VUCA Leadership (Pt 1)

Dear Pastors

VUCA Leadership (Pt. 1)

In my almost 40 years of leadership I have never known a more challenging time than the present. So much so that if you had sat me down say 10 years ago and describe the current times I would have thought you were crazy and needed some psychological help……asap. Seriously it’s not just the pandemic and all its attendant issues as if that isn’t challenging enough. We are also dealing with the liberalisation of western democracy at a pace we have not witnessed before. This is having a major impact on the social fabric of our communities and the health of family life in almost every nation in the world. The knock on effect is that every local church is impacted and so many pastors are wondering what the heck is going on.

How good it would be if we had a roadmap to help us…..some kind of fancy GPS system that could factor in all the conditions swirling around us and then help us navigate these times. Turn right in 300 meters and then immediately turn left but watch out for the pot holes……you know what I mean.

Though we don’t have a set of directions what we do have is some helpful insights called VUCA. Developed by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, and put into play by the U.S. Army War College, VUCA is an acronym for: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.

“VUCA is more than a buzzword! It is a way of thinking and
approaching solutions to the problems of our digital and dynamic world”.
Waltraud Glaeser, VUCA Expert

So let’s begin by defining the these words(ideas). I have bolded a few phrases that I think deserve extra thought.

VOLATILITY
We live in a world that’s constantly changing, becoming more unstable each day, where changes big and small are becoming more unpredictable – and they’re getting more and more dramatic and happening faster and faster. As events unfold in completely unexpected ways, it’s becoming impossible to determine cause and effect.

UNCERTAINTY
It’s becoming more difficult to anticipate events or predict how they’ll unfold; historical forecasts and past experiences are losing their relevance and are rarely applicable as a basis for predicting the shape of things to come. It’s becoming nearly impossible to plan for investment, development, and growth as it becomes increasingly uncertain where the route is heading.

COMPLEXITY
Our modern world is more complex than ever. What are the reasons? What are the effects? – Problems and their repercussions are more multi-layered, harder to understand. The different layers intermingle, making it impossible to get an overview of how things are related. Decisions are reduced to a tangled mesh of reaction and counter-reaction – and choosing the single correct path is almost impossible.

AMBIGUITY
“One size fits all” and “best practice” have been relegated to yesterday – in today’s world it’s rare for things to be completely clear or precisely determinable. Not everything is black and white – grey is also an option. The demands on modern organisations and management are more contradictory and paradoxical than ever, challenging our personal value systems to the core. In a world where the “what” takes a back seat to the “why?” and the “how?”, making decisions requires courage, awareness, and a willingness to make mistakes.

Living in a VUCA world touches all our lives in some way. Have a look at this list, it may put words to what you and those around you are experiencing:

• Destabilise people and make them anxious.
• Sap their motivation.
• Mess with their career moves.
• Make constant retraining and reshaping a necessity.
• Increase the chances of people making bad decisions.
• Paralyze decision-making processes.
• Overwhelm individuals and organisations.

Next week I will share the responses to each of these ideas that Bennis and Nanus have recommended and apply them to pastoral leadership.

Blessings
Alan

Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.