A NEW INTERPRETATION OF VUCA CAN PROVIDE ASSISTANCE.
- Vision: A shared vision creates orientation, can serve as a compass and strengthen closeness and identification.
- Understanding: Clarity and meaningfulness promote the commitment and motivation of those involved.
- Clarity: The increasing uncertainty can be countered with clear communication and decision-making rules that are as simple as possible.
- Agility: Agile tools and methods only work in the right environment. An environment in which trust in employees is strengthened so that they are courageous enough to try out new things and allow themselves to make mistakes.
So far, so good. Now the question arises as to what we can actually do to implement these four building blocks in our day-to-day work.
THE FOLLOWING FIVE STEPS CAN HELP:
- ACCEPTANCE: As Socrates once said: “I know that I know nothing.” We have a lot of information at our fingertips and can draw on past experience. But unfortunately, our usual planning and forecasting no longer works as well as it used to. We have to admit to ourselves that there are things that we cannot control and in order to be able to deal with them, we have to accept this situation as a first step.
- PERSPECTIVE CHANGE: Decisions that were once made by a single manager are now made by a team. Why? Coordination and exchange reduce uncertainty and excessive demands. What is the ideal composition of this team? Interdisciplinary. As diverse as possible. Because five heads know more than one. In this way, well-founded decisions can be made that don’t just consider one side of the coin.
- EMPATHY: VUCA affects us all and yet it affects each individual differently. Meeting employees, managers and colleagues with goodwill, openness and compassion promotes collaboration and internal communication. Those who are genuinely interested in their counterparts ask questions, inquire about needs, challenges and wishes. Based on this, they can also decide, for example, what is communicated how and when via which channel.
- LESS IS MORE or a lot doesn’t always help a lot: in a world where we are flooded with information day after day on various social platforms, we appreciate one thing in particular: clear rules for communication. A few channels reduce complexity and can help to counter the VUCA octopus.
- MEANINGFULNESS: The meaning and understanding of why decisions are made and how they are made also promotes the acceptance of decisions and thus the commitment of employees. Why do we use Microsoft Teams for team communication? Why do we use emails to communicate with customers and why do we start every morning with a short team meeting? We want to understand why we do what we do and, in particular, we want to understand why a change is necessary now and in this form.
Personal responsibility, self-organization and agile working do not happen overnight and not without reason. If we recognize why it is worth working on ourselves and our structure and culture, then it will be easier for us to implement them.
It is not only VUCA that requires us to rethink and reconsider. The change to the New Normal also presents us with new challenges. In our WEBINAR ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, we will examine the role of internal communication in the new normal and what it takes to master the current changes.
Click here to register for our Virtual Change and Communication Camp.
Source: https://www.vuca-welt.de/