Embracing a new VUCA world

Embracing a new VUCA world

The United States Army and its leaders were troubled: in 1987, the Cold War imploded in Afghanistan into a theater of disillusionment. Fueled by the opposing USSR’s desire to conquer the Afghan nation and spread communism, Afghanistan was figuratively torn in two and the thirteen-year civil war that ensued claimed more than 1.5 million lives. Despite the amount of deaths, neither the Soviet Army nor the US-backed mujahideen was closer to victory. The situation was so out of control that the US Army had to come up with a new term to describe it: VUCA.

• Volatility: a tendency to change quickly and unpredictably.
• Uncertainty: doubt, with no certainty.
• Complexity: the multiple forces compounding an issue, the confusion inhibiting an organization.
• Ambiguity: the loss of reality; disconnection to cause-and-effect.

The volatility in Afghanistan required military leaders to create a shared vision that extended beyond the immediate chaos into the future of what the country could be. During times of uncertainty, leaders sought new levels of understanding of the Afghan people and their needs in order to properly assess the situation and move forward. This meant better listening, empathy, and accepting critical feedback from those most…