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Growth strategy | Advisory | Force multiplier

VUCA

How to Navigate and Win Against VUCA Forces

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“Change is the only constant in life. One’s ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.” – Benjamin Franklin

We live in an increasingly VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world. The winds of change are blowing in every direction, in every region, and across every industry.

At this point, there is only one safe conclusion: Current levels of disruption and unpredictability are likely not going away. Change is the only constant. So how best to move forward? How do you navigate through a VUCA environment and win?

In this challenging business climate, traditional strategic planning frameworks have proven to be distressingly inadequate. The speed and ferocity of the health and economic impacts caused by the pandemic caught many organizations flat-footed, and ill prepared to react quickly.

Faced with this uncertain and disruptive environment, a growing number of business leaders and growth strategists have been inspired to develop VUCA Strategic Plans to guide their organizations forward and better plan for an unknown future.

While VUCA has proven to be a valuable framework to visualize the disruptive environment we now operate in, it is not always easy to apply. This article will present some tactical remedies that business leaders and growth strategists can use to counter each of the VUCA forces.

VUCA Overview

As a quick reminder, the definition of VUCA:

  • Volatility – The tendency for things to change quickly and unpredictably, typically for the worse. These challenges are unexpected or unstable, and may be of unknown duration. However, they are not necessarily hard to understand – knowledge about them is often available. The more volatile the world is, the more change there is and the faster that change occurs.
  • Uncertainty – Situations where there is imperfect or unknown information. It applies to predictions of future events, to physical measurements, or to the unknown. Despite a lack of other information, we know the disruptive event’s basic cause and effect. Change is possible, but not a given. Uncertainty refers to the extent to which we can confidently predict the future, therefore the more uncertain the world is, the harder it is to predict.
  • Complexity – Refers to the number of factors that we need to take into account, their variety and the relationships between them. The more factors, the greater their variety and the more they are interconnected, the more complex an environment is. Some information is available, or predictable, but the volume or nature of it can be overwhelming to process. The more complex the world is, the harder it is to analyze and come to rational conclusions.
  • Ambiguity – A lack of clarity about how to interpret something. Situations where information is incomplete, contradicting or too inaccurate to draw clear conclusions. More generally, it refers to fuzziness and vagueness in ideas and terminology. The more ambiguous the world is, the harder it is to interpret. The causal relationships are completely unclear. No precedents exist and you often face many “unknown unknowns.”

Tactical Remedies for Each of the VUCA Forces

The VUCA model has great value as a strategic planning tool. By using it as a framework to interpret the current operating environment, business leaders and growth strategists can think creatively about new strategies for the organization, and begin planning for alternative scenarios.

One common question that many leaders ask is how do you counteract each of the four VUCA forces?

Great question, here is how…

We can describe the best VUCA leaders by their vision, understanding, clarity, and adaptability. These four leadership abilities become the opposing force to each element of the VUCA model.

It looks like this:

  • Vision counteracts Volatility
  • Understanding counteracts Uncertainty
  • Clarity counteracts Complexity
  • Adaptability counteracts Ambiguity

The key to managing in a VUCA environment is to break it down into its component parts. Once we identify volatile, uncertain, complex, or ambiguous situations then we can tackle them. Since each type of situation has its own causes and resolutions, so it is best to deal with them one at a time.

In the next sections, we will look at each of these forces.

Counter Volatility with Vision

Vision – You can counteract the first VUCA force (Volatility) with Vision.

In this context, vision is not referring to sight, or the ability to see. It is an acknowledgement that in turbulent times it is very easy to get distracted. Leaders need to rise above volatility by having a clear vision of the future for their organization.

Leaders with a clear long-term vision of where they want their organizations to be can better weather volatile shorter-term environmental changes such as economic downturns or new competition in their markets. Vision helps them see past the immediate chaos.

Some helpful tips:

  • It almost goes without saying, but leaders much acknowledge that change is the only constant. By embracing change, we can find opportunity. Accept and embrace change, and encourage your teams to do the same. Resistance is futile!
  • Begin with the end in mind. The US Army calls this the “Backward Planning Sequence”, where they plan a mission from the end first (actions on the objective) then work backwards, step-by-step, to the beginning of the operation.
  • Build all strategies and plans on the strong foundation of the organization’s Core Ideology (mission, values, purpose). This “true North” approach to navigating an organization is similar to using a compass instead of the map! It provides clarity and helps prevent external chaotic events from pulling them off course, or abandoning their mission.
  • Leaders should always be thinking, and communicating to their teams, from the perspective of the organization’s Envisioned Future (vision, long-term objectives). By painting a compelling picture of the future, and illuminating the path to get there, they will align people and resources, and provide the motivational push to get it done.
  • While long-term objectives should be solid, it is important that leaders allow their teams some flexibility in how they get there. This latitude allows them to react, in real-time, to changing market conditions.

