WELCOME TO THE VUCA* CENTURY

9 Steps to Guide You and Your Organisation Through the VUCA Century

*Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous

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“It is now banal in the extreme to say that we are living in a rapidly changing world, and it can be misleading, too. The challenge is to understand how the

world is changing, not how fast it is changing”.1

1http://www.the-american-interest.com/2014/08/21/whats-going-on/

Welcome to the VUCA Century

Why Does This Make Us Feel Uncomfortable?

The SCSC to VUCA Transition

The 3 Biggest VUCA Challenges

What’s the Solution to the VUCA Century?

First, Locate Your Position on the Comfort Spectrum

The 4 Stages of Adapting to VUCA

Second, Think Like an Explorer

The Explorer’s Mindset Model

Third, Use the Explorer’s Framework

The Comfort Paradox

Summary

About the Author

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Contents

The Explorer’s Framework

Adam Garfinkle, Editor, The American Interest, 2014.

How are you and your business going in this century so far? We’re 15 years in and we’ve got another 85 to go. The combined forces of globalisation and technological innovation have changed the business landscape so much since the new millennium rolled into town – who knows what it will look like in 15 years time. Let alone another 85 years. Are you feeling comfortable, confident and prepared? Or are you feeling anxious, overwhelmed and perhaps just a bit uncomfortable? If that’s the case, it’s OK, you are not alone…

This is called the Comfort Paradox. Why? It’s in our DNA to improve our lot in life, to increase our level of comfort. This theory was first introduced in 1943 in Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. When you stop and think about it, humanity’s relentless drive towards technical innovation and sophistication is all about enabling greater ease with which to secure each of our five needs (physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualisation). The irony of the Comfort Paradox is that in our efforts to make ourselves more comfortable, we are actually making ourselves less comfortable.

Every day we see examples of improvements in technology that are designed to improve our standard of living, but are actually undermining our desire for comfort and our five needs. The sense of urgency to remain abreast of the latest smartphone model, the epidemic of Facebook childhood bullying, the latest horrific IS video with cinematic-quality production spread instantly via social media, or evidence of global warming derived from our appetite for energy and all the comforts it brings – all of this comes from technology that wasn’t available a mere 15 years ago.

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WELCOME TO THE VUCA CENTURY

VUCA originated in the United States Military Academy at West Point. It was devised

as a succinct way of describing the ‘new’ landscape that the US military found itself in

after the cessation of the Cold War. The global landscape had seemingly changed overnight

from bilateral (i.e. the West vs the Soviet Union) to multilateral (i.e. the West vs many smaller, unknown opponents). This altered

landscape would, they predicted, bring with it a lack of stability, certainty and simplicity, and

an increase in ambiguity. And for the most part, they were spot on. But these days it’s not

just the military that have to understand the concept of VUCA. It is now everyone’s

imperative to understand VUCA, because it affects everyone.

WHAT IS VUCA?

Why Does This Make Us Feel Uncomfortable?

THE COMFORT PARADOX

com

fort

time/globalisation/technological change

Put simply, humans like being comfortable. But what is comfort? For most of us, comfort is all about stability, certainty, simplicity and clarity. What do politicians often talk about when seeking election to government? Stability. Why do we like knowing the daily weather forecast? Certainty. Why do reports start with abstracts or executive summaries? Simplicity. What are you seeking when using a map? Clarity.

For a while there (at least in the developed world), we got pretty close to comfort, at least, we convinced ourselves we did. In the 1990s, the Cold War ended, the global economy was thriving and the internet promised so much. We were starting to get comfortable. But since then, we’ve climbed up and over the summit of comfort and we’re about to start our descent down the other side: it looks pretty steep, the route is not clear and there is fog rolling in.

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When things were good - life was pretty comfortable

The summit of comfort - which way from here, up or down?

We've lost control - we are overwhelmed - Lynda Gratton (see page 6) refers to this as our

Default Future

We're in control - we are OK with the challenges that VUCA brings - Lynda Gratton calls this

our Crafted Future

The irony of the Comfort Paradox is that in our efforts to make ourselves more comfortable, we are actually making ourselves less comfortable.

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THE SCSC TO VUCA TRANSITION

So, we’re moving from a world of stability, certainty, simplicity and clarity to one of volatility,

uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. The SCSC to VUCA transition is underway – and with it comes the move from comfort to discomfort.

