Countering VUCA and solving wicked problems
Posted on September 09, 2020 by Polly Wain, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
'Unprecedented' times and complex challenges demand excellent leadership as standard
Reframing change as an opportunity
Now, more than ever, organisations, leaders and their teams are facing external and internal demands to manage complexity, disruption and transformation while still being expected to deliver excellence for its stakeholders – and have fulfilled, engaged employees.
‘VUCA’ times and ‘wicked problems’ require creative, integrative solutions and excellent, flexible leaders. VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. There’s nothing new about it, it was coined by the US military after the cold war to describe a changed world and the need to find new ways of seeing and responding to challenges.
The term ‘wicked problems’ came out of social planning and is used to describe challenges that have no easy answer – which are complex and difficult, with changing requirements, that have no single (or easy) solution as they’re connected to other things.
When we consider that constant change is becoming business as usual – and some of the challenges businesses face are wicked problems – it requires extraordinary leadership as standard practice to navigate through the complexity to leading through change.
It’s a huge ask for everyone involved – and that’s all of us! Through coaching support, I can help you develop your leadership skills and help your team manage through change – now and for the future. Get in touch.
Reframing change as an opportunity
From Volatility to Vision
As a leader, you can counter volatility with veracity and vision. Change creates instability and how long it’ll go on for can be hard to predict. As a result, it’s easy to fall into the trap of keeping your head down and only focusing on the short-term. Create space and time to explore, define and refine your vision and engage consistently with:
Your vision of the outcome of the change and its benefits
Inspiring and engaging two-way communications
Openness and honesty
From Uncertainty to Understanding
When faced with uncertain situations with challenging problems, fostering understanding helps empower teams and individuals to navigate change on their own terms – towards the same goal.
Decide how you can best support yourself and your team through change:
Being curious about different perspectives
How you and your team work together
The business, system, and stakeholders
From Complexity to Clarity
When change is complex, clarity is key. Skilful leaders are clear, direct and consistent in their messaging.
Make time to reflect – and give and receive feedback for:
A defined sense of direction, purpose and responsibilities
Certainty and alignment through personalisation of vision, mission, goals and behaviours
Engaging and empowering your team
From Ambiguity to Authoritative
If things are ambiguous, it creates tension. This is a time for being authoritative – in the influential, confident and reliable sense:
Be sure of yourself, your skills and the value you bring
Rest easy with the decisions you make
Influence and lead by example
Flexible leadership
Being authoritative is one key skill and being able to call on different leadership styles as the situation demands is essential. Developing flexibility and self-awareness helps you innovate and discover fresh ways forward. Being open to trying new approaches, taking calculated risks and making time to reflect and respond (rather than simply react) are key skills to develop.
However we feel about change, it is stressful, and we all experience it in different ways as we make sense of it and manage our way through it. Positive stress gives us energy and motivates us to change, while negative stress depletes our energy and decreases our performance. Initiating change is very different than having change ‘done to us’. It’s okay to feel anxious about change, however, if the level of anxiety becomes debilitating, you can develop strategies to build resilience and reduce anxiety.
Understanding yourself and your team in times of change is important: working to develop awareness of your values, motivators, and aspirations; listening to your team with openness, respect and concern and self-care and role-modelling best practice behaviours are all essential leadership skills. Let me know how I can help.
#VUCA #humancentredchange #changemanagement #wickedproblems #leadershipdevelopment