Beat Uncertainty with Understanding

Understanding – You can counteract the second VUCA force (Uncertainty) with Understanding.

To be effective in a chaotic VUCA environment, leaders have to look and listen beyond their functional areas of expertise and span of control. To make sense of the volatility and to lead with vision they need broad Situational Awareness of their operating environment.

By deliberating practicing a “stop, look, and listen” approach, leaders will gain important decision-making information. To do this effectively requires leaders to communicate with all levels of employees in their organization and to develop and demonstrate teamwork and collaboration skills.

Some useful tips:

  1. When building situational awareness, many leaders make the mistake of only paying attention to information sources and opinions that reinforce their own views. This creates a huge risk of missing alternate viewpoints. Instead, leaders need to cast a wide net. They should get different points of view from many sources by engaging directly with their customers and employees to ensure they learn about changes in their markets. The best leaders wander around the office talking to their teams and get out of the building to spend time with clients, prospects and partners in the marketplace.
  2. Once the encounter uncertainty in their operating environment, leaders can gain an overview by evaluating the PESTEL factors: political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legislative.
  3. With broad situational awareness of their environment and their vision in mind, leaders also need to have an in-depth understanding of their organization’s strengths and weaknesses. The goal should always be to take advantage of rapidly changing circumstances by playing to strengths while minimizing weaknesses.
  4. Leaders should embrace Scenario Planning as a critical part of their strategic planning process. This useful tool helps leaders and their teams to anticipate future threats and begin preparing contingency plans to respond.

React to Complexity with Clarity

Clarity – You can counteract the third VUCA force (Complexity) with Clarity.

We all know that in a VUCA world, chaos comes quickly and hits you hard. Leaders who can react swiftly and tune out the noise will make better decisions.

To gain clarity effectively, leaders need to break problems down to the basics. By learning to simplify challenges down to their root causes, leaders and their teams can then begin to think creatively and make quick decisions on how to respond.

Some useful tips:

  • Make sure that everyone in the organization understands the vision and long-term objectives you are trying to reach. Leaders should communicate the organization’s vision, purpose, and values often. An emergency is not the ideal time to help your team understand the organization’s direction!
  • The best teams are creative and collaborate often. Leaders need to develop this capability across the organization. VUCA situations are usually too complicated for one person to handle on their own. It takes a team.

Overcome Ambiguity with Adaptability

Adaptability – You can counteract the fourth VUCA force (Ambiguity) with Adaptability.

This concept of adaptability applies perfectly to today’s chaotic VUCA environment. I believe those organizations (and leaders) who are best able to adapt to change will grow and thrive. Those who don’t, won’t!

By taking an agile approach, moving swiftly and adapting to circumstances, leaders and their teams can quickly make decisions and execute. This requires many of the skills and abilities discussed above plus a willingness to experiment, iterate, and figure out what works in the face of adversity. This is what I have

Some useful tips:

  • Effective leaders reinforce to their teams that the only way to make progress towards any objective is to take action. This deliberate effort in the face of hostile VUCA forces is not always easy, or pretty. When in doubt, move fast, and get stuff done!
  • Teams need to try hard, fail fast, and learn. Then rinse and repeat. This adaptation to changing market conditions is the key to competing and winning in any market. Leaders can promote agility and adaptability by encouraging their teams to plan, and consider alternative scenarios.
  • In many organizations, long-range plans are often obsolete by the time they are approved and funded. This does not mean the effort was wasted. Leaders should encourage continuous consideration of alternative strategies, that way there is always a plan B, in case the first strategy does not work out.
  • Leaders should encourage their teams to continuously be learning about themselves, the market, and their teammates. They also need the latitude and flexibility to experiment, without fear of making a mistake or failing.

Thriving in Turbulent Times

Many experts agree that VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) forces are only going to increase in frequency and intensity. However, that does not mean VUCA is a bad thing. It represents the changing environmental conditions most organizations must now operate within, and overcome if they want to be successful.

