Dear ,
How are you? Can you believe it is February already? Time flies, doesn't it? This month, I offer some thoughts about our project environment and offer some things to help.
Have you come across the term VUCA?
VUCA is an acronym used by the US military to describe extreme conditions, such as in those in Afghanistan. It stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. I've seen this term appear more and more in the business world recently and thought that you would recognise your own business environment becoming more VUCA too.
So how can we making our projects work in this difficult environment? This month, I share some thoughts on VUCA overall and we'll be digging deeper into each one over in the future.
Volatile means that things change quickly. Plans need to be flexible to respond to these changing conditions. What's needed here is a clear, overarching vision of the purpose of each project, giving the team the space to respond at a detailed level as required. It may even be that the project becomes extinct and is no longer needed!
A question for you: How do you handle volatility in your environment?
Something to help: A fellow subscriber of this briefing, Tony Riches, has a new book out on Kindle. It is called 'Agile Project Management for Busy Managers'. It shows how you can bring Agile and Lean techniques into all sorts of projects in volatile environments, using examples drawn from Tony's experiences on major public change programmes in Wales. He very kindly asked me to write the foreword - thank you Tony! You can preview and buy it for just 77p/$1.21 from here.
Uncertain means that things are risky. Of course, risk involves both threats and opportunities, so it's not all bad news. Risk management can help - when it isn't just a logical process, but actually facilitates people to come to a better understanding upfront and take action where needed.
A question for you: How do you handle uncertainly in your environment? Does your risk management facilitate people to get involved or is it a purely a process?
Something to help: My book, co-authored with Ruth Murray-Webster, gives an overview on how to facilitate risk management so that people are engaged to identify, own and manage risks. You can find it here.
Next month, we're running a two day workshop on 21-22 March to build on these ideas and allow people the chance to put their skills into practice in a safe environment. More info here.
Complex means that there are a huge number of things to take into account when making decisions. The environment could even appear to be chaotic. I see this all the time, with groups of people from around the world needing to grapple with problems across cultures, locations and perspectives, making sense of it all in a collaborative way. A key skill is being able to facilitate diverse viewpoints to share the full picture and then come to consensus.
A question for you: How do you cope with complexity in your organisation and the decisions you are faced with?
Something to help: One of the books that my company gave me for Christmas was Dan Roam's 'Blah Blah Blah'. It talks about how we have a society where we've honed our skills with words but neglected pictures. As a result, we tend not to be able to 'see the wood for the trees'. His new book talks about how we need to combine both words and appropriate pictures to get to a vivid understanding in this new VUCA world. I've found it a really interesting read, and it made me realise that my initial training as an engineer might be part of why I use visuals so much. Reminder to self - add more pictures to this briefing!
Ambiguous means that it is unclear what the situation is and what the solution should be. What helps here is agility, the ability to experiment and adapt, which means that your team will gain clarity as you proceed down your project. I like Eddie Obeng's concept of 'Walking in the Fog' for projects which are very ambiguous.
A question for you: How ambiguous are your projects? What do you do to bring clarity to your project with your team?
Something to help: Facilitation skills unpin almost everything I do with clients, and these will help you to face and deal with ambiguity, complexity, uncertainty and even volatility.
Regards,
Penny
Return to Archive
