Some Strategies for Complexity:

Complexity, by definition, cannot be managed.  Complicated can, yes – but not complexity.  The best we can do is acknowledge it, and then try to look at it in smaller chunks, evaluating each one independently, before then putting those chunks back together to form larger entities that must also be evaluated.  This requires people who…

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Some Strategies for Uncertainty and Ambiguity: 

One frequent challenge is people who are unwilling to say “I don’t know” or “I was wrong”.  If people can’t own what they don’t know or their mistakes, then the focus becomes on protecting – either my ignorance or my error – without regard for the impact to the organization.  When that’s the case, there’s…

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Some Strategies for Volatility

Volatility can be minimized by open-minded scenario planning, serious succession planning, and ensuring more than one person has a working knowledge of all things critical and important. While these won’t stop an external VUCA event, such as someone getting hit by a bus, they will certainly go a long way toward reducing the impact of…

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Organizational VUCA

VUCA shows up in organizations from two different sources – external and internal – and it is worthwhile to know the difference.  Some examples of external VUCA include:  the state of the global economy, the actions the government is taking to try to manage the market, what our competitors are doing, and even environmental occurrences. …

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Returning To Our Core Competencies

We are excited to be returning to our core competencies – helping leaders and their organizations prepare for change and uncertainty (and we’re talking about much more than risk mitigation) – and then helping them manage the parts they can control, and navigate the parts they can’t. This can start by getting clear about the…

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Trying To Make VUCA Linear

I catch myself doing it – wanting to deal with VUCA and VUCA prime in a linear fashion. Wanting to be clear about which dynamic it is, so I know I’m responding with the right VUCA prime dynamic. Wanting to somehow make VUCA make sense and play fair. I know better. It’s a losing battle…

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