Since organizations are largely powerless to stop VUCA – leaders and their teams must learn how to live with, and effectively manage, these forces in their market environment. By learning how to counteract each VUCA force – with vision, understanding, clarity, and adaptability – we can thrive in these turbulent times.

-Onward

Dealing with VUCA Forces

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“Expect the unexpected.” – Bear Bryant

We are accelerating into a new and unpredictable VUCA business environment.

The disruptive forces of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are playing out across almost every company and industry.

Against this backdrop, VUCA has proven to be a great organizing framework to help strategic leaders think about potential new threats. However, I have noticed that many organizations struggle to identify VUCA threats and translate them into actionable inputs as they are making their strategic plans.

In this article we’ll start to break down the challenge and work towards an approach for dealing with VUCA forces.

What is VUCA?

The United States Army War College was one of the first organizations to embrace the concept of VUCA, after the so-called Cold War ended. Military planners began to worry about the radically different, unstable, and completely unfamiliar international security environment that had emerged. They coined the acronym VUCA to describe it:

  • Volatile – Change that is rapid and unpredictable in its nature and extent. The challenge is unexpected or unstable, and may be of unknown duration. However, it is not necessarily hard to understand; knowledge about it is often available.
  • Uncertain – The present is unclear and the future is uncertain. Despite a lack of other information, the event’s basic cause and effect are known. Change is possible but not a given.
  • Complex – Many different, interconnected factors come into play, with the potential to cause chaos and confusion. The situation has many interconnected parts and variables. Some information is available or predictable, but the volume or nature of it can be overwhelming to process.
  • Ambiguous – There is a lack of clarity or awareness about situations. Causal relationships are completely unclear. No precedents exist; you face “unknown unknowns.”

For simplicity, let’s look at each element in isololation:

  • In a purely volatile (but not uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world, there is a lot of fast, but predictable change. 
  • On the other hand, in a purely uncertain (but not volatile, complex and ambiguous) world, it is hard to tell how things will develop.
  • In a purely complex (but not volatile, uncertain and ambiguous) world, things are hard to untangle and understand.
  • Finally, in a purely ambiguous (but not volatile, uncertain and complex) world, things are just hard to discern at all.

We see proof of these every day.

Unfortunately, out in the wild these dark forces do not typically present themselves in isolation. Rather, they can come at undesirable times, and in a variety of combinations and sequences. All of which makes the job of leaders infinitely more challenging.

Why is Understanding VUCA So Important?

While its origins lie in military planning, the concept of VUCA transfers perfectly to the world of business. Especially now.

Many experts predict that volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are going to become even more prevalent in the future. To manage teams and create strategic plans for organizations in this “new normal” era of disruption, leaders need to be aware of the changes that this kind of environment can cause.

The turbulent and unpredictable VUCA forces of change will affect all organizations, at all levels. This type of environment poses many threats to an organization, including:

  • Overwhelming your team and making them anxious or nervous about the future.
  • Sapping their energy and motivation to take action.
  • Throwing uncertainty into their career paths.
  • Causing skills to become obsolete and forcing constant retraining.
  • Consuming large amounts of time and resources to understand and combat.
  • Increasing the complexity of making decisions, and the chances of making mistakes.
  • Slowing down the decision-making process.
  • Causing short-term thinking, and knee-jerk reactions.
  • Jeopardizing strategic long-term projects, developments and innovation.

As a result, we need to develop new skills, practice new behaviors, and take better approaches to manage the threat. If this environment affects your industry or organization, you have to reconsider the way you and your business plan and execute.

This is the value of the VUCA Strategic Planning Methodology.

Benefits of Embracing VUCA

Every leader, and every organization, has a basic choice when it comes to VUCA.

You can either allow VUCA forces to “own” you – running the risk of overloading and overwhelming your organization. Or, you can accept and manage it – working vigilantly with your team to plan for and mitigate its effects.

Ironically, if you decide to accept VUCA, you also start to gain immunity to its impact…

When you accept VUCA as something that is not going away, you also make yourself and your people less vulnerable, and you empower everyone to deal better with uncontrollable, unpredictable forces. You are shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach. Practicing forward-looking strategy instead of backward-looking tactics.

VUCA is definitely a challenge for leaders, and presents an opportunity to develop and improve leadership and management skills. It is also an opportunity for individuals and teams to up their game and become more effective.

A Playbook for Managing in a VUCA World

How do you effectively manage teams and organizations with these VUCA forces?

