Author: Carol Mase

A number of years ago I was called by a client because “things are falling through the cracks.” Suspicious that the issue was systemic (rather than technical or due to poor performance), a systems analysis was performed.

The world today is so interconnected and interdependent that leaders need to differentiate situations that are Complex from those that are complicated – think Everglades (Complex) versus Rolex watch (complicated) or customer relations (Complex) versus financial spreadsheet (complicated). Situations that are complicated produce problems that can be solved, creating the jigsaw puzzles of business that most leaders are prepared to analyze and handle.

On the other hand Complexity evades solution. There are too many interdependencies and feedback loops to control the system. Push here and the effect is felt on another continent. Constrain the system financially and it responds by innovating, producing unpredictable new products and services. Complexity is now such a large part of business that the 2010 IBM CEO study focused on it and management academics research and publish Complexity Leadership Theory (CLT)[i]. Today I am setting the stage for further exploration of CLT by looking at the dynamic between Complexity and Clarity.

With a few basic principles of physics and network analysis under their belt, the stakeholder team began the process of revealing the Complex system they were embedded in. The Complexity ∞ Clarity dynamic, like the others, is like a mobius strip – Complexity giving way to Clarity that suddenly turns back on itself and ends up in Complexity again. Unlike fixed solutions to problems Clarity exists for a period of time and then fades back into the Complex tangle of the system.

But Clarity re-emerges, sometimes when you least expect it. Our analysis began by mapping the system from the perspective of all stakeholders. This produced a wall of maps. The system seen by the leadership team was simple, had only three moving parts and clearly displayed their removal from the work being done. Internal stakeholder maps (company marketing teams) had up to 20 moving parts and feedback loops. Where the systemic Complexity was revealed, however, was in the vendor maps. These had up to 50 elements, interconnections, interdependencies, and systemic rules, such as:

• When a change is made at point G go back to point C and start again.
• If a hand-off from Vendor X is delayed cancel work to this point and wait.
• If a customer response is negative, stop everything until it is straightened out.

The wall walk by the stakeholder team was sobering and enlightening – the Complexity of the system visible for the first time, creating murmurs of “You do all that,” “Why are these two connected?” and “No wonder things are falling through the cracks!” Using the systems diagrams as a roadmap, the team found Clarity with support from other VUCA Prime elements:

• What is the purpose of this system? Vision
• What are we really trying to do here? Understanding

As Clarity emerged levers, redundancies, unnecessary loops, and bottlenecks were seen and changed. Over time, and many iterations of Complexity ∞ Clarity, the system was redesigned to improve information and product flow.

Lessons for Leaders

• “A system is anything that talks to itself.” Kevin Kelly, in Out of Control. Look for ways that the organization can talk about the Complexity you face. In conversation Clarity emerges.
• Go slow at the beginning so you can go fast at the end. This adage from decision analysis is a mantra for the Complexity ∞ Clarity dynamic. Clarity only emerges when you take time to see into the Complexity, find the levers, and shake out the knots. Stop fire fighting long enough to sense the whole system, test your hypothesis, and adapt to what you are learning.
• What you see is the reality you know. To find Clarity you have to see the parts and the whole, the trees and the forest. As you “expand reality” you increase your ability to act.

 

 

Next Blog Post

Leading the dynamic between Ambiguity and Agility.

Dr. Carol Mase

Carol@CairnConsultants.com

Carol challenges leaders and their organizations to think differently about the world and how they can achieve their fullest potential in it. Her unique background unites business and biology, psychology and physics, bringing them into creative tension and generating tools and applications for all levels of the organization – from the C-Suite to the manufacturing floor. Carol has worked as an entrepreneur and an executive in Fortune 500 companies, always introducing fresh ideas that produce innovation and change, locally and organization-wide. She holds a degree in Psychology/Education, a Masters in Human Ecology/Interpersonal Relations, and a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine.

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[i] Mary Uhl-Bien and Russ Marion (eds), Complexity Leadership, Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, North Carolina, 2008. Stephan Haeckel, Adaptive Enterprises, Harvard Business School Press, Boston MA, 1999. J. Goldstein, JK Hazy, and BB Lichtenstein, Complexity and the Nexus of Leadership, Palgrave Macmillian, NY, NY, 2010. Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science, Barrett-Koehler, San Francisco, CA, 1994.

 

In 1996 I was working in Germany for a large pharmaceutical company. One of my areas of responsibility was the decision analysis process that determined the probability of success for the drugs we were developing. The goal of the exercise was to make a decision based on the certainty of a predicted outcome. Sound familiar? Back then things moved at a somewhat slower pace and we could accomplish our work before VUCA completely changed the conditions we were analyzing. Today, as business becomes less and less predictable, both leaders and employees have to learn how to operate within the dynamic of Uncertainty and Understanding.

