It was said that to deal with VUCA – Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity, the abilities we needed were Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Agility. Sounds poetic with matching syllables, but perhaps a tad bit over simplistic! Neither are these abilities easy to find or develop, nor do they seem like they could completely solve the problem. But yes, they were certainly a good place to begin.
In the last few years, VUCA has given way to a BANI context, one that Is Brittle, Anxious, Non Linear and Incomprehensible. So let’s turn our attention to what it will take to overcome the unprecedented challenges of operating in a BANI world…
Countering Brittleness
If something is brittle, it means that while it may appear to be strong, it can break/ fail at any time, without warning. Because it seems to be working very well right up to the point of collapse, the illusion of stability makes us unprepared for its failure. What we need to counter brittleness is Capacity and Resilience. Capacity in the organisation, and resilience in its leadership.
We need to build solid Plan Bs, have sound alternatives, even for things that seem to be working well.
We know that living in an interconnected world means that fragilities that were once restricted to specific places and groups can now cause ripple effects around the world. In such a context of high interconnectedness, a great way to adapt and grow is by strengthening our teams. Building a culture of collaboration, adopting well-distributed structures, and investing in multi-faceted training to develop complementary strengths in teams, can truly help to increase capacity and resilience.
Overcoming Anxiety
Recent experiences of the unexpected fragility of our world have made us anxious. We fear the unknown, and we are even anxious about what we know, as it may disintegrate any time. The result of this growing anxiety is either delayed decisions and actions, or knee-jerk ones taken in a burst of urgency while reeling from stress and strain.
The best way to cope with anxiety is to raise one’s awareness. We can’t manage something if we can’t control it, and we can’t control what we are not aware of. So my advice to organisations is to recognise the anxiety brewing in their midst and to focus on building mindfulness in their system. What this calls for is far greater empathy and listening from leadership – an observation that has become apparent right through the pandemic. Leaders (of countries and companies, alike), who have demonstrated these strengths, have managed the situation far better than others. And leaders who continued to operate as they had in the past, and failed to dial up their empathy and listening capability, struggled to inspire, engage and leverage their people, no matter how competent and successful they had been earlier.
Coping with the Non-linear
In a nonlinear world we don’t see a clear and obvious connection between cause and effect. The effect can be disproportionate in comparison to the cause that generated it, and therefore much bigger or smaller than we expected.
Coping with non-linearity requires fresh eyes and a candid and open approach. In a non-linear world, rigid plans tend to be a burden on business. Organisations need to be highly adaptable. If they don’t innovate and rely only on “proven” methods of doing things, they will struggle to survive and stay afloat in a BANI world. Composure and agility are needed simultaneously from leadership. The former, to take the turn of events and frequent, unprecedented changes calmly in their stride, and the latter, to constantly learn and unlearn new ways of doing things to keep moving forward.
Dealing with the Incomprehensible
Incomprehensible situations are extremely difficult, if not impossible to understand. Over-zealous attempts at data analysis can end up overwhelming our ability to accurately understand the situation, and to distinguish reality from noise. Therefore, to deal with the incomprehensible, an organisation requires transparency, and free flow of accurate and relevant information. Accepting that things are undecipherable and that we don’t have all the answers, calls for a high degree of humility from leaders, who may be used to being the smartest and were the ones to give direction to others in the past. Answers and ideas to new and unprecedented problems can pretty much come from anywhere, so with true humility, creating non-hierarchical forums and complementary teams which collaborate can be the key to success.
When something is incomprehensible we can’t wait to fully understand it before making a decision, so leaders need to quickly develop their intuition and rely on it. It is of course also useful to leverage technology, like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Data Science in trying to decode the incomprehensible. But the key is not to get paralysed or overwhelmed with either lack of adequate data, or a bid to seek too much of it.
Organisations and leaders need to be guided and enabled to fully appreciate the shift in culture and capabilities that the post-pandemic BANI context is demanding. Only then can we hope to bounce forward in this new world.
Superb article and with such clear specific advice.
Thank you Shivani