  • The accelerating rate of change (volatility)
  • The lack of predictability (uncertainty)
  • The interconnectedness of cause-and-effect forces (complexity)
  • And the strong potential for misreads (ambiguity).

If we embrace and think about each of these disruptive forces we can begin to develop a playbook for managing and leading in a VUCA world. As we contemplate strategic approaches to combat each VUCA element, a strategic approach begins to emerge.

  1. We can counter volatility with vision. Creating a compelling vision, values, and purpose for your organization.
  2. We can meet uncertainty with understanding. Greater situational awareness, understanding what your competitors and the market are doing.
  3. We can react to complexity with clarity. Clearly structured teams and effective communication from leaders on the strategy and objectives.
  4. We can fight ambiguity with adaptability. An agile approach to developing a strategic plan and execution.

The next article will go deeper into this approach and explore each element in greater detail.

-Onward  

The VUCA Strategic Planning Framework

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“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – General Dwight D. Eisenhower

The last six months have proven the traditional approach to strategic planning is no longer effective.

We do not live in a static or predictable world. If a VUCA environment – with all its disruption and unpredictability – is the new normal, then organizations need to adopt a strategic planning process that is more robust and agile.

Organizations today need strategic plans designed to handle the accelerating pace of change, extreme unpredictability, and widespread VUCA disruptions across the global economy.

The VUCA Strategic Planning framework helps leaders and their teams develop comprehensive, yet flexible, plans that help determine the future of their organization.

The Need for Flexibility and Agility

To succeed in this new era, organizations need to be flexible and agile. Leaders and their teams must get out of the building and maintain the discipline of a bias to action!

As a result, organizations must also be flexible in their strategic planning and agile in their execution.

Yes, it still requires that we define why the organization exists and what we do. However, it also demands that we constantly question every assumption about the business, the market, and the environment, and make quick decisions based on what we find.

Leaders and their teams must constantly ask the question: “What if?…”

Instead of driving the bus by looking through the rear-view mirror, this agile approach to strategic planning demands that we steer by looking through the front windshield. We need to focus – gazing not just at the road ahead, but also far into the horizon, to an unknown future – so that we can better anticipate what might be coming up and react appropriately to any disruptive forces or changes that might hit us.

This flexible approach to strategy is a key ingredient to successful execution.

VUCA Strategic Planning Framework – Overview

The graphic below provides a visual overview of the VUCA Strategic Planning Framework.

There are four core phases in the process:

  • Planning Foundation – Where we define the Core Ideology (Mission, Values, Purpose) of the organization, the Envisioned Future (Vision, Long-term goals), and the Strategic Gap that separates them.
  • Strategy Development – Where we formulate the go-forward Strategy, and make a go/no-go Strategy Decision.
  • Plan Creation – Where we develop the VUCA Plan, and do Scenario Planning.
  • Management Cycle – Where we add in the Strategy Portfolio, and leverage the Management Cycle for effective execution.

The foundation to every effective VUCA Plan is robust Situational Awareness. This continuous process happens throughout the four phases of strategic plan development and execution, and represented by the parallel work stream running the length of the process.

There are also four phases to situational awareness, matching each of the strategic planning phases:

  • Perceiving – This phase is all about gaining clarity on the “as is” status of the organization through internal analysis and an external analysis of the marketplace or economy.
  • Understanding –By taking information from the first phase and interpreting it through a new or existing mental model, or strategic framework, we can be begin to make sense of the connections between the elements and stress-test possible approaches to reach “future state”.
  • Predicting – After reviewing the information and insights from the first two phases, we can leverage this knowledge to project forward and begin to predict potential future impacts or outcomes. This is an important element for Scenario Planning.
  • Reacting – During the execution phase leaders and their teams in the field must observe, interpret, and react to all the inputs they receive from the market. This is where we must react to VUCA forces and make decisions about whether to proceed, pivot, or stop!

VUCA Strategic Planning Framework – Details

In the VUCA Strategic Planning framework, Core Ideology and Envisioned Future, combined with robust Situational Awareness detailing the current state of the organization and its operating environment, create the springboard for strategy development:

  • Core Ideology – Defining the mission, values, and purpose of the organization. These elements describe why the organization exists and what it stands for today. They form the “true North” guideposts for making strategic decisions and are the foundation for any VUCA strategic plan.
  • Envisioned Future – Defining a clear vision of what the organization aspires to become or achieve and its long-term goals. These elements explain the desired “future state” and the long-term goals you and your team are working towards achieving in order to get there.
  • Situational Awareness – A thorough analysis of the environment in which the organization operates is vital. Situational awareness involves knowing where you are (“current state”) and being aware of what is happening in your environment (internal and external perspective) to understand how information, external events, and one’s own actions might affect both immediate and future outcomes.