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STABILITY

CERTAINTY

SIMPLICITY

CLARITY

VOLATILITY

UNCERTAINTY

COMPLEXITY

AMBIGUITY

NEWOLD

COMFORT DISCOMFORT

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The 3 Biggest VUCA Challenges

No One Likes VUCA

No one likes change – period. And that means we disengage from the change. As we move from SCSC to VUCA, we move from a place of comfort to one of discomfort. What happens when a government becomes unstable? We vote them out of office or we ditch our leader (well, that’s what we do here in Australia). What happens when the weather forecasters get it wrong? We complain – a lot. What happens when we don’t read the summary? We get confused. What happens when we can’t read the map? We get lost. Do any of these situations sound very comfortable, like they are situations we would like to find ourselves in? Of course not. But just because we don’t like something doesn’t mean that we can’t deal with it. You just need to know how.

People Under-Perform in VUCA

So we don’t like being uncomfortable, and we also don’t perform that well when we’re in a state of discomfort. Think about what your mindset would be if you suddenly found yourself, right now, in an environment that makes you feel uncomfortable, one where you feel lost and confused. You probably wouldn’t be experiencing a very positive mindset, nor feeling like you’re ready to perform to your best ability. You’re likely feeling stressed and anxious, like you don’t have any control. Humans like to feel like they are always in control. Even when we are not, the illusion of control makes us feel better – and comfortable.

In her book The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here, London Business School Professor Lynda Gratton presents two variants of the future of work. In the first, which she calls the Default Future, a future of isolation, fragmentation, exclusion and narcissism is presented, where no one works together, people are in a state of chronic overwhelm and world events and technological change outpace the required actions and remedies. In the second, which she refers to as the Crafted Future, she

describes a future of collaboration, choice and wisdom, where people work together and where work can truly be of value and appreciated. Essentially, this default scenario is a future where people have not been able to adapt nor cope, one in which they cannot excel. In other words, they haven’t been able to adapt to the VUCA Century. Ask yourself: Which future do you want to be part of?

VUCA Leads to Low Employee Engagement

If you need further evidence of the deleterious impact of the VUCA Century upon workers, workplaces, productivity and safety, then look no further than the recent Gallup organisation’s surveys of global workforce engagement. Gallup defines an engaged worker as one who is psychologically committed to their job and is likely to be making a positive contribution to their organisation. In what Forbes magazine described as the ‘Mother of All Employee Engagement Surveys’, Gallup’s results suggest only 30% of American employees are engaged in their jobs, while 50% of employees are disengaged in their work and another 20% of workers are actively disengaged in their jobs, at an estimated annual cost to the US economy of US$500 billion1. The Australian results are slightly worse – 25%, 60% and 15% respectively – with a predicted cost of AU$50 billion annually, and considerably worse in Western Europe and South East Asia – 14%, 66% and 20%, and 12%, 73% and 14% respectively. Globally, actively disengaged employees outnumber engaged employees by a ratio of nearly two to one. And if you question whether this has any effect on your bottom line, it does, with Gallup finding that organisations with an average of 9.3 engaged employees for every actively disengaged employee in 2010–2011 experienced 147% higher EPS than compared with their competition.

VUCA is undoubtedly one of the causes of this low level of engagement. How do people feel when they are in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment? They feel overwhelmed, under threat and uncomfortable.

And what happens when people feel uncomfortable in this type of environment? They either try and leave it or alter it (i.e. gain control of it), and if they cannot do either of these, they bunker down to protect themselves from it. As you can imagine, these are not ideal conditions in which people work.

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1 http://www.gallup.com/poll/165269/worldwide-employees-engaged-work.aspx http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/09/23/surprising-disturbing-facts-from-the-mother-of-all-employee-engagement-surveys/

What’s the Solution to the VUCA Century?

THE 4 STAGES OF ADAPTING TO VUCATHERE ARE FOUR STAGES TO MOVE THROUGH AS WE GET

COMFORTABLE GETTING UNCOMFORTABLE:

The comfort zone, where things are stable - this is our default setting and it’s business as usual

Discomfort about the stability - we realise it’s only a matter of time before VUCA strikes

Outside of our comfort zone - the initial discomfort of VUCA

Adapting to VUCA - we’re getting comfortable with this (but not too comfortable)

COMFORTABLE

SCSC VUCA

UNCOMFORTABLE

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The Comfort Paradox suggests that our desire for increased comfort via technological innovation is making us more uncomfortable. So that means we have to overcome our natural inclination to avoid VUCA. We need to be OK with the idea of VUCA and how it will impact the world in which we live and work. As with many things in the VUCA Century, the idea of getting comfortable getting uncomfortable may seem paradoxical – but that’s OK. After all, getting comfortable getting uncomfortable means being OK with paradox and contradiction.

