5 Challenges in VUCA environment and Key skills to Lead in VUCA World

“Pursue knowledge as though it is your life-blood, then you will know greatness” by Monique Rockliffe.

Throughout the past decades, several terms in the business environment have come across like dynamism, disruption, hyper-complexity, uncertainty, turbulence, abrupt change, etc. The business world has been frequently changing for the last few decades, and now it has become a place where changes can be fast-paced, uncertain, and consistent. The term “VUCA environment” altogether represents the set of challenges that the individuals, managers, and teams in an organization have to face.

Although these challenges in VUCA are significant, they can be formidable if they are combined. Let’s Understand more about VUCA.

What is VUCA?

VUCA is an acronym that stands for “Volatility”, “Uncertainty”, “Complexity”, and “Ambiguity”, which are the mixture of qualities that taken jointly, distinguishes the nature of some tough circumstances. Now let’s discuss the meaning of all 4 terms of VUCA.

Volatility:

Volatility refers to the uncertain and unpredictable changes that are rapid in nature and can occur anytime.

Uncertainty:

Uncertainty refers to the fact that the present is unclear, whereas the future of the organization is uncertain.

Complexity:

Complexity in the VUCA world refers to the many different yet interconnected factors that come into action along with their potential to cause chaos and confusion. Lastly, the alphabet “A” in VUCA full form stands for:

Ambiguity:

It points out the lack of clarity or awareness about the uncertain situations.

5 Examples of VUCA

1. Kodak has been able to maintain its leadership in the category of photography for the last 125 years. However, the company took very little time to move towards bankruptcy subsequently. Despite this, they were able to adapt to the constant changes and make beneficial use of them. Such a dynamic and fastly changing environment came under VUCA, which they were able to handle properly.
2. Nokia Company, which used to be the market leader in mobile phones is nowhere to be seen now as they weren’t able to cope up with the changing needs of their business markets, and thus, they were harshly thrown out of the market. Other companies like Redmi, Oppo, Vivo, Realme, etc were able to invent mobiles that matched with the customer needs, and thus, now they are successful names in the mobile industry.
3. Amazon is known for satisfying its customers via their excellent after-sales facilities, and reaching out to their customers. Amazon shopping app recently launched a feature for its Indian users where it has the facility for the users to select whatever native language they prefer and use the app in their chosen language.
   This is a great example of VUCA’s “Complexity” as they were able to come out with the best solution to its exclusive Indian users and increase their marketing as well.
4. Touristik Union International provided holidaymakers with great holidays one day and then suddenly the Coronavirus pandemic took over and uncertainty took over. Their share rate plunged very low, flights were suspended and they failed to handle the situation as they delayed refund proposals.
5. Blockbuster, the American-based provider of home movie and video game rental services once ruled. But then, Netflix came along and Blockbuster was not able to change its business model and people started to prefer Netflix more due to its more advantageous benefits. Not only this, Blockbuster had the opportunity to obtain Netflix, but they turned it down and slowly went out of business.

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5 Challenges in VUCA World

1. The VUCA environment often leads to uncertain situations that can arise out of nowhere. This is a challenge for the VUCA leadership to be prepared for uncertain situations and always have an alternative solution.
2. It is often noticed in the VUCA world that challenges occur where the quantity of knowledge and number of variables that need to be processed is very huge, hence resulting in the birth of tricky problems. Such problems demand time and logical skills to be resolved.
3. There are challenges where there isn’t adequate initial information to make informed decisions. Such situations that suddenly arise require a practical strategy to be solved.
4. Few strategies can be used to address the challenges of unreliability. The Leadership strategies should ensure that the available information is thoroughly analyzed from multiple perspectives during the process of solution-building.
5. One more challenge in the VUCA environment is to get the right type of person who will be able to deal with the changing circumstances whenever they occur. It must be ensured that the right set of experts and tools are being used to perform the task at the proper time.

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5 Skills to Lead in VUCA Transformation

Here take a look at 5 important skills that a leader should have in VUCA transformation–

1. Perspective Coordination-

Perspective Coordination consists of skills that help to observe perspectives, assist efficient interchanges, and then integrate those perspectives in VUCA Leadership.

2. Decision Making Process-

These include skills for formulating a decision, setting goals, collecting information, identifying outcomes, and then carrying them out.

3. Contextual Thinking-

The skills required for contextual thinking in VUCA transformation includes the proficiency to understand the unexpected situation, comprehend its larger context, and identify restrictions and affordances associated with it.

4. Collaborative Capacity-

Collaborative Capacity skills includes skills of VUCA leadership for self-regulation, perspective seeking and taking, and communication among the team members.

5. Lateral Thinking-

Lateral thinking can be defined as the skills of solving complex difficulties by using an indirect and creative strategy with the help of perceptional thinking. 

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Conclusion

Thus, hereby it can be concluded that given the dynamic and disruptive VUCA environment, organizations should take essential steps and be organized for adapting to the quickly changing circumstances, so it can be ensured that they can succeed and thrive in the VUCA world. Also, the above-mentioned skills will help you to guide the sudden change by having a broader opinion and the potential to learn from others while thinking creatively about the future of the organization.

“4 Best VUCA Books”

👉 Global Reader’s Click Below:

1. VUCA Tools for a VUCA World: Developing Leaders and Teams for Sustainable Results
2. IT’S VUCA: The Secret to Living in the 21st Century
3. Outsmarting VUCA: Achieving Success in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, & Ambiguous World
4. The VUCA Learner: Future-proof Your Relevance

👉India Reader’s Click below:

1. VUCA. Handlungsempfehlungen für Unternehmen, Organisationen und die Personalabteilung
2. The VUCA Learner: Future-proof Your Relevance
3. VUCA in Start-Ups
4. The VUCA Company

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