Dealing with the “U” in VUCA in a Down Economy

By Marcia Ruben, PhD, PCC on Thu, Oct 30, 2008

Volatility is the first aspect of a VUCA environment. Uncertainty is the second. Today’s economic environment is volatile. Yesterday, the stock market rose to 800 points or 10% in spite of gloomy news about the economic outlook. Consumer confidence is down, the housing market continues to slide, yet federal money is beginning to flow. The future is indeed uncertain.

More than ever, not everything is knowable to an organization’s leaders. Owen Jacobs, who I referred to in yesterday’s post, argues that leaders may have all of the important elements of a situation but may not be able to connect all of the dots. The information may be coming from the outside environment, or within the organization. Therefore, in order to help their organizations connect the dots, leaders need to design their organizations so that information can more easily turn into knowledge, and that knowledge can be acted upon quickly.

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Marcia Ruben Ph.D, PCC, CMC

Marcia Ruben Ph.D, PCC, CMC

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