This old Army strategy could guide you on how to move forward.
The COVID-19 crises has kicked off concerns of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity across markets on a global scale—is it time to revisit the VUCA strategies of the 1990s?
There is a whole generation of the workforce that became familiar with VUCA strategies, trainings and certifications implemented in the corporate space decades ago. I'd wager there's a younger population of the workforce is thinking at this point, VUCA what?
VUCA is a term that's been floating around since the late 1980s and stems from the post-Cold War area. It gives leaders tools to best leverage the information available to them in order to assess what they should prioritize when the future is extremely unclear.
According to The Futures School, "Creating meaningful and effective strategy is hard, and takes a great deal of effort, time and resources. For this reason, many companies will proudly share their strategic plan with us only to reveal that the “strategy” is actually something else: the organizational mission, a vision statement and/or company goals."
In order for a strategy to have true meaning, we each need to look broadly across social, technological, economic, environmental and political forces of change before we attempt to think strategically about our areas of focus.
So how do we gather actionable information in an uncertain environment?
Now is the time to look outside your organization, at the larger field you exist within and beyond. Keep your ear to the ground. Check in on industry news and follow up with colleagues in your professional network. How are they processing and dealing with this unstable market?
Listen to your customers. What are their greatest concerns or fears right now? What might they be worried about in the months to come? Rather than assuming your company is simply doomed, I'd wager its merely shifting into other opportunities for solutions it couldn't address for its customers or vendors previously. The question is, are you flexible enough to jump into these new directions?
Look into your competitors and how they are reacting to change. Remember none of us are operating in a vacuum.
Assume nothing. While its important in these times to follow your intuition, its not helpful to build a strategy about opportunities or assumptions based on your own assumptions alone.
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Also posted on LinkedIn
