As someone that lived and worked in a country that transforms a literary genre -magic-realism- into a way of living, I found myself curious about uncertainty and ambiguity. Mainly, I feel compelled to analyze how people and organizations react to VUCA (short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) environments.
Some will say that we are all in the “darkroom.” The pandemic has created an enormous uncertainty shock. What implications is that having on our ability to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity?
According to World Bank forecasts, today’s economy is a real-life laboratory, and the global economy will shrink by 5.2% this year. Significantly, it is estimated that up to 60 percent of the contraction will be the direct consequence of uncertainty.
The current environment supports the conclusion of a 2019 study of dozens of global leaders that identified the top leadership skill needed today as comfort with risk and ambiguity.
One critical uncertainty is the future of remote work. Some feel that recent events have driven a real productivity gain they do not want to lose. However, they recognize that a wholesale shift to remote work has had many false dawns.
According to McKinsey’s research, 80 percent of people questioned report that they enjoy working from home. Forty-one percent say that they are more productive than they had been before and 28 percent that they are as productive.
Organizations are looking ahead to the reopening and its challenges. Even after the reopening, attitudes toward offices will probably continue to evolve. It’s expected that leaders will use the lessons from this large-scale work-from-home experiment to reimagine how work is done—and what role offices should play—in creative and bold ways.
Leading organizations will boldly question long-held assumptions about how work should be done and the office’s role. The permanent change will also require exceptional change-management skills and constant pivots to break from the inertia of the past. This moment should drive the workplace’s reinvention to create a better experience for talent, improve collaboration and productivity, and reduce costs.
The best possible plan today is near-continuous recalibration and change. Clearly, we need experimentation and fast learning to navigate through uncertainties effectively. The next step in the response of businesses will be open-ended rather than fixed in time.
What do you think about the need to manage ambiguity to cope with the next normal in the workplace?
I appreciate your perspective, as well as the sharing.
