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Leading in a VUCA World

LIFE LEADERSHIP DIGEST – Article by Steve Trivett – 6/08/2019

VUCA is an acronym that stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Taken together they characterise the nature of difficult conditions and situations in the world. There is nowhere to hide from war and climate change. Communication is instant, information is abundant and the result is making relationships disruptive. The climate change emergency and the Covid Pandemic have exacerbated our problems. Our attitude to life and leadership needs to be transformed if we are to get the actions and results we are looking for. 

Adapting to a VUCA world will require a greater capacity for awareness. The capacity to notice and deal effectively with increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.  Holding onto a multiplicity of views to find a coherent stream of thinking is not easy. This is because science and statistics are the only show in town.

“When one human being tells another human what is real what they are actually doing is making a demand for obedience they are asserting that they have a privileged view of reality.” – Humberto Maturana

Challenging the lack of common sense in their conclusions takes courage. This is no more apparent than in the management of the Covid19 Epidemic. Organisations and institutions will need to become more agile. The challenge for leaders is to deliver results in a diverse and dynamic range of business and cultural contexts. It will require a deeper awareness and understanding of what makes an inclusive and adaptive culture, one that values closer coordination and collaboration with other cultures.

“Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group from another.” – Geert Hofstede

Tools and techniques are being developed that will enable leaders to balance competing priorities and polarised positions. It will then be possible to continuously reassess situations in a rapidly changing context. Similarities and differences will be revealed and evaluated against a range of key polarities. Different styles of conversation will be needed to reveal the insights created by these new possibilities.

“Culture hides more than it reveals, and strangely enough, what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own participants.” – Edward T Hall

The emergence of a VUCA culture is having a major impact on society and on the way we work together to lead our lives. It is already impacting the way we communicate, behave, relate to each other and make decisions. It is shaping and shifting our Way of Being at a deep level. Changing unconscious habits will require a shift in the way we respect our commitments and value mutual accountability and integrity. Just declaring every fact we don’t agree with as “fake” is not good enough. Fundamentally it’s about creating authentic trust and behaving in ways that demonstrate integrity.

Awareness of Trust

In Spain, a team is prepared to wait up to 25 minutes for attendees to arrive for a meeting. In the UK it’s around 10 minutes and in the USA for only 5 minutes. What is culturally acceptable behaviour in the same context can vary from one country to another, one organisation to another, one department to another and one team to another.

In some cultures, the leader is expected to have all the answers, whilst in other cultures, leaders encourage engagement to get consensus after considering a wide range of perspectives.

Questioning a decision can suggest a lack of trust, but it could be a way of getting clarity on what exactly is being proposed. The test is to assess the level of:

  • sincerity (attempts to mislead or be a people pleaser)
  • capability (knowing that is needed and do what is promised)
  •  care (focusing on what really matters) 
  • consistency (always delivering to the required standard).

For example, in negotiations, a request is made and then modified to get a joint agreement on the actions needed to fulfil it. This ensures that what is done delivers satisfaction.  This reduces uncertainty and any ambiguity about what is wanted by setting the conditions for future interactions. Trust remains strong when you follow through on what was agreed and to never waiver. But sh*t happens and unpredictable breakdowns need to be shared and renegotiated at an early stage. An apology will not be enough. 

The diagram below sees actions, not as simple tasks, but as shared agreements where relationships have the commitment, trust and value built-in.

Assessment of Risk

Some cultures value speed over thoroughness or quick results over due-process. Risk takers can be seen by more cautious people as dangerous, arrogant or even irresponsible. Those who are more restrained can be seen as lazy, boring, lacking confidence or avoiding accountability.

These cultural differences get magnified in a VUCA World because risk-takers become more direct and focus on matters they believe will have a positive impact on results. They want conversations to be concise and to the point. Difficulties can then be confronted openly and feedback can stay “constructive” in order to get a better result. More restrained conversations tend to pay more attention to how the message is sent and received in order to preserve harmony, save face or preserve good relations. There is a preference to stay in questioning mode, afraid to “say it like it is” and then come to a quick judgement that may be disapproved.

Some cultures prefer more direct communication that gets straight to the point, whilst others value a more indirect style, outlining the bigger picture that puts the detail into context. For example, politicians generally prefer an indirect approach. whilst engineers want to clarify the problem and work from there. It’s important, therefore, not to make assumptions and “check-in” to clarify which approach is preferred.

Alignment with Culture

It’s important to be aware of how communication and values are operating in a particular context. Focus on:

  • the assumptions being made
  • embedded ways of thinking about problems
  • how things get done
  • where there is a bias in the way events and behaviours are interpreted.