We are comfortable and very much in our comfort zone when our environment is stable, certain, simple and clear. But paradoxically this is when we should feel most uncomfortable. In the VUCA Century, whenever we start to feel comfortable, like we are on top of things, it’s actually a warning sign that things may be about to change. Our biggest enemy here is complacency. We can fool ourselves into thinking we have mastered our environment and that the going from here on in will be easy. But in the VUCA Century, it won’t! Once we realise this, we enter the second stage, that of being uncomfortable about the apparent stability of our environment. The third stage is when the VUCA tide moves in, and as the intensity of the change hits us, our initial response is to feel discomfort. The fourth stage is when you’ve adapted to the increased VUCA and you start feeling comfortable in it. The cycle is complete!

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It’s time to get comfortable with getting uncomfortable!

First, Locate Your Position on the Comfort Spectrum

So, how do we move from a place of comfort in the stable, certain, simple and clear world to one of comfort in the VUCA Century? First, we need to know where we are positioned on the Comfort Spectrum.

“I was BORN to do this job”

“I LOVE this job”

“It’s a good job”

“It pays the bills”

“I HATE this place”

“Yes, and…”

“Yes”

“Ok”

“No”

“No way”

CELEBRATE THESE

MAXIMISE THESE

NORMALISE THESE

MINIMISE THESE

GET RID OF THESE

INDIVIDUAL TEAM

REQUIRED ACTION

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CELEBRATE THESE

MAXIMISE THESE

NORMALISE THESE

MINIMISE THESE

GET RID OF THESE

DESTINY

INSPIRED

SOUNDS LIKE

ENGAGED

DISENGAGED

DESTRUCTIVE

COMFORTABLE

ACCEPTING

COMPLACENT

UNCOMFORTABLE

CURIOUS

SOUNDS LIKEREQUIRED ACTION

The Comfort Spectrum is an easy-to-use tool for identifying you and your team’s willingness to get comfortable operating in a VUCA landscape – a landscape that is inherently and naturally uncomfortable for us. The higher up the

spectrum you are, the better positioned you are for the VUCA Century. Let’s look at the spectrum in more detail.

THE COMFORT SPECTRUM

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Disengaged and Destructive

At the lower end of the spectrum we find people who are not psychologically invested in the work they are doing. According to Gallup, an alarming 70% of workers currently occupy these two positions on the spectrum. A typically disengaged worker is sleepwalking through their daily work, and despite being physically present, is mentally absent and has little, if any, motivation and energy. If asked about their job, this person is likely to respond that “it pays the bills” and nothing more. A team of disengaged people is likely to be very complacent towards change. In the face of VUCA, the team will stick its collective head in the sand and will ignore the realities ahead. If asked whether the group is prepared to get uncomfortable in confronting VUCA, the collective response would likely be “No”.

A destructive person (identified by Gallup as being ‘actively disengaged’) not only has no desire or passion for the work they do, they actively display their disengagement. The self-perception of this person is that it is not their fault they are in the job that they are in, and they seek to undermine not only the work of their fellow team members but of the organisation as a whole. This person is likely to tell anybody who will listen that “I HATE this job”.

A team of destructive workers is likely to be highly reactive to and feel threatened by VUCA. Not only will the team deny the reality, they seek to fight it. When asked if they are prepared to get uncomfortable in confronting VUCA, the collective response of the group would be a definitive “No Way!”

The goal of any organisation should be to rid themselves of these workers (especially the destructive). If this is not possible, their impact should be minimised wherever possible. These workers are the cancer that will slowly undermine and destroy the organisation’s culture from within. Likewise, teams at this end of the spectrum are not only inefficient, they are a burden on the organisation, and they need to be dismantled.

Engaged

In the middle of the spectrum we find engaged workers who are OK with the work that they do. They feel something of a connection to the organisation’s vision and goals, and are prepared to put in extra effort if needed. If asked about their work, this person is likely to say “it’s a good job”. A team of engaged workers is likely to be collegiate and accepting of the VUCA landscape. They know it will throw multiple challenges at them, but they are OK with that. When asked if they are prepared to get uncomfortable in confronting VUCA, the collective response of the group would be “OK”.

The goal of any organisation should be to normalise these people. Not only should they be the bedrock upon which the organisation is built, they are the petri dish from which inspired and destined workers can grow. They are solid, reliable workers who care about their work and the future of the organisation. Likewise, the teams in which they work should exhibit these characteristics. Any potential employees who don’t show this basic level of commitment and passion shouldn’t make it through the door of the interview room.

