Memoirs of GB Episode 75: Art of Living in the VUCA World

VUCA is an acronym for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous that emerged from the military in the 1990s. It describes the “fog of war” — the chaotic conditions that are encountered on a modern battlefield. It’s relevance to corporate professionals and leaders in business is clear, as these conditions are highly descriptive of the environment in which business is conducted every day. Today the VUCA world itself is redefined with turn of events that happened during the last 2 years with covid19 pandemic making our lives much tougher than before. Everyone of us is in a survival mode waiting for this pandemic to end.

What are the Characteristics of this VUCA World

• Volatility: Things change unpredictably, suddenly, extremely, especially for the worse.
• Uncertainty:  Important information is not known or definite; doubtful, unclear about the present situation and future outcomes; not able to be relied upon.
• Complex : Many different and connected parts, multiple key decision factors, interaction between diverse agents, emergence, adaptation, co-evolution & weak signals of growth.
• Ambiguous : Open to more than one interpretation; the meaning of an event can be understood in different ways.

In a VUCA world what is needed is Cognitive Readiness, the preparedness and agility to handle the situation at hand and still prevail. Cognitive readiness is the mental preparation that leaders develop so that they, and their teams, are prepared to face the ongoing dynamic, undefined, and unpredictable challenges in the digital, highly disruptive and VUCA-driven business environment.

One of the leading coaching organization ,Executive Development Associates (EDA)  identified the following 7 key cognitive readiness skills collectively known as Paragon 7 (see Figure ), which develop, enhance or sustain a leader’s ability to navigate successfully in this ‘new abnormal VUCA world’.

Paragon7 Cognitive Readiness Competencies:

 1)  Mental Cognition: Recognize and regulate your thoughts and emotions

 2)  Attentional Control: Manage and focus your attention

 3)  Sense making: Connect the dots and see the bigger picture

 4)  Intuition: Check your gut, but don’t let it rule your mind

 5)  Problem-solving : Use analytical and creative methods to resolve a challenge

 6)  Adaptability: Be willing and able to change, with shifting conditions

 7)  Communication: Inspire others to action; Create fluid communication pathways

As digitization impacts the entire organization it also requires effective leadership at all levels to drive the digital strategy going forward. As digital transformation expands across the organization and the ‘war for talent’ continues, organizations need to consider a more structured approach to building a healthy leadership pipeline with the necessary capabilities to lead in the digital era.

Though some traditional leadership capabilities remain critical to successfully lead in the digital era (e.g. creating and communicating a clear vision, motivating and empowering others, etc.), there are also new requirements for leaders at all levels of the organization.

When we hire Leaders or groom leaders within the organization, we need to check their cognitive readiness competency. Its very unlikely you get to see a Leader who scores the maximum in all these competencies, but all these competencies can be nurtured through mindful mentoring and coaching by the senior leaders in the organization.

If you see yourself having the potential to develop the cognitive readiness to manage the VUCA world, I bet you are one of those rare gems that are in business world today, If you feel that you need to put additional effort in building these competencies then that’s most important investment for your career and self.

Overall, heightened Cognitive Readiness allows leaders to maintain a better sense of self-control in stressful situations.

Godspeed

Dinesh Chandrasekar DC*

P.S: All views expressed here are my personal views and opinion and have no bearing to the organization I work