Mindset Wizardry: The Magic Behind Thriving in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) World

By Debbie Sehulster and Javier Iglesias

You can manage change, anyone can!

But if you want to THRIVE when facing extreme change in your life, you need to go beyond just managing the change. To become resilient in these situations, you need to drive, embrace, and leverage change as an opportunity to grow as a human being and emerge as

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kyoto Sky Publishing
• Release date: Apr 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985803914

Debbie Sehulster

Debbie Sehulster is a first time author after spending more than 25 years working as a Human Resources leader in Fortune 500 companies in the energy, manufacturing and telecom industries. Her career took her all over the US and the world. She lived and worked in Japan for eight months and had two overseas assignments in China. Debbie has deep expertise in talent & leadership development, learning and change management and is the President & Principal consultant for Capability Acceleration Consulting. She is also the Co-founder and Co-president of Mindset Wizardry, LLC.Although she grew up in Ohio, Debbie is a diehard fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and never misses a game. She also does her best to keep up with what's happening with the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Miami Redhawks, her alma maters.Debbie is a frequent leisure traveler. She and her husband, Roberto are always up for an adventure and have explored several countries in Europe and Asia and also enjoy beautiful beaches in Brazil and Mexico. Debbie and Roberto do not have children but are blessed with 10 nieces and 2 nephews and a houseful of rescued animals - currently 3 cats and 2 dogs. Debbie and Roberto also love hosting gatherings with friends in their Texas home.

Book preview

Introduction

Have you ever stopped to think why some people thrive when they face extreme change while others struggle? What are the best techniques for coping with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA)? What are some practical steps you can take to significantly reduce change-related fear? What new habits will make the greatest difference in helping you deal with VUCA? How can changing your mindset and experiences with VUCA transform your life? Mindset Wizardry - the Magic Behind Thriving in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) World will answer these questions and provide many actionable, practical ideas that you can immediately implement.

We did not invent the idea of VUCA. The idea actually came from the US Army many years ago. We recognized that the entire world has been dealing with VUCA as a result of everything that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic and it was a timely topic. When we were brainstorming book ideas, we discovered that most published material about VUCA focused on how companies deal with VUCA or managing change during VUCA. We didn’t find a lot of reading material focused on how individuals can recognize and address VUCA as they experience it. We decided to study this further by conducting a series of executive interviews and a survey. We learned a great deal from our crowd-sourcing efforts. We followed this by conducting our own research and examining the work of various thought leaders on how people effectively adapt to extreme change and related topics.

This book is a combination of findings from our research, our reading, our life experiences, and some stories that friends have shared with us. We wanted to assemble this learning into a book so we could share these ideas with the world in a user-friendly way.

Our book is intended to be a practical guide for:

1) Recognizing VUCA

2) Dealing with VUCA

3) Learning to thrive when facing VUCA

4) Helping others as they experience VUCA

Each chapter provides information and practical guidance that you can immediately implement. We also included reflection questions and assessments, and you can use these to diagnose your situation and to create actionable plans to move forward from where you are today. Our goal is to help you build your resilience so you are well-equipped to not only deal with VUCA but thrive in any VUCA situation. Mindset Wizardry – the Magic Behind Thriving in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) World is a guidebook for building your skills and mastering the superpowers required to deal with VUCA when you face it, so you can ultimately thrive and help others do the same.

Free downloadable worksheets and guides are available

in the free community section of our website at

www.mindset-wizardry.com

We hope that you enjoy this book, reflect on what you learn, and adopt some new mindsets and behaviors. If you find it helpful, please share it with other people.

Debbie & Javier

SECTION 1 - Introduction to the VUCA World

"You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying.

What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass."

– Timber Hawkeye

When the world is changing at a never-ending volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous speed, life aspirations, like finding joy, pursuing a dream, and making big decisions, can feel overwhelming. It really does not matter what your role in life is, where are you situated in the world, or what dimension of your life you are examining.

You cannot control the world around you, but you can control your reactions to it. First and foremost by changing yourself from the inside out, and then influencing others to do so, those close to you first, and then all others within your circle of influence. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, You need to be the change you wish to see in the world. One thing is certain, Gandhi lived his life in a world filled with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) when fighting for India’s unity, and today, our world continues be determined by fast-paced change filled with VUCA.¹

Let’s talk about why this four-letter acronym caught our attention and interest, which evolved into a personal passion that led us to write this guidebook for everyone to use.

