I am always looking for new ways to engage my clients in strategic thinking and planning. Over the last several years – and especially during the pandemic – I am spending more time developing questions for their reflection rather than facilitating “answer” sessions.
Several years ago, I came across VUCA – an acronym for volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Originally, it was used by the students at the U.S. Army War College after the Cold War and is now widely used to describe rapidly changing business, social, geopolitical, and social contexts. It seems more relevant today than ever.
So, what questions can we be asking ourselves as we apply the concepts of VUCA?
- How do we create space to identify and describe our responses to the volatile and uncertain environment we have been living in the last 18 months?
- What were some of our responses – successful and not so successful – to the uncertainty?
- What are the set of challenges that individuals, teams, managers, and organizations will have to face in the future?
- What kind of organizational structure and infrastructure might meet these challenges?
- What are useful tools for us to generate foresight? Might these include gaming, scenario planning, crisis planning, and role playing? Are there others?