Once this planning foundation is in place, leaders should consider strategic options that will enable the organization to bridge the “gap” between the current state and the desired future state while factoring in the operating environment as revealed by the situational analysis. Strategy is the mechanism to do this:

  • Strategy – Defining the approach that will guide individuals and teams on “how” to achieve the short-term objectives that move the organization from its starting point towards achieving its long-term goals. Strategy plays a vital role in VUCA strategic planning.
  • Strategy Decision – Once formulated, leaders must then decide if the strategy is the best one to help the organization achieve its long-term goals. If the decision is to move ahead with executing a chosen strategy then it is time to commit, and proceed with creating a complete Strategic Plan around that strategy.

The strategic planning process culminates in the creation of a VUCA Strategic Plan:

  • VUCA Strategic Plan – A clear time and resource based plan, that details the strategy and actions by which the organization intends to reach its Envisioned Future. Clarity on objectives, owners, and timelines will help ensure successful execution.

In addition to their primary VUCA Strategic Plan, leadership teams should also take several additional steps to help mitigate the potential risk of disruption or failure:

  • Scenario Planning – Identify the potential VUCA impacts that could derail your primary strategy or impede your ability to achieve the defined objectives, and action plan your response to them. Because almost no plan goes as expected, by answering “what if” across a comprehensive set of possible future scenarios your team will be better prepared to quickly react and make decisions when/if a disruption happens.
  • Strategy Portfolio– Viable alternative, complementary, or even competing strategies that your organization will resource and your team will execute in addition to the primary strategy. Your Strategy Portfolio will develop from the strategy formulation phase, additional insights gained from situational awareness, and scenario planning that went into creating your VUCA Plan. This element mitigates risk and maximizes future opportunity for the organization.

In the final stage of the VUCA strategic planning process the focus shifts from planning to execution. It is now time for leaders to delegate the responsibility for taking action and manage the outcomes.

  • Management Cycle – A circular workflow, where individuals or teams do the work of executing the strategic plan, review progress, and make course-correction decisions. The leaders of the organization manage this on a regular cadence until the objectives are either achieved, changed, or deleted.

To Your Continued Success

So, there you have it – the VUCA Strategic Planning framework – a comprehensive and integrated approach to strategic planning in times of change and disruption. It was  expressly designed to help leaders and their teams deal with a VUCA environment, effectively plan the future of their organization, and take action.

This agile and flexible approach to strategic planning, and execution, is the key to success for any organization.

I am looking forward to sharing additional tools, techniques, and best practices for each stage of the process. I would also welcome any feedback or suggestions on the framework as you work with it. If you would like to talk about how best to create a VUCA Plan for your organization, please feel free to reach out.

To your continued success.

-Onward

Survival of the Most Adaptable

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“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

You often hear Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, first published in his book On the Origin of Species in 1859, summarized as “survival of the fittest.” It turns out this is not exactly the correct interpretation.

In reality, Darwin actually meant survival of the most adaptable to change.

This concept of adaptability applies perfectly to today’s chaotic VUCA environment. I believe those organizations (and leaders) who are best able to adapt to change will grow and thrive. Those who don’t, won’t!

VUCA is the New Normal

Let’s face it, 2020 has been one wild rollercoaster of a ride. Across industries, the global pandemic has accelerated many changes that were already in motion, and created a number of new ones.

This unprecedented pace of change and disruption is only going to continue. This new VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment is here to stay.

As a result, leaders of organizations have a simple choice to make:

  • Will they stand by and hope for things to revert?
  • Or, will they choose to adapt to the new environment?

When you step back and think about it, the correct answer is obvious.

Things are very unlikely to return to where they were. Ever.

The world has changed. As a result, leaders and their teams need to adapt. Quickly.

Adaptability is the Key to Survival and Growth

The key to survival and growth in times of disruption is your mindset, your preparation, and your willingness to embrace change.

Leaders, organizations, and industries who are operating in survival mode are in deep trouble. When survival instincts prevent movement from the status quo, then extinction is near.

