Life in the world of VUCA
The concept of VUCA was first introduced by the US Army War Colleges in the early 1990s to describe the transition from the collapse of the USSR and end of the Cold War. VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity and has probably never been more accurate and relevant than it is right now.
As I am writing this, the lives of millions of Ukrainian people are being crushed with an increasing brutality few had imagined and leaving the global community in a state of high alert and great concern.
With the war in Ukraine being the latest and gravest example, I can’t help thinking about how the most recent years have led us from one crisis to the next and with barely any time for us to process and recover. At varying degrees, I think everyone is somehow feeling the consequences of living in turbulent times. Personally, I experience it as an underlying restlessness in the body and a constant and undefined mental feeling of being “on guard.”
But what if VUCA is our “new normal”?
The social and psychological consequences of the VUCA world are many, and social scientists are still debating how this will transform our societies in the years to come. Meanwhile one thing I find concerning is how each crisis seems to leave people and nations increasingly divided and disconnected from one another.
From a psychological point of view the sense of connection is closely tied with a sense of belonging that is of great importance for our well-being and ability to thrive. Feeling connected adds meaning to our existence, and it provides us with the kind of safety that allows us to trust and explore the unknown.
When feeling disconnected, we tend to look on the outside for stability, but “our connection with other people is only as solid and deep as our connection to ourselves” (Brené Brown). Personal balance and the ability to engage come from within why maintaining your connections on the outside requires attention to yourself on the inside.
In times like these, it can seem counterintuitive, and even wrong, to concentrate on yourself and your own well-being. With so much going on in the world, how can it be OK to focus on me? Living in a noisy world is distracting, and with global information streams constantly urging your sense of doing, being can become a surprisingly difficult challenge!
Surrendering to the unpredictable and the power of letting go
Reconnecting with oneself can take shape in many ways and is different from person to person. For me coming to terms with life in the VUCA world typically starts with accepting the fact that along with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity comes reduced stability, predictability, order, and control. Once I am able to align my expectations to this, I usually find it easier to identify what kind of action I must take, or the changes I perhaps need to make to make timings work for me.
The ability to surrender the dynamics of VUCA isn’t one that comes to me with ease. With a natural urge to control, I don’t think I will ever thrive on a high degree of uncertainty and unpredictability. But over the years I have come to understand how letting go is a big part of my ability to move into flow and therefore must be part of my practice.
Life in the VUCA world is demanding and sometimes it requires a kind of courage (we don’t always have) and trust in the future (that we don’t always feel). I therefore want to leave you with a quote by American author, poet, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou:
“Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Invite one to stay.”
On days where fear and trepidation are creeping up on me and start manifesting themselves in my thoughts and actions, I try to focus on the fundamental choice we all have no matter what circumstance we are in: The one of remaining hopeful or being driven by fear. Which of the two do you choose, I wonder?
Love,
Sille