Uncertainty ∞ Understanding

Uncertainty makes it hard to see how our actions will impact the challenges we face. A sense of vagueness about what we can and should do heightens any insecurity or fear we feel. Our temptation is to make a quick decision, hope for the best, and prepare for the inquisition that is sure to follow if we fail. Understanding is our chance to deeply explore the situation before taking action, not a reason to avoid taking action.

Uncertainty is an opportunity for inquiry and exploration of that which we are uncertain of. It lets us embrace the unknown in search of innovation and possibility, expanding our options for action. Only when we are Uncertain are we willing to explore our mental models, the ideas of others, and the potential of something truly innovative. Being Uncertain means no one knows for sure, there is no right answer. In other words, my actions and my leadership matter! What I do next is going to shape the future. The dilemma we face is revealed – at the moment we are most afraid to act, acting our way forward is the only answer.

Understanding is acting that does not rashly plunge ahead. Engaging in dialogue allows leaders to positively utilize the dynamic within Uncertainty ∞ Understanding, creating conversations that promote inquiry. Dialogue can address both the Uncertainty in the situation and any Uncertainty that lies unspoken under the surface. Exposing the “elephant in the room” creates broader, even deeper Understanding and organizational resilience. Armed with Understanding, leaders have the opportunity to use Uncertainty to create collaboration, reaching out to those who would otherwise be ignored, and innovation, daring to move beyond the status quo and initiate adaptive change.

Lessons for Leaders

The Uncertainty ∞ Understanding dynamic can generate a deep re-connection to the organization’s values, purpose, culture, and Vision.

• Understanding begins with listening, to what is said and what remains unsaid. Using dialogue leaders can probe the unspoken issues and challenges that Uncertainty raises.
• Uncertainty is a state of high emotion and narrative, not analysis, is particularly suited to conditions like this. Leaders who invite others to “tell their story”, sharing their ideas and experiences in a narrative format, are building trust, stabilizing the emotional rollercoaster of Uncertainty, and tapping into the knowledge of the collective. When all is said then analysis can be done!
• Moving from Uncertainty to Understanding requires compassion, which floods leaders and their colleagues with a sense of security and well-being and moves them into action[i]. Leaders in a compassionate stance are poised to jump into action and do whatever they can, a blend of personal humility and professional will that Jim Collins calls “Level 5 Leadership.”

Inquiry for Leaders

• How much Uncertainty are you comfortable with? What is your reaction when you are outside your comfort zone? How does this affect your ability to lead when Uncertainty strikes?
• What patterns can you find in the Uncertainty you face? Have you seen them before? What actions could you take to Understand the situation better and reduce the risk that comes with this Uncertainty? If you took those actions, how would the current situation change?
• When you face Uncertainty what is your emotional reaction? How does this response impact your perceptions, actions, and ability to Understand? How does it affect others? Are you ready to learn how to respond better?

Next Blog Post

Leading the dynamic between Complexity and Clarity.

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[i] Research of Richard Davidson, http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu/web/personnel/director.html

Dr. Carol Mase

Carol@CairnConsultants.com

Carol challenges leaders and their organizations to think differently about the world and how they can achieve their fullest potential in it. Her unique background unites business and biology, psychology and physics, bringing them into creative tension and generating tools and applications for all levels of the organization – from the C-Suite to the manufacturing floor. Carol has worked as an entrepreneur and an executive in Fortune 500 companies, always introducing fresh ideas that produce innovation and change, locally and organization-wide. She holds a degree in Psychology/Education, a Masters in Human Ecology/Interpersonal Relations, and a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine.

Darcy,[i] a VP in a large pharmaceutical company, began using VUCA and VUCA Prime when she faced an unexpected regulatory issue. Now she uses it daily to make sense of her constantly shifting world. Our conversations are peppered with: “Let’s VUCA this.”, “He is reacting personally, but it is just VUCA.”, and “I need to get to VUCA Prime fast on this one.” Darcy views her knowledge and comfort with VUCA ∞ VUCA Prime as a leadership strength that helps her navigate a company that is constantly in motion, reorganization and downsizing, and an industry that is consolidating rapidly. In the Volatile world of global connectivity, where interdependencies lurk in the shadows, Vision is much more than a rallying cry.

When Volatility hits, leaders steeped in tradition head for the weeds and try to problem-solve their way out. But in today’s world, it’s easy to get lost there. The last five to six business books I have picked up all start with comments on the death of Scientific Management and the “brave new world” of 21^st century leadership. We long for the days when strategy lasted for years and budgets were stable from one cycle to the next. While we can’t throw out prediction, there is less and less that is truly predictable.

