Bloomport U

I was thinking about VUCA over the weekend and trying to identify good “behavior” examples of VUCA scenarios. Meaning, we all know what VUCA is, but what personal behaviors can we identify as examples to model when trying to manage VUCA well? To do this, I first thought of scenarios, jobs or roles that deal with one of the individual elements of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity on a regular basis.  Second, with a specific scenario in mind, and I worked backwards to identify what behaviors were used to routinely manage those environments.  Finally, I attempted to draw a parallel from those common behaviors demonstrated to business behaviors that I think can begin to exemplify excellent management of VUCA.

Part I: Volatility as a Certified First Responder: Survey the Scene

Some years ago I enrolled in a four month training program to become a certified first responder (a kind of Jr. Paramedic).  Aside from learning CPR, triage techniques, and the proper use of “gallows humor”,  one of the primary lessons that stuck with me was the first thing every emergency responder should do when they arrive on the scene of an “incident”.   Number one on the checklist: Survey the Scene.  The objective of this first step is identify potential hazards in the environment and to note victim and the relative safety of getting to the victim.  The premise is, if you arrive on an accident scene and rush over to a wounded person, you might not properly prioritization your actions.  For example, if you are called to a car accident on a dark country road and you see two hurt people, one sitting against a tree a few yards away and the second laying on the pavement.  Who do you help first?  If you don’t stop and survey the scene, you might not notice that the person on the pavement is lying near a puddle of gasoline or that the accident is on a blind corner just down the road from a bar that just closed (risk: more impaired drivers on the way).  The point is to stop(!) look around, and spot potential hazards in the environment, then get to work.

Let’s consider another example.  A first responder is called to an apartment building where there are two people who appear to have been victims of a shooting. Question: which do you help first?  Answer: neither!  You first survey the scene and ask most important question; where is the shooter?  Second question; are the police on the way? As the emergency responders work through the emergency, they are constantly vigilant for and anticipating changing situations that could make the scene unstable or dangerous.  Perhaps shocking to note, the first priority of the emergency responder is not to provide care, but to protect themselves and their colleagues.  .  (By the way, my wife thinks these examples are a bit violent, but hey; violent … volatile… see a connection?  )

While I hope the world of business should not be volatile in exactly this manner, we have been subjected to astronomical fuel price moves, unprecedented financial crisis, and socioeconomic shifts measured in years vs. generations.  This being the case, I think we can learn from business volatility by applying the same behaviors as emergency responders.

Volatility as a business professional: Survey the Scene

I have been applying my first responder “survey the scene” technique regularly since 2000 and it has worked well for me.  I watch the moves in leadership, reorganizations and realignments very closely, I try to understand first, what do movements mean to me and second, how is the business planning on using those moves to benefit?  The premise for this suggestion is first, take responsibility for your career and second, how can you optimize your position to work in synchronization with the moves that are happening?  What potential scenarios could you anticipate from the moves and how would you manage with those scenarios?  Serendipity is a funny thing; ever notice how right-place-right-time people tend “get lucky” more often than the rest of us? I bet surveying the scene has something to do with it.

Survey the scene in your industry

When was the last time you read an industry magazine, linked into an external webinar, read a blog of someone influential in your field, or participated in a discussion group with people in your line of work?  Do you know who the thought leaders are, where the discussions are happening, and what hot topics keep bubbling to the surface?  My premise here is that there are conversations happening today about choices, decisions and events that are going to happen, or have an increasing probability of happening tomorrow.  If you are not surveying the scene of your macro-environment and anticipating, you cannot be in a good position to capitalize on those events, you can only react.

To make this actionable, learn how to use RSS feeds and link into magazines, blogs, and conversations that are relevant to you.  Subscribe to an industry magazine, join a user group, attend a conference (yes, even if you have to pay for it yourself), take a class, get a certification.

Let’s face it; volatility is all around us and I think, increasing in frequency.  Like the First Responder, we need to be aware of our surroundings at all times, we need interpret what the moves around us mean and we need to anticipate the potential moves so when the time is right, we can spring into action.  I do not pretend to suggest Surveying the Scene is the only solution for dealing with Volatility, but it’s a start to get us thinking in terms of anticipating, preparing and shaping our future vs. waiting for it to happen to us.  Next post; Uncertainty and the life of the Project Manager