Those leaders, and their teams, who are adaptable and operate with an empowered, strategic, and future-focused way of thinking will win. The ability to be flexible, make quick decisions, and then take action will help them out-wit, out-play, and out-last their competitors. This is the key to survival and growth in a VUCA world.

Leaders and their teams need to get out of the building. They must be ever vigilant, always prepared to act quickly and decisively when confronted with moments of need or opportunity, adversity or change.

VUCA Strategic Planning is Your Secret Weapon

Any battle-hardened leader will tell you that no plan survives its first contact with the market! Therefore, it is wise to have a robust, yet flexible, approach when making plans for the future.

The VUCA Strategic Planning framework provides a disciplined approach to planning and achieving the Envisioned Future of the organization, while maintaining flexibility the ability to pivot quickly when VUCA strikes.

We do not always see it immediately, but disruptions also bring opportunity. We need to be observant and open to the possibility. Be calm and clearheaded enough to recognize it and react appropriately.

Strategic organizations and brave leaders are even willing to disrupt themselves!

To win in a disruptive VUCA environment, you must win in your mind first! This begins with preparation, and a comprehensive strategic plan.

To survive and thrive, high performing leaders and their teams:

  • Know their purpose, their why.
  • Understand their long-term goals. Their what.
  • Know how they need to work together. Their strategy. Their how.
  • Have connection. Share common core values.
  • Have robust situational awareness, considering both internal and external perspectives and market forces.
  • Have a comprehensive plan. Everyone on the team has a role to play.
  • Have considered and planned for alternative scenarios. Leaders are constantly asking “what if?…”
  • Maintain an active strategy portfolio in case the primary one fails.
  • Actively manage the execution of the plan to monitor progress, control resources, and have the ability to make quick course-corrections.

Conclusion – Adapt or Risk Failure

This is both an exciting and nerve-wracking time to be a business leader.

Regardless of your industry, or the size of your organization, today’s business climate is chaotic, fluid, and changing rapidly. Every leader and their team will have a unique set of problems to solve and challenges to overcome, requiring new ways of thinking and different tactics than the past.

As our new VUCA world continues to unfold, I believe there will be unlimited opportunity to grow and thrive for those organizations who are best able to adapt.

I encourage all leaders and organizations to embrace change and build adaptability as a core competancy.

-Onward

Getting From Vision to Results

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“A vision and strategy aren’t enough. The long-term key to success is execution. Each day. Every day.” – Richard M Kovacevich

After developing a VUCA Strategic Plan for their organization, many leaders and their teams think the hard work is over.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. This is when the real work begins!

It is now time to transition the focus from planning to execution. This is when the work of accomplishing the objectives defined in the plan happens. This is where winning organizations demonstrate a bias to action and MFGSD, and begin to execute their plans.

The Management Cycle is the final, and arguably most important, element in the VUCA Strategic Planning framework. For leaders, this is the vital process whereby they effectively manage the execution of the VUCA Strategic Plan for their organization. For individuals and teams, this is when they execute strategy and tactics all the way through to the achievement of defined objectives.

The VUCA Strategic Planning Management Cycle

A comprehensive VUCA Strategic Plan will have clearly articulated details on three important elements:

  1. Long-term goals for the organization.
  2. The strategy for reaching them.
  3. Tactical objectives to achieve along the way.

Furthermore, these objectives (hopefully designed using the SMARTER framework!) will specify assigned resources (people and financial), timelines, and metrics.

The tactical objectives are the work outcomes which are delegated to individuals and teams, and help to define the success or failure of their roles in the organization.

Leaders of the organizations (who are the fiduciary “owners” of the strategic plan) must now do what they do best: lead their teams and manage the plan to successful completion! This element, called the Management Cycle in the VUCA Strategic Planning framework, is where the work of the organization happens.

The Management Cycle is not a static step in the planning process, but actually an on-going management activity. Rather than a linear path from beginning to end, it is better to think of it as a circular loop structured very much like the traditional PDCA total quality productivity loop (plan-do-check-act), as follows:

  • Start/Continue – Think of this as a stage-gate at the top of the loop. It is where the work effort towards achieving the objective begins. It is also where leaders make the decision to continue the effort during a regular progress update…
  • Action/Execution – This is the stage where the actual work or activity happens. At some pre-defined, or ad hoc, point in time the activity is reviewed…
  • Evaluation – In this stage, individuals or teams review their progress with leadership. Specific metrics (defined in the VUCA Plan) are evaluated, which leads to…
  • React/Pivot/Stop – Following evaluation, leaders must guide the individual or team in making any necessary course corrections. This can include reacting to things like market feedback, experiment results, sales success, etc. The decision could be to continue for another execution cycle, pivoting to a different approach, or stopping the activity.

