Attention: this text was originally published on September 16th, 2020 on Verakis’ blog.
You can access this article in Portuguese by clicking here.
We have to face the VUCA World
If you’ve ever had the impression that the world is changing faster and faster, or if you’ve felt yourself losing control of your own life, don’t worry: you’re not the first, nor will you be the last person who is going through this.
This sentiment is said to have started in the post-Cold War period, in the 1990s, due to the geopolitical uncertainties of the time.
This was called the VUCA World. In English, it is the acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
We live in a world with Volatility because everything happens very quickly and it becomes increasingly difficult to analyze cause-and-effect movements.
Things happen and end very quickly, people change the subject and their opinion very quickly.
We live in a world with Uncertainty because it is increasingly difficult to anticipate the occurrence of a certain event and prepare for it. We could even talk about the moment we are experiencing in recent months.
But perhaps a more interesting example is to think about the moves that a common company needs to make to grow. Faced with a scenario in which new events constantly change our perception of the world, is there a correct path to follow?
We live in a world with Complexity because the events of the world generate gigantic repercussions, whose consequences generate results that are difficult to calculate. In addition, events are mixed, making a lot of responsibility necessary for each decision made.
As an example, we can talk about the recent race for a vaccine capable of curing people of the coronavirus
We live in a world with Ambiguity because our possibilities of life are ampler and ampler. Whether from the point of view of gender expression, political thinking, or even the choice of what we would like to eat, everything can have different meanings. And this means that there is no absolute and unquestionable truth, although we continue to seek, erroneously, for absolute truth.
The biggest example, in recent times, has perhaps been the heated discussion between the economy and health in these exceptional months.
Despite the Vuca World being complex, we can’t be scared and paralyzed, which is one of the effects. Instead, we can act in ways that make ourselves less vulnerable to all these effects.
For a world with Volatility, let’s have Resilience.
If transformation is inevitable, let us keep a positive eye on it and know that we are capable of withstanding change.
For a world with Uncertainty, let’s have Flexibility.
If we don’t know exactly what will happen next, let us know that a single question can present different possible and executable solutions.
For a world with Complexity, let’s have Multidisciplinary.
If the world requires a different look, let us embrace the diversity of thought as a positive value.
For a world with Ambiguity, let us have Courage.
If absolute truth does not exist, let us maintain our conviction about world issues and not be afraid to make mistakes and relearn.
