Thriving in a Slow-Motion Earthquake
Do you know what a slow-motion earthquake sounds like? It sounds like…VUCA! Just say it out loud once…voo-kah! Am I right? 😅
In all seriousness, VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity and is a useful framework to describe the world of work in the last four years particularly. Whenever I’m speaking with team leaders, we talk about VUCA as a way to understand the rate of change and disruption in our work experience and the constant dance with uncertainty that we have to manage these days. I often describe this process as working in a slow-motion earthquake…and leaders generally laugh, nod their heads vigorously, or even groan.
The question that keeps team leaders up at night is: “Is it possible for me and my team to thrive in these conditions?”. The question is eminently human. Consider the widespread rates of isolation, anxiety, and depression we experienced during and after the pandemic. Add to that a business environment where change and uncertainty appear to be table stakes and leaders are asking what they can do to survive. The good news is that, with the right tools, we can go beyond surviving these conditions, we can even do the best work of our lives in VUCA.
I speak and train extensively on navigating change and leading high-performing teams through disruption. While the playbook is expansive, a few tips that managers love and often implement immediately are:
Empathy fuels movement: humans often experience disruption as a threat, which can trigger a fight:flight response. When a team member appears to be emotionally stuck, they literally may be anchored in a fear response to the change, which leaves them less able to move forward and accept the new normal. Managers have to first recognize where team members are on the change acceptance curve, and then help them move forward productively. One behavior to drive empathy: keep the check-in clean. Managers tend to want to mix an empathic, “How are you doing?” check in with a “Hey, while I’m here, can you give me a status update on that work project?” It’s efficient to try and get both tasks done at once. Unfortunately, our neurological hard-wiring is set to only remember the work audit vibes over the genuine check-in from the boss (for more on this brain tendency, see the third bullet in this list). So, make those moments of empathy count by keeping them clean…checking in, and wrapping up without bringing it back to productivity.
Transparency precedes trust: An unintended effect of uncertainty is decreased trust on the team, including skepticism of leader’s good intentions. Team members can begin to wonder if the leader is hoarding information. A battle-tested management truth for VUCA is: transparency precedes trust. Leaders need to earn and re-earn trust from their team by sharing what they know about the disruption or uncertainty, and also authentically naming what they don’t know. This process of “dispelling” will earn trust by assuring team members that the leader is not hiding important information from them. Remember, this isn’t a one-and-done! If your organization is getting rocked by numerous, extended volatilities, you have to make this tactic a part of your ongoing leadership process.
Celebration unlocks resilience: As a survival trait, the human brain has evolved to index much more heavily on bad news versus good news. This means that one piece of bad news (either real or perceived) can outweigh 5-10 positive things happening at work. Agile leaders need to understand this and be ready to counter this neurological hardwiring by dialing up the volume on celebration. Leading through VUCA means thinking of your manager role as the “chief celebrator of small wins.” By finding numerous, consistent ways to point out what’s going well with the team, you can help balance our human tendency to focus on the negative. I often advise a ritual of celebration, like a monthly “Hall of Fame” exercise, held during a team meeting. In the “Hall of Fame” portion of the meeting, anyone on the team can name someone who did a great job in the last month or something that went well with work. And, as always, leaders show the way by kicking this experience off, so they are role-modeling the behavior for their team.
I know the last four years have served me up numerous heaping plates of VUCA, and there have been times that I’ve felt demoralized or overwhelmed. These days, I meet high-performing leaders who share that they are running out of gas. Tips like the ones above help you make small, low-friction changes that often produce quick wins, and give us a renewed sense of hope and control as we navigate an endlessly changing world.