This iterative pattern of activity continues until the objective is either successfully achieved, or the objective is modified, or the objective is removed from the plan.

The cadence of the Management Cycle is heavily dependent on the nature of the actual activity. Singular events, or short-duration tactical activities, might not allow time for anything other than a completion/failure evaluation at the end. Whereas, longer-term or more complex activities might have a series of regularly scheduled reviews on some calendar basis (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.)

Many leading organizations (including Intel, Google, and LinkedIn) have enjoyed great success using a methodology called Objectives and Key Results (sometimes referred to as OKR) to manage the execution of their strategic plans. Future blog articles will go into greater depth on the OKR framework for managing the achievement of objectives.

Where Does the Management Cycle Fit into the VUCA Strategic Planning Framework?

In the VUCA Strategic Planning framework, Core Ideology and Envisioned Future, combined with robust Situational Awareness detailing the current state of the organization and its operating environment, create the springboard for strategy development:

  • Core Ideology – Defining the mission, values, and purpose of the organization. These elements describe why the organization exists and what it stands for today. They form the “true North” guideposts for making strategic decisions and are the foundation for any VUCA plan.
  • Envisioned Future – Defining a clear vision of what the organization aspires to become or achieve and its long-term goals. These elements explain the desired “future state” and the long-term goals you and your team are working towards achieving in order to get there.
  • Situational Awareness – A thorough analysis of the environment in which the organization operates. Situational awareness involves knowing where you are (“current state”) and being aware of what is happening in your environment (internal and external perspective) to better understand how information, events, and one’s own actions might affect both immediate and future outcomes.

With this planning foundation in place, leaders should consider strategic options that will enable the organization to bridge the gap between the current state and the desired future state while factoring in the operating environment as revealed by the situational analysis. Strategy is the mechanism to do this:

  • Strategy – Defining the approach that will guide individuals and teams on “how” to achieve the short-term objectives that move the organization from its starting point towards achieving its long-term goals. Strategy plays a vital role in VUCA strategic planning. It bridges the “gap” between where the organization is today and where it wants to be in the future.
  • Strategy Decision – Once formulated, leaders must then decide if the strategy is the best one to help the organization achieve its long-term goals. If the decision is to move ahead with executing a chosen strategy then it is time to commit, and proceed with creating a complete Strategic Plan around that strategy designed to ensure successful execution.

The strategic planning process culminates in the creation of a VUCA Strategic Plan:

  • VUCA Strategic Plan – A clear time and resource based plan, that details the strategy and actions by which the organization intends to reach its Envisioned Future.

In addition to their primary VUCA Strategic Plan, leadership teams should also take several additional steps to help mitigate the potential risk of disruption or failure:

  • Scenario Planning – Identify the potential VUCA impacts that could derail your primary strategy or impede your ability to achieve the defined objectives, and action plan your response to them. Because almost no plan goes as expected, by answering “what if” across a comprehensive set of possible future scenarios your team will be better prepared to quickly react and make decisions when a disruption happens.
  • Strategy Portfolio – A list of viable alternative, complementary, or even competing strategies that your organization will resource and your team will execute in addition to the primary strategy. Your Strategy Portfolio will develop from the strategy formulation phase, additional insights gained from situational awareness, and scenario planning that went into creating your VUCA Plan. This element mitigates risk and maximizes future opportunity for the organization.

In the final stage of the VUCA strategic planning process the focus shifts from planning to execution. It is now time for leaders to delegate the responsibility for taking action and manage the outcomes.

  • Management Cycle – A circular workflow, where individuals or teams do the work of executing the strategic plan, review progress, and make course-correction decisions. The leaders of the organization manage this on a regular cadence until the objectives are either achieved, changed, or deleted.

Conclusion – Time to Execute

“Without strategy, execution is aimless. Without execution, strategy is useless.” – Morris Chang

In the world of business, having great ideas is much like having a strategic plan – many leaders and organizations have them, yet very few successfully get them done.

This failure to execute is what the Management Cycle element of the VUCA Strategic Planning framework prevents. By clearly defining expectations and ownership, and actively managing the work, leaders can make sure good outcomes happen.

Moving the organization from vision to results…

-Onward