VUCA originated in the military to describe a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. Businesses now face a similar VUCA environment with unpredictable changes, unclear information, many interconnected factors, and multiple interpretations. To succeed, leaders must develop cognitive readiness through skills like situational awareness, learning agility, and managing emotions. They also need critical thinking abilities. Leaders can address volatility with vision, uncertainty with understanding, complexity with clarity, and ambiguity with agility. To achieve organizational goals, leaders must coach their teams using a results-based leadership framework focused on self-leadership, organizational climate, employee engagement, customer engagement, and results.

1. - We are moving from a world of problems, which demand speed, analysis,
and elimination of uncertainty to solve, to a world of dilemmas, which
demand patience, sense-making, and an engagement of uncertainty -
Leadership as usual, including creating a vision, is not enough in today's
world where business's are constantly at war. It is a VUCA world, and to
win this war business's will have to constantly fight for a place.

2. VUCA originated in the military as with the end of the world war countries began to
look out over the emergence of a multilateral, rather than a bilateral, global
landscape.
Militaries all over the world should be prepared;
•To take on increasing challenges from asymmetrical opponents, and sometimes
almost "virtual" opponents.
•To adapt rapidly to highly improvised weapons and tactics by their opponents.
•To respond quickly, effectively and efficiently to the explosion of technology-
enabled but frequently contradictory battlefield intelligence.
•To address the increasing ambiguity surrounding who was an "enemy combatant"
versus who is an "innocent civilian".
Which meant they had to deal with a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and
Ambiguous world where everything turns from calm water to turbulence in split
seconds.

3. Volatile
Uncertain
Complex
Ambiguous
Unpredictable, sudden and
extreme changes
Unclear, doubtful and
unreliable information
Many different connected
parts, multiple factors, weak
signals
Many interpretations

4. Modern business's in a VUCA world
Our business environment is such that old styles of managing predictability cannot
be used anymore. Today we live in a world;
• Where new, muscular and sometimes asymmetrical global competitors are
emerging from developing economies which makes it volatile.
• Where traditional competitors are becoming more cut throat to survive in a low-
growth developed market which makes it uncertain.
• Where the explosion of "big data" is threatening to overwhelm decision makers
and where technologies are disrupting sectors and even whole industries faster
than ever, which makes it complex.
• Where global financial imbalances
continue to bedevil macro-economic
planning which makes it ambiguous.

5. Importance of Cognitive Readiness in a VUCA world
• situational awareness
• meta cognition - thinking about your thinking
• attentional control
• learning agility
• adaptability
• dealing with ambiguity
• managing emotions
• sense making, intuition - connecting the dots
Cognitive readiness is the mental, emotional and interpersonal preparedness for
uncertainty and risk. It is a tool set comprising of;
In short cognitive readiness complements critical thinking by emphasizing on non-
rational, non-logical skills.

6. Critical thinking Vs Cognitive thinking
It consists of;
• Strategic thinking
• Creative thinking
• Problem solving and
• Decision making
Critical thinking is the ability to recognize assumptions, evaluate arguments
and draw conclusions.
For a business to survive in a VUCA environment, leaders need to both think
critically and be ready cognitively, Priority here should be given to cognitive
readiness as it allows leaders to maintain a better sense of self control in
stressful situations.

7. How to solve VUCA issues from cognitive
readiness and critical thinking
"Volatility" is mitigated by having a proper "vision", a clear cut master statement of
where the organization is headed. When met with volatility leaders need to
communicate clearly to the stakeholders and make sure their intent is understood.
"Uncertainty" can be yielded by "understanding", when met with uncertainty
leaders should remain flexible and invite fresh perspectives in to their management
styles.
"Complexity" is checkmated by "clarity", when met with complexity leaders must
collaborate and make sense of "all the chaos"
"Ambiguity" is matched by "agility", when confronted by ambiguity
leaders must communicate clearly and move on with speedy
solutions.

8. A leader who is cognitively ready and thinking critically must then focus on
coaching and mentoring his team of workers to achieve organizational
goals and objectives,
For this, results based leadership style can be used. This can be given in
the following simple equation.
Effective leadership = leadership attributes × results
This equation suggests that leaders must strive for excellence in both
terms: that is, they must both demonstrate attributes and achieve results.
Simply the knowledge enriched leader must now make sure his
organizational culture, employees and customers are lead towards
achieving results.

9. Results based leadership framework
Self leadership and team effectivenessSelf leadership and team effectiveness
Organizational ClimateOrganizational Climate
Organizational ResultsOrganizational Results
Customer EngagementCustomer Engagement
Employee EngagementEmployee Engagement
11
22
33
44
55

10. 1) Self leadership and team effectiveness - A leader should ensure his team is
of high performance and use any and all leadership styles to mentor them.
i) Leading in a VUCA business environment
ii) Repertoire of leadership styles and ESI
• commanding leadership - requiring immediate compliance
• visionary leadership - mobilizing people towards a vision
• participant leadership - creating emotional bonds and harmony
• democratic leadership - building consensus through participation
• pace setting leadership - excelling and self directing
• coaching leadership - developing people for the future
• strategy and purpose
• clear roles and responsibilities
• open communication
• rapid response
• exemplary and effective leadership
iii) S.C.O.R.E. high performance team

11. 2) Organizational climate - Leader must then make sure the organizational
climate is influenced by leadership styles. The way reports are made, decisions
are taken and crises are handled can make a big impact to the organization.
• High performance corporate culture
• Flexible policies for multi generational workforce
• Pay for performance compensation philosophy
3) Employee engagement - An organization's employees have always
made the difference between a truly successful organization and a
mediocre entity. Leaders who value employees and don't consider them as
mere costs that needs to be rid of will strive in the long run.
• Employee turnover rate
• Employee engagement Index
• Employee net promoter score (ENPS)

12. 4) Customer engagement - Performance of employees and leaders will help
the organization to retain its customers.
5) Organizational results - creating value for customers will create value to
the business.
• Revenue, growth, market share
• Profitability, ROI, ROA, ROCE
• Cost reduction and optimization
• Customer engagement ratio
• Customer lifetime value
• Improve customer experience

13. The future will be different and it will surprise. Now, more than ever leaders
need to navigate challenging times and meet increasing expectations and
lead their organizations to achieve sustained success.
To survive in this VUCA business environment leaders must train
themselves on cognitive readiness and mentor their employees on how to
achieve organizational goals through a results based leadership.
"Assume nothing
Question everything
Open your eyes
Challenge the Opposition
And start thinking..."