How to manage VUCA environments - Methods for making a work environment flexible and responsive

SKILL: Dealing with complexity

EQF LEVEL (INTERNAL REFERENCE): 4

Keywords 

1 Agile Manager

2 Vision

3 Corporate culture

4 Professional development

5 Soft skills

Introduction: 

This module addresses the issue of workplace management in the VUCA context, which is dominated by volatility and uncertainty.

By the end of this learning unit, you will know how to set up an appropriate company culture and how to structure the personnel policy, implementing a project based on responsiveness and adaptability. 

Content:

In today's business and work world, the V.U.C.A. model, which describes the global scenario in terms of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, is becoming increasingly relevant and correct. All the more so following the pandemic, which has accelerated certain processes towards a more fluid and unstable global economy.

Whilst in the past  this profound innovation concerned only specific fields from within the tertiary sector (IT, marketing, etc.), now these 4 parameters also involve more "traditional" sectors and contexts, which are progressively abandoning the hierarchies of the old world of work.

It is therefore necessary to acquire the necessary tools to deal with new work environments, regardless of the sector from which you come or in which you would like to work, so as not to find yourself displaced and unarmed in the face of daily challenges.

First of all, your perspective must be that of the "agile" manager: you no longer have to think and organize work through a strictly predefined progression, a series of consecutive stages that will lead to the final goals. Instead, you need to create a system and a team that makes adaptability and versatility their strong points.

To do this, the primary goal is no longer to define roles, tasks, and detailed planning, but to have a clear, shared vision of the nature of the company or project. Therefore, you must first define your values and wide-ranging goals, creating a true company philosophy.

In order for values to be defined as goals, the first question to ask yourself is where you are now; define your starting situation as clearly and realistically as possible. Then move on to defining the destination: where you  want to arrive and in what time frame. 

Third, delve into the how: what characteristics will define my project or work environment. Try to answer this question both from an "internal" perspective, regarding organisational and relational aspects, and from an "external" perspective, meaning reputation.

Once you've defined the vision, you need to make sure that everyone involved knows it and makes it their own, so that everyone knows what the company culture is and can tell the story of it.

It is, therefore, a matter of setting up a long-term strategy, of which everyone involved can be aware and use as a beacon and guide in everyday decisions.

The second aspect you'll need to take care of is constant updating: the global market constantly offers new challenges and new tools to help deal with them. Staying stuck in outdated tools and methods will condemn you to always being one step behind the competition.

It is therefore necessary to set up your own work and that of the team so that sufficient space is left for individual training and sharing. That is, the corporate culture must include constant monitoring of the skills gap, using tools that quickly assess the knowledge possessed by individuals and the knowledge needed to do the best job.

It therefore focuses on training all those involved, with the goal of aligning skills and competencies with the new frontiers of today's labor market. This helps increase knowledge and skills. A  good way to put this into practice is by comparing colleagues and different areas. This  ensures that you have the right people in place to meet and exchange ideas.

This brings us to the skills that employees and contractors will need to possess: a company or work environment can only be agile and flexible to the extent that the individual components have these characteristics.

So,  when you're selecting staff, you'll need to consider soft skills first and foremost. Starting with adaptability and operational flexibility, understood not as passive adaptation but, on the contrary, as the ability to deploy hidden resources and to face new challenges with commitment, courage, responsiveness and the ability to find the necessary resources.

If you don't have the ability to select staff and find yourself managing workers chosen by others, your efforts should be directed toward bringing out these skills, fostering creativity and decision-making, and providing the right tools that facilitate versatility and autonomy.

TEST

Test 1 

In defining the Vision you must first establish  Choose an item. and secondly, the "how," understood in the terms of Choose an element.

Correct answers: generic project objectives - internal characteristics and external reputation

Test 2

The model VUCA describes Choose an item , identifying main characteristics like  Choose an element.

Correct answers: current global market conditions - volatility and uncertainty

Test 3

The complexity of the challenges that companies face should lead managers and HR leaders to carefully assess the challenges they face through the right Choose an item. The complexity of the challenges faced by companies should lead managers and HR leaders to carefully assess the challenges, seeking to promote and develop them through Choose an element.

Correct answers: soft skills - training and internal sharing

Language Point

Sentence openers

When we express different ideas we need to make sure that ideas flow so that our readers or listeners do not get confused. We do this through what are called sentence openers.

Read the sentences below:

1. You need to create a system and a team that makes adaptability and versatility their strong points. To do this, the primary goal is no longer to define roles, tasks, and detailed planning, but to have a clear, shared vision of the nature of the company or project.

1. This helps increase your knowledge and skills. A good way to put this into practice is by comparing colleagues and different areas. 

The second sentence in each set explains how we can achieve what is being stated in the first, and we know this because of the sentence openers used in the second sentence.