1. What is VUCA?

Trust the wait. Embrace the uncertainty. Enjoy the beauty of becoming. When nothing is certain, anything is possible.

– Mandy Hale

Definition and History

VUCA is a relatively known acronym used in today’s business world and written about in business books. However, many have lost the full understanding of what VUCA means, and how it exists way beyond the business world. It impacts everyone at a personal level.

This term was first used in 1987, drawing on the leadership theories of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus. It was written about in their book, Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, published by the US Army War College, to describe or to reflect on the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of general conditions and situations marked by the early situation in Afghanistan, where it was difficult to understand the current state and predict the outcomes of specific actions.² ³

If we bring these circumstances to our present times of unprecedented change, with the situations that we are facing, like the events of 2020—including the global pandemic, political, social and economic upheaval, threats from terrorism, disruption (business closures), artificial intelligence, and climate change, to name a few—we are heading toward nothing less than a Category 5 VUCA storm in our personal lives.

Though the Army War College coined the term in the 1980s, this essential strategy for combatting the greatest challenges of our times and its impact to our lives, is known to less than 1% of the world, according to the VUCA Principle organization.⁴

We hope to change this with our book. VUCA is like flying an airplane in dangerous weather or driving in foggy conditions. You must rely on your instruments, your manual, your knowledge, and your internal compass of intuition to create a more reliable path, make a decision, and take action to arrive safely at your destination.

The VUCA Components

As mentioned above, VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. To begin familiarizing yourself with these four components, here are the definitions:

Volatility: The environment demands that you react quickly to ongoing, fast-paced changes that are unpredictable and out of your control. Volatility is an unpredictable rate of change.

Uncertainty: The environment requires you to act without certainty. You are unclear about the present situation.

Complexity: The environment is dynamic, with many interdependencies and multiple key decision factors coming into play.

Ambiguity: The environment is unfamiliar, outside of your expertise. You experience a lack of clarity about the meaning of an event.

We will further explore these components, as well as how to learn to assess and navigate a VUCA storm in our personal inner world in the coming sections of the book.

One thing that is important to understand is that there are two dimensions in which these four terms come into play when it comes to change and decision-making in your day-to-day life:

How well can you predict the results of your decisions and actions?

How much do you know about the situation in which you are about to decide and act?

FIGURE 1.1

Let us share a story to illustrate this.

Maria decided, after several years of planning and saving, to do a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Of course, the planning of the event took place right before the pandemic hit. Everything was ready, so she hopped on a plane to commence the trip of a lifetime. On the itinerary, there was a stop in Cairo to visit the pyramids. She arrived in Cairo and began the excursions. After a few days, the excitement of visiting the Holy Land was building up and she was ready to leave Cairo. However, early that morning she received a call from the travel agency telling her that they were deeply sorry, but Israel was closing its borders to all international flights because of the pandemic. The travel agency offered her an extended stay for a couple of extra days in Egypt and then offered to book her a flight back to the US.

So, what happened? Maria decided to make the trip, even though the COVID-19 outbreak was spreading quickly around the world. She decided this, even though she was unable to predict the outcome of her decision at the time. In addition, she did not fully understand the situation and environment around the pandemic. In summary, volatility was high regarding the rate of change in the environment. Uncertainty was also there, but was not extremely high, based on the facts that Maria had when she decided to go.

However, the complexity, and all the moving parts surrounding the changing rules about border closings between countries, was also high, creating anxiety. Finally, Maria experienced some ambiguity at the time of her decision because there was a lack of clarity and confusion all over the news and social media. What started as a moment of inner peace, fueled with happiness, gratitude, and hope, turned into a Category 5 internal storm fueled with anxiety, fear, anger, regret, a sense of guilt, and frustration. This was the result of a Category 5 VUCA storm. She had no control of these outside forces.

This is just a story of how a VUCA world around us, in a specific decision-making moment, can impact us inside and out. This internal storm could have happened in many other situations, like changing careers, quitting a job, relocating to another city or country, starting a new business, selling and/or buying a home, investing in something volatile like commodities or cryptocurrencies, or even leaving the country for the first time. The list could be endless.

» REFLECTION: What VUCA situations have you faced in the past?

Building Awareness of a VUCA World

Let’s face it… VUCA impacts how individuals make decisions, plan their lives, manage risks when acting, and solve problems in their everyday world. It also impacts the degree to which they embrace change. Remember, change is the only real constant in our lives.