To adapt to the way things happen in a specific context, you need to:

  • be open to observing and learning as much as you can
  • be curious and seek to understand what is not familiar
  • be prepared to step back and not make quick judgements or assumptions
  • become a good listener to build new frames of reference
  • be sensitive to the differences and seek out common ground

Behave in ways that seek to bridge the differences by modifying your way of being in order to fit in.

  • Notice what you are seeing, feeling and acting on to make adjustments as required
  • Make sure you are open to opinions and ideas that challenge you
  • Display empathy and seek to understand each person as an individual
  • Roll with the “punches” and don’t allow mistakes or embarrassments to rock you
  • Be prepared to switch your style to gain rapport, respect and trust

Alert to Leadership Presence

As you cross the boundaries from one cultural context to another you need to be alert to how others are reacting and responding to the same behaviours. Notice how others react when you assert yourself, act decisively, hold others to account and deal with conflicting opinions.  Always seek feedback on how others perceive your Way of Being.

Leadership skills are perceived to be missing when you are not decisive, appear disengaged or fail to speak up for what you think is important. In some cultures, leaders are expected to decide with speed and show conviction and confidence. In a VUCA environment, critical considerations can be missed as unconscious reactions create blindness to automatic reactions and familiar events. There cannot be impact without engaging a wide range of perspectives and being prepared to challenge your own assumptions.

Leading in a VUCA world requires you to be a more powerful observer. To be more aware, curious, humble and empathetic. You are always challenging yourself to reframe your thinking by looking at situations and events through different lenses so you can notice your own biases and gain new insights.

Leaders and followers need a relationship where aspirations and ambitions are shared.  They share what they care about and want clarity on what it will mean for different individuals in different contexts. Concerns have to be addressed to release individual motivations and build trust. Collaborative action requires a deeper understanding of connections that are complementary. In more indirect conversation, we are more likely to learn more about who we are and what can offer that connects with what others want and who they are. It is better to get clarity on what matters to followers at the outset so that leadership skills can be applied to ourselves as well as others depending on context and culture.

When considering cultural differences it can be helpful to get a sense of where the balance lies between different polarities in different contexts. For example, some cultures will be individualist in some settings yet adopt a more collective view in others. In some situations, work roles can be flexible, whilst in others, they can be quite rigid because status and position are more important. The diagram below provides a framework for leaders and followers to get a shared view of their culture – where it works best and in what contexts it needs to be different to get better results. Where the balance point lies will impact on other factors. For example, the type of relationship will affect the type of communication and openness to risk.

When are speed and risk required? When is it more appropriate to slow down? It may be that getting clarity will mean being more direct and concise in conversations and demand more detail from others.

Having conversations about “what we care about” can help teams adjust and adapt to different cultural styles. This is important when multidisciplinary teams involve people from different professions and nationalities. These conversations allow stories to be told that reveal cultural behaviour preferences and raise awareness to sensitivities, prejudices, stereotyping and biases that need to be addressed to support more effective working. It is a way of recognising our own emotional impulses and the triggers that predispose us to act without thinking.

Accepting of Emotions

When faced with conflicting views and ideas we can fail to see how closely emotions are to the way we think. VUCA environments can generate anxiety, frustration, fear or insecurity. Our body experiences stress and tension and negative emotions generate negative language.  But they are just emotional reactions to the way we think and behave when faced with what we interpret to be greater volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

In my experience, many leaders have difficulty knowing what mood they are in or describing the emotions they are experiencing.  Dan Newby‘s insight is that an emotion is a source of energy within our nervous system that predisposes us to act intuitively. We are unaware of the thinking or body senses that generates the unconscious, negative consequences that emotions have on our behaviour until we can recognise them and know how to deal with them.

It’s a myth, therefore, to think that emotions are random and uncontrollable, good or bad.  Context is all-important. Embarrassment can induce fear and fear can induce embarrassment. It’s helpful to know what thoughts are driving them, as the emotion is either supporting or rejecting the thought. So thoughts give emotions a purpose, which means they can be controlled by thinking differently.  This is not to say that emotions are not spontaneous and habit-based , but that recognising them can prompt us to understand the thoughts that are triggering them.

In his book ‘The Unopened Gift’, Dan Newby explains what makes an emotion.

  1. It has a story that gives structure to random information
  2. It has a trigger that sparks the energy needed to take action
  3. It has a purpose that we care about

For example, when you are driving your car and someone cuts in front of you, you are telling yourself that it is dangerous and could lead to a collision (story). The natural impulse (trigger) when experiencing fear is to swear and gesticulate to release the tension (purpose).  What this tells us is that our emotions:

  • are logical and thought created
  • offer us predictable reactions to learned experiences when we know what they mean to us
  • can be trusted to serve our needs, depending on how we interpret them
  • are purposeful in helping us see how our identity is being violated or celebrated
  • controllable if we know what triggers them and get clarity on how they can serve our best intentions