Inspired and Destined

At the upper end of the spectrum we find the real gems: people who truly believe in and are committed to the work they do. An inspired worker is passionate, energised and comfortable with the notion of being uncomfortable – they accept that it goes with the terrain. When asked about their work, this person is likely to say, “I LOVE my job”. A team of inspired workers is likely to very comfortable with the challenges of the VUCA Century. “Yes” they say, “bring it on!”

A destined worker truly feels as if they were born to do the work they’re doing. They are completely committed; the work is their “calling”. They often find the work challenging, but they love to be challenged. In fact, they seek it out whenever they can. A destined worker will go out of their way to tell others “I was BORN for this job”. A team of destined workers is going to achieve big things, or if they don’t, they will die trying. They will approach the VUCA Century with an appetite for the challenge and a hunger and curiosity for what lies ahead. Not only will they say “Yes” to the challenge, they will say “Yes, and…?” They will want to know what else is out there for them to tackle.

Not surprisingly, the goal of any organisation should be to maximise and celebrate these people. These people form special teams that become a force to be reckoned with. Their manta becomes: ‘Who Dares, Wins’. They are the cream of the crop, the luminaries that all other employees within the organisation should aspire to be.

Second, Think Like an Explorer

So how do we create inspired teams destined for success and ready to face the difficulties of the VUCA Century head on? The solution is to think like an explorer.

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Since the beginning of time, explorers have had to be comfortable with discomfort. The early feats of Fanny Bullock Workman in the Himalayas and the Karakorum, and George Mallory, George Finch and Andrew Irvine on Mount Everest in the 1920s, 30 years before Sir Edmund Hillary’s and Tenzing Norgay’s success, naturally stand out as examples of men and women who were destined to accept the inevitable discomfort they would experience. Likewise the pioneers of space travel, from Yuri Gagarin to the Apollo 11 crew and beyond. The considerable discomfort experienced by these people is well documented. And you can’t go past polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton who placed the below quote in his newspaper advert when recruiting for his TransAntartic Expedition in 1914:

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.

That’s a sure-fire way of ensuring you only get job candidates who feel destined to do their work. (Yes the expedition was a disaster, but all men survived it. I’d call that a success!)

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.

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3 KEY ATTRIBUTES FOR AN EXPLORER’S MINDSET

There are 3 key attributes of an explorer’s mindset that every destined and inspired team member must have to succeed:

1 drive/motivation

openness/curiosity

flexibility/adaptability

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DRIVE / MOTIVATION

OPENNESS / CURIOSITY

FLEXIBILITY / ADAPTABILITY

rigid & cumbersome single-minded, tunnel vision

slow & distracted

THE EXPLORER’S MINDSET MODELDRIVE/MOTIVATION

The explorer understands their underlying drivers and motivation. Without drive and motivation, they’ll be slow and easily distracted and will lack resilience.

The explorer has a natural curiosity and open approach to new ideas and landscapes. Without curiosity and openness, they’ll be single minded and suffer from tunnel vision.

CURIOSITY/OPENNESS

FLEXIBILITY/ADAPTABILITY

The explorer is OK with deviating from tradition and norms. Without flexibility and adaptability, they’ll be rigid and cumbersome.

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Third, Use the Explorer’s Framework

Once we have adopted the explorer’s mindset, we can use the Explorer’s Framework to build inspired and destined workers and teams to tackle the challenges of the VUCA Century.

THE EXPLORER’S FRAMEWORK

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READY SET GO

THINK LONG-TERMWhat’s next?

distracted deflated dangerous

closedboredreactive

weak little picture

focused inspired safe

openin flowinterdependent

strong big pictureBUILD RESILIENCE

& GRITHow do we keep

going?

THINK LONG-TERMWhat’s next?

BUILD THE TEAM

Who’s onboard?GET ENGAGED

What’s in it for us?

LEARN FROM THE MISTAKESWhat could we

do better?

IDENTIFY THE APPROACH

How do we get there?

CREATE THE VISIONWhat does it

look like?

UNDERSTAND RISK ATTITUDES

What are the dangers?

MAKE SENSEWhat’s out there?

asleep

awake

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Get Ready

Identify the Approach

There are a series of questions you need to ask yourself as you work your way through the framework. The first question is: “How do we get to where we need to be?” Note that this is not the visioning process, that comes later. Rather, it’s important to identify the way you’re going to do the work that you want to do. For example, once I’ve decided that I’m going to climb a particular mountain, I then decide how I’ll do it. Will I climb in a small team with just a few friends? Will I organise a large commercial group to the mountain and act as the expedition leader? Or perhaps I’ll climb the mountain with just my climbing partner. The key benefit of identifying the approach at the outset is that your team will be focused from the start. A team that doesn’t identify their approach is always going to be distracted.