Vision in response to Volatility is more than an exercise. It is how you get out of the weeds, come up for air, and steer toward the horizon. Incorporating constant exploration and imagination, Vision becomes a counterbalance to Volatility. On the other hand, Vision that is vague or without just enough structure is Volatility in dangerous disguise.

The group Darcy leads is globally dispersed and multifunctional. She is accountable for integrating R&D, clinical development, and regional marketing. Volatility in her world is often generated by the system itself. Consider the following:

• The results of multiple interdependent global clinical trials create multifaceted dilemmas (a both/and/and/and… situation)
• In-market drugs have regional differences with respect to indication, marketing, regulatory requirements, and opinion leader input – what is tactically appropriate in one region may be counterproductive in another
• Team members are functionally co-located and constantly struggle to overcome the Volatility of an internal Us/Them mindset relative to their distant colleagues

When Volatility hits, Darcy’s first action is to step back and explore how this event, or set of events, directionally impacts the course she has set. Vision for her is more like sailing toward a point on the horizon that forever recedes, pulling her forward. When Vision is understood by the whole, then interdependent movement of the parts can be coordinated. Darcy finds that Vision provides “just enough” structure and process for her organization to balance prediction and exploration. Using Vision as a rudder, she constantly navigates between rigidity-prediction (too much stability) and turbulence-exploration (too much Volatility). Recently she faced a situation in which she introduced Volatility to break up a rigid mindset that was holding a team back. As the team explored options and opportunities, she learned her way forward, using Volatility and Vision alternately to maintain creative tension and lead the team toward a self-generated, productive outcome.

Inquiry for Leaders

• How much Volatility are you comfortable with? What is your reaction when you are outside your comfort zone? How does this affect your ability to lead when Volatility strikes?
• How much structure and process does your current Vision provide? Too much? Too little? How easy is it for you to revise your Vision, to adapt it to Volatility when it arises without creating a moving target?
• Where in your organization do you need more Volatility? Vision? How can you introduce and manage these? Where is Volatility happening naturally? Have you harnessed that energy to drive your Vision forward?

Next Blog Post

Leading the dynamic between Uncertainty and Understanding.

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[i] For confidentiality purposes all examples have been modified.

Cairn Consultants integrates business and biology to offer clients novel tools and methods for adaptive change, leadership, and organizational effectiveness. Carol is also a founding member of Knowesys, an international leadership and change consultancy.

Dr. Carol Mase

President | Cairn Consultants
Carol@CairnLLC.com | 215.262.6666

www.CairnConsultants.com | www.Knowesys.com

Skype: carol.mase

Recap from VUCA – A Leader’s Dilemma

A multinational organization faces a major structural reorganization that contains significant functional changes and leadership challenges. Facing the Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) are four leaders responsible for implementing a significant part of the organizational change without losing strategic momentum.

Finding VUCA Prime

Like most organizations, the act of bringing in a high profile external consulting firm eight months ago signaled to every executive in the business unit that significant change was possible. Without question, they each had their own story of what that would or should entail. Seated around the table were four corporate leaders who knew the nature and extent of the impending reorganization before it was announced. Their task was to make it happen without losing focus, momentum, and direction – to change horses at a full gallop over rough terrain without falling off.

The conversation was at first intense, but not adversarial. Dave, my client, led his colleagues in a lively dialogue that confirmed the key volatilities, uncertainties, complexities, and ambiguities – VUCA – that we had previously discussed. Increasing destabilization in any one of the four VUCA elements could have a negative snowball effect, yet stability was neither possible nor helpful.

In VUCA situations, the destabilizing events impact different parts of the system differently. Actions that amplify (increase) the positive and dampen (decrease) the negative help leaders harness the instability and act their way forward, learning as they go. Identifying and applying these two types of interventions is a major challenge and opportunity for leaders in a VUCA world. Enter VUCA Prime – Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility. VUCA Prime is the contribution of Bob Johansen,[i] emerging from his work with corporate, military, non-profit, and government leaders as they navigated their VUCA challenges. They suggest where and what to amplify and dampen within a VUCA situation.

The forces of VUCA and VUCA Prime exist in dynamic equilibrium, and leaders can balance the energy of either side with its complement. The dynamic interplay of VUCA and VUCA Prime generates the energy that can drive organizations to adapt, change, and evolve with the conditions of their environment (the sum of the political, economic, social, technological, and government/regulatory background). As the five of us pondered what to do next from a leadership development perspective, we began to see places within the current and new organization that needed less Volatility and others that needed more Volatility. In both cases Vision was a complementing force that we could work with. With the group’s input, Dave and I designed a leadership development plan for the executive team as part of the restructuring kick-off and the 2011 goal-setting and planning process. The exercises we used set the conditions for the executive team to think and act in new ways.