When we face change, we need to consider our thoughts, decisions, and actions. Therefore, the outcomes are influenced by our fear (of the unknown), comfort levels, optimism, and even the competencies we have and our ability to operate and function in a VUCA world. Today, we live in a world of unprecedented change.

The challenge is that we have been traditionally educated with the opposite scenario mindset. We have been taught to operate in a world of order, clarity, predictability, and linear thinking, where we move forward from a starting point to an ending point, and where our brains often want to make a simple, straight connection, in a logical and sequential order. The problem with this is that, in our current reality, we are not in control. Our mind plays tricks on us, because the main function of our mind is to protect us against any risk of harm. Therefore, making decisions and acting is difficult, unless we train our minds, and ourselves, to do so in a world filled with so much VUCA.

To operate effectively in a VUCA world, it is necessary that we unlearn, re-learn, and now even hyper-learn to develop a new mindset, educate, and equip ourselves with new skill sets, and develop and instill a new habit set. In the following sections of this book, we will share with and teach you how to develop this new set of weapons for your personal growth arsenal, so that you can effectively coach yourself, and then coach others, to navigate whatever category storm we face in this ongoing VUCA world.

On his blog, Sergio Caredda wrote that, at an individual level, we need to be and act more like pirates, a concept also encountered in a recent reading: ‘Rebel Talent’ by Francesca Gino. A pirate doesn’t plan but can capture the right chance and live in the moment. This means that we need to develop new capacities, learning how to be present in the current scenario, making VUCA-proof decisions, nurturing our networks of interactions, and discovering new methods of sense-making.⁵

You can turn your inner VUCA world to your advantage, minimizing the impact of the outer VUCA world, over which you have no control, with simple things like:

Countering volatility, by creating a compelling personal vision of the expected outcome of your decisions and the values required to execute. This could be done with your family, a team at work, at church, etc.

Minimizing uncertainty by developing an understanding of your personal reality. What are the people you trust and admire, doing in situations like yours? Do some research and talk to the people in your network.

Proactively fighting complexity with clarity about the things you need to do.

Fighting ambiguity with agility and adaptability, without fear and feeling overwhelmed.

We will show you how to accomplish all these things. In the end, we need to be okay with being afraid (but not fearful) of not really knowing what to do, but being confident you will perform to the best of your ability.

It is especially important to notice that there is always a new beginning at the other end of the craziness and the unknown of the VUCA world. When the storm passes, there is always calm. With a little luck, you may even see a rainbow. We are definitely heading in the direction of a changed world from the one we took off from—a world where, if we embrace and learn to love VUCA, will be more serene, kindhearted, and empathetic. New realities will arise, some myths will have been shattered, and some meta trends will emerge and materialize.

Myths Associated with VUCA and the World’s Meta Trends

There is no doubt that the emergence of new meta trends, as a result of the disruptions caused by a major global crisis like COVID-19, creates drastic changes and makes us stop and ask the question: Will we ever go back to business as usual, or will we see long-lasting changes with implications at the individual, community, organizational, and government levels?

A study conducted by KPMG, Our New Reality: Predictions after COVID-19, predicts four stages that outline the path to recovery:

Reaction – Professional and personal lives are disrupted. Volatility and uncertainty permeate society, as the primary focus is on limiting damage to lives and livelihoods as we weather the unprecedented storm.

Resilience – Controls loosen as virus spread is contained and/or a vaccination or cure is available. Consumer demand begins to return but is constrained by lost wages, investment losses, and recession fears.

Recovery – Anxiety passes and hiring, investment, and consumer sentiment cautiously improve. Recovery paths for organizations will vary based on ability to limit damage from the reaction stage, length and severity of recession, post COVID-19 industry demand, and willingness to adapt.

New Reality – A number of enduring shifts will remain post recovery, as many learned behaviors born out of the crisis will become central to the new normal.

The table below is just a sample of the many myths that are shifting:

The shifts will continue to happen. In order to survive and cope, we will need to accept this before we can evolve to our true potential.⁶

2. How VUCA Affects People’s Lives

"Failure seldom stops you.

What stops you is the fear of failure."

– Jack Lemon

If you do not learn how to reverse, or at least understand and manage, the negative impacts of the VUCA world in your life, your brain and body will move into fight, flight, or freeze mode. And you will be in a constant state of falling, frustration, failure, and ultimately, fear.

In exploring the Acronym Finder for F.E.A.R., there are three that are the most utilized for impact and meaning:

F.E.A.R. stands for: False Evidence Appearing Real, and from here, there are