Why philosophy can help in a VUCA world

I never thought about considering philosophy to tackle the challenges of a VUCA world. That changed thanks to Manouchehr Shamsrizi and his keynote talk at this year's Digital Tech Summit.

Complicated or Complex? Heinz von Foerster can help with the following diagram.

On the left, you see a simple system with a starting point, an endpoint, and a function in between with no sophisticated interaction. It’s easy for us to understand how we get from the left to the right side. That’s how we think the world works. We completely understand those systems and can easily impact them by our decisions if we include enough parameters and allocate enough capacity.

In the system on the right side, we don’t know how to get from x to y as we can’t grasp the actions, reactions, and feedback loops. We think x is the point we start, and we believe it is a good idea to end up at y. No matter how much capacity or technological capability we allocate, we can’t be 100% certain about the assumptions we make. This sounds more like reality the way it is. Von Foerster used this diagram to introduce the differentiation between a complicated and a complex system. Complexity is one key aspect of VUCA.

So why is dealing with a VUCA world so tricky?

The reality we live in is a chaotic surrounding, in which issues an events become more and more unpredictable, due to a higher speed for the dynamics of change and a haziness of reality. Most incumbent organizations are in a command & control mode of operation. The skillset for success to-date that assumes the world around us is still just complicated, doesn’t help in a VUCA world.

The thriving discussion about climate change and the moralization of the markets (e.g., look at the sustainable development goals of the UN) shows that we are not dealing outside of moral and social contexts anymore. Society currently increases the pressure on organizations to comply with standards regarding human rights, as well as environmental and climate protection, to question the company’s “license to operate”. Milton Friedman once wrote, “The business of business is business”. Today the business of business is everybody’s business.

Philosophy and profits aren’t incompatible. Thinking about ethics can help to define boundaries (e.g., privacy) and establishing long-term sustainable value creation by combining a good purpose with a real business opportunity. The concept of a social business is one way of adapting that additional layer of complexity. Solving problems in society by making a business model out of it erases the need for ongoing donations.

The world of VUCA is yesterday’s news for philosophy of science, logic, and language. Still, I wouldn’t go as far as recommending bringing a Chief Philosophy Officer to the board of directors. Nudges from philosophy can help us create reflective space for critical thinking to explore what’s right and fair, not just focusing on short-term profit maximization.

This article is part of a short series about my highlights of this year's Digital Tech Summit in Nuremberg. You find the links to all other articles here.