VUCA. Living and dealing with change.
What is a VUCA world? Where does this term come from? And how can you keep up with a VUCA world?
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What does VUCA mean?
This acronym comes from the USA – to be more precise, from the American military. It describes the conditions in war zones and during the Cold War. Nothing could be predicted and everything could change from one day to the next. This VUCA world was characterized by four properties:
Volatility
Uncertainty
Complexity
Ambiguity
Some models even add an extra C: VUCCA. The extra c is for chaos.
The term “VUCA world” has become more and more common in both project management as well as general corporate environments, because these conditions are also common there, and methods and paths for dealing with them must therefore be developed. The VUCA world influences how you make decisions and plans and deal with risks and changes.
Volatility
Volatile also means changing, unstable or fluctuating. For example, prices or brands can be erratic. Even people’s attitudes and opinions can be different from one day to the next. The keyword “stakeholder” and the way it is dealt with is increasingly moving into the forefront in projects. Dangers that result from the volatility of the VUCA world are, for example, outdated information, slow feedback loops and fear of risks.
Uncertainty
It is difficult to plan in detail when uncertainty and ambiguity are everywhere. This means having to deal with the associated risks. How useful can classical project management be under these circumstances? The uncertainty of the VUCA world might mean working with incomplete information or reverting to old, “proven” methods.
Complexity
The volume of information is always increasing, and it is no longer independent – all the information is connected with each other. There are dependencies everywhere that must be taken into account. For example, when a business is active in many different countries with different regulations, or with extremely different cultures. The complexity of a VUCA world often means that only the symptoms are treated through short-term bug fixes or things become stiff because analysis seems impossible.
Ambiguity
In a VUCA world, there is a lack of clarity. Information has multiple meanings and it can be difficult to make decisions. This situation can occur, for example, when a business wants to tap a growing market. In projects, ambiguity can be found in ambiguously formed requirements. The inability to gauge the sustainability of events, unfit measures emerging or wrongly interpreting information are all risks of ambiguity in a VUCA world.
The challenge in a VUCA world is to find a middle way between implementation and adaptation of a strategy.
Link to: objectiF RPM
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How to survive in the VUCA world
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How do you deal with a VUCA world?
Volatility:
A clear vision is needed for orientation when it feels like everything is changing around you. So define your vision and make sure you and your project staff always keep it in mind. This also creates an environment where up-to-date information can be easily kept, for example, with a tool.
Complexity:
Provide clear direction and try to design processes as simply as possible.
Uncertainty:
Information is needed to make decisions. So make sure there is a way to exchange knowledge between all participants. Additionally, you should also deal with risks early on and conduct detailed risk management.
Ambiguity:
Ensure cooperation and communication between all project participants. Working agilely makes this simple, for example, by having a daily Scrum to keep everyone up-to-date.
There is also a strategy for surviving a VUCA world with the same acronym. It is:
Vision
Understanding
Clarity
Agility
Summary of measures in a VUCA world:
How can objectiF RPM help in a VUCA world?
With our application life cycle management software solution in-STEP BLUE, you can record your vision. You can record stakeholders and their goals, keep an overview of the changes to your preferences and work with up-to-date information. You will gain an understanding of your ideas for all participants by exchanging project content like requirements, use case diagrams or documents easily or automatically sending e-mails when there are changes. Clarity can be achieved, for example, through a review workflow for risk and requirement recordings. And by working with backlogs, you can use the ideas of agility and easily determine new priorities. This way, you can survive in a VUCA world.
