each component of VUCA and see how a psychologically safe team helps us turn VUCA into agility, learning, originality, and transparency.?

Volatility Builds Agility

Rapid and unpredictable change is certainly part of living in today’s world. Over the last couple of years, many countries have seen lockdowns announced and implemented in a matter of days. Working arrangements and expectations have needed to adapt quickly.

And for those of us with school-age families, the change in work was compounded by equally fast changes in schooling arrangements, family support, finding room for everyone at home, and more!

How did we cope with this volatility?

For most of us, it was difficult. But when faced with problems, families tend to be able to unite to solve them. And when the next change happened (into or out of lockdown, for example) we could probably deal with this better. We’d worked out some details before; had some ideas and resources to hand, and we were a bit more agile - able to adapt a little quicker with maybe less stress.

A psychologically safe team in the workplace will also suffer a shock when faced with a sudden and unexpected change. But as psychological safety enables open and honest communication, a feeling of belonging to a shared purpose, and the individual autonomy to adjust and readjust one’s work processes, then the team will deal with the change.

The team will also develop skills, assets, and understanding to enable adaptation to be quicker and easier the next time a change hits.

Volatility has helped the team to improve their Agility.???

Uncertainty Drives Learning

As humans, we enjoy two opposing feelings: Certainty and novelty. Even infants show greater interest in objects, people, and situations they have not seen before. But too much uncertainty makes us feel anxious, which is why a reasonable level of certainty is required for psychological safety.

Lev Vygotsky is well known in the field of education. He was a Soviet psychologist, known for his work on psychological development in children, and he developed the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development. In simple terms, to get smarter, we need to be challenged.

In our Comfort zone, everything feels good and we know exactly what we’re doing. In the Panic zone, we are so far outside our current capabilities that we feel uncomfortably stressed. But there is a zone between the Comfort and Panic zones, the Learning zone or Stretch zone, where we are doing things that are challenging, but not so much that we are lost.

Although uncertainty is stressful, a psychologically safe team, with a growth mindset, supportive teammates, and a supportive leader, can turn uncertainty into the optimal zone for learning and team development.?

Uncertainty provides the fuel for Learning.?

Complexity Brings Originality

Ori Brafman in his book, The Chaos Imperative: How Change and Disruption Increase Innovation, Effectiveness and Success, reminds us that a “little bit of chaos…can be highly beneficial to an organization’s overall health.”

Chaos is not the same as complexity, but they are closely related, and what stands for Complexity in the VUCA acronym is often closer to chaos - and certainly feels like it!

As humans, we are very good at recognising patterns, and those who are on the autism spectrum are often a lot better than most of us (but that’s a topic for another day!). The patterns can be visual, but they are often patterns of behaviour, patterns of interactions, and patterns of work practices that we have become used to.

When a situation becomes complex, it seems chaotic because we lose sight of the patterns we know. And that forces us to find new patterns to make sense of the complexity.

This is a creative act, and in a psychologically safe team, creativity and imagination are rewarded and encouraged. Communication and discussion are also easier, so that makes it possible to bring multiple minds and multiple viewpoints to help us understand the complexity.

Once we can discern new patterns, the complexity gains simplicity, and we have created a new understanding.

Complexity has helped us to be more creative and to build something new and Original.

Ambiguity Creates Transparency

Something, or some situation that is ambiguous, is one where its meaning or significance is obscured. We don’t know what to make of it. We don’t know if it is important or not.

In a workplace team setting, what possible benefit could come from ambiguity?

The benefit comes from the “not knowing”. And in a psychologically safe team, we can admit that we don’t know. Even the leader cannot - and should not - be afraid to admit they don’t know.

So when ambiguity is present, so is the transparency of the team.

And if everyone can see that there is a state of not knowing, that enables that one team member who knows, or who maybe has an idea that they might know, the opportunity to speak up,?to keep the conversation going, and to help the team to resolve the ambiguity.

We’ve said before in this newsletter that teams need to be connected to those ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ from the team - internal (or external) suppliers and customers. The transparency of the team that comes from psychological safety also enables greater access to information outside the team - information that might help to resolve the ambiguity.

So a psychologically safe team that can admit to ambiguity will benefit from the Transparency that brings.

VUCA and Resilience

Resilient teams can deal with a VUCA world far better than most. They can adapt and change, but still keep a focus on what makes the team successful - including the performance goals they need to meet.

When psychological safety is high in the team, VUCA is not a force that weakens the team - it is a force that strengthens the team, and increases its resilience.?

A LOT of value from VUCA

VUCA need not be a threat or a hindrance to a psychologically safe team. When combined with psychological safety, Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity can be transformed into Agility, Learning, Originality, and Transparency - all of which help to make the team A LOT more resilient!

Can we get real value from VUCA? Yes, A LOT!

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Build highly engaged and high-performing teams by boosting psychological safety in your workplace. BOOK a 30-minute free consulting session with me to find out how I can help.?