Lessons for Leaders

Useful methods for weaving together the dynamic forces of VUCA and VUCA Prime (the weaving is represented by the infinity symbol) include:

Volatility ∞ Vision: Future Back

• An exercise that views today from the perspective of the desired future and creates milestones for getting there

Uncertainty ∞ Understanding: Adaptive Change Model[ii]

• This model of change weaves together the transactional/doing aspects of change and the transformational/relational aspects of change

Complexity ∞ Clarity: Sense making

• A method of tuning in to weak signals in the environment, searching for what might be possible in order to act with informed sensibility

Ambiguity ∞ Agility: Safe Fail and Ritual Dissent

• An exercise that combines rapid prototyping of ideas and action with the practice of listening to the creative criticism it generates

Next Blog Post

Leading the dynamic between Volatility and Vision.

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[i] Bob Johansen, Getting There Early, 2007, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco.

[ii] http://noetic.org/library/publication-articles/adaptive-organization/

Dr. Carol Mase integrates business and biology to offer clients novel tools and methods for adaptive change, leadership, and organizational effectiveness.

President | Cairn Consultants
Carol@CairnLLC.com | 215.262.6666

www.CairnConsultants.com | www.Knowesys.com

Skype: carol.mase

Last spring I walked into a client’s office to deliver a leadership development program design and was greeted with, “We just got the McKinsey/BCG/Bain (take your pick) consulting report and we are completely reorganizing the business unit.”[i] Sound familiar? Look anywhere – business, the marketplace, organizations, or personal lives – the amount of turbulence today is stunning. The destabilizing events that my clients, and my business, experience daily create an environment that is hard to navigate with any predictability. Yet predictability is a condition that most of us crave.

Although unforeseen, Dave (my client) and I were able to navigate the turbulence created by this turn of events, including our visceral reactions to it, and reach a place of opportunity for both our businesses. We achieved this using a framework and practices that helped us recognize and navigate the turbulence that the US Army War College calls VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous.[ii] Over the next few weeks, I will develop this example and others to explore how to lead in a world that increasingly exists in the VUCA state.

The VUCA framework was developed at the US Army War College in response to changes in the security environment over the last twenty years. The purpose of the Army post-graduate institution is the education of its best and brightest, focusing on leadership and strategy, and teaching the skills required to act effectively in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world. Its usefulness led to a new nickname for the College, VUCA-U.

A key leadership insight for working in VUCA situations is recognizing the dilemmas embedded within them. Unlike problems to be solved, dilemmas are those unsolvable, unanticipated, messy – yet potentially positive – issues and challenges that every leader faces. Dilemmas must be continuously managed, and they show up whenever VUCA does. Managing dilemmas requires leaders to think and act in new ways in order to make sense of the both/and nature inherent in any dilemma. In today’s VUCA world, recognizing dilemmas can save leaders from the “analysis paralysis” of problem solving, provided they have the capacity to stand in the adaptive tension dilemmas create.

Back in the conference room, Dave and I spent the first two hours of our meeting riding the rapids of VUCA and the dilemmas of disruptive change. As we talked, I took mental notes on the VUCA elements of our situation.

• Volatility – the new structure was a stark contrast to the current one and required different accountability, work groups, reporting structures, and networks of relationships – it begged the question: How can this be implemented without creating even more VUCA throughout the organization?
• Uncertainty – who might leave and who would stay, what roles and titles would be created and who would fill them, what additional change would this create and who would design and lead that effort?
• Complexity – the company was just concluding an acquisition, the markets were expecting solid growth performance over the next five years, people were anticipating some change but not this change, and key strategic initiatives just being kicked-off were themselves complex and interdependent
• Ambiguous – it wasn’t clear whether this new structure would be permanent or if the company would need to return to the current structure within the next 3-5 years

By the time we were joined by our three corporate sponsors, I was thinking about how we could shift out of VUCA and into VUCA Prime – Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility – a compass that helps leaders navigate the turbulence. That’s what we’ll look at next week.

Lessons for Leaders

• Successful tactical leaders can easily get trapped by their predictive mindset when they encounter a VUCA situation
• Many leadership issues are not problems to be solved but rather dilemmas that must be continuously managed
• VUCA is a neutral force in the world, it is the leader’s challenge to transform it and find the opportunity within

Next Blog Post

The antidote to VUCA – Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility – VUCA Prime.

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[i] For confidentiality purposes this and all examples have been modified.

[ii] http://future.iftf.org/2007/08/get-there-ear-1.html

Dr. Carol Mase integrates business and biology to offer clients novel tools and methods for adaptive change, leadership, and organizational effectiveness.

President | Cairn Consultants
Carol@CairnLLC.com | 215.262.6666

www.CairnConsultants.com | www.Knowesys.com

Skype: carol.mase