Build the Team The next question we ask is: “Who’s onboard?” A lot of

teams are created as a result of circumstance, rather than by design, and retro-fitting teams is much harder than building them from the ground up. Based on many years of trial and error I’m a huge believer in the concept of strengths-based teams. These are teams of people whose strengths compliment one another, and where limited additional skill development is required. It’s all about the sum being greater then the parts. A mantra to remember here is “although individuals need not be well-rounded, teams should be”.

When I’m pulling together a team for an expedition, this process is really important. Not only will you be spending one to two months living in a tent with your teammates, your lives will depend on one another. I’ve been on too many month-long expeditions with teams that didn’t really gel and subsequently weren’t enjoyable nor safe to get this wrong again. The key benefit of a considered approach to building the team is that you can use the strengths-based approach, with the result being strong, interdependent members. A team that has not been ‘designed’ is much more likely to be reactive in the VUCA landscape.

Sensemake We then ask: “What’s out there?” There are so many

unknowns out there. This one might seem pretty obvious but I reckon it’s one of the most overlooked actions in organisations today. It’s common to see teams that are so overwhelmed by their daily workload that they seem to have either lost the ability to stop and observe how their landscape is changing, or they have lost the ability to articulate the changes to each another. As one of the key antidotes to VUCA, sensemaking is the process where we develop plausible hypotheses of the unknown, test the hypotheses and then keep them if they are correct or discard them if they are not. The sensemaking process is absolutely critical when I’m in the mountains (although I start the process long before I leave home) and once I start moving it’s always ongoing. I keep doing it until I’m safely off the mountain. Teams who integrate sensemaking into their daily process are always awake to the changing landscape; teams who do not are effectively asleep at the wheel.

Get Set

Create the Vision

When we talk about the vision, we essentially mean the future, or the end goal. We ask: “What does it look like?” Again, this one might seem pretty obvious, but organisations and teams quite often do not have a vision, or if they do have one it is so uninspiring that no one (not even the leadership team) can remember and articulate it. It is often relegated to the bin of unnecessarily ‘soft’ and ‘feel-good’ management tools that make no difference, though nothing could be further from the truth. A clear, well-articulated vision that connects with both the rational and emotional centres of the brain can be an incredibly powerful rallying point in the VUCA Century.

My vision for any mountaineering expedition is always the same: to give it my best shot, but more importantly make it home safely. The image that always accompanies this vision is my arrival at my hometown airport, the gates opening to reveal my beautiful wife and daughter – that’s when I know that I’ve had a successful expedition. A team with a clear vision is inspired and destined to achieve, a team without one will be deflated and lost.

Get Engaged

Next question: “What’s in it for each of us?” Gallup’s statistics show incredibly low levels of employee engagement, so how can we turn things around? This is a big question baffling big business and the human resources sector across the globe. But it shouldn’t be. If you get the previous visioning step right, the engagement naturally follows. What is the one thing that is consistent with disengaged teams? Lack of vision. Articulate a vision that resonates both logically and emotionally for team members, and the engagement will follow. Not only that, but it will make the hard work much easier to do.

As a mountaineer this is generally easier because you are making a deliberate decision to go into the mountains (i.e. you are not being forced to go), but even so, when you’re fighting for breath at 8,000m and it’s -25oC, there are always moments when it would be much easier to just crawl back into your tent and wish that you were at home. But having committed to my vision, I’m going to give it my best shot, and then make sure I get back down safely. An engaged team will get stuff done. A disengaged team will not.

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Understand the Risk

In any endeavour involving volatility, uncertainty and ambiguity we ask:, “What are the dangers?” Based on the concept that risk encapsulates uncertainty that matters, risk management is one of the central tenements of any organisation’s operating platform. However, much of the focus on organisational safety and risk management seems to be on the rational and procedural, for example, the use of procedures and tools. This is not enough. The missing component is the human element, which encompasses the emotional and subconscious, or in other words, considers our attitude, and our team’s attitude, to risk.

I’ve found that in the mountains, procedures and tools are only the beginning; they are the bare minimum upon which everything else is built. An emotionally intelligent team that is aware of the myriad of subconscious factors influencing their risk management and decisions is much safer than a dangerous one that relies on procedural safety alone.

Get Going

Build Grit and Resilience

So that brings us to the question, “How do we keep going?” In the VUCA Century, hard work is a given, and setbacks are inevitable. The concepts of grit (using determination to persist with hard work) and resilience (using optimism to overcome adversity) are pretty popular in organisational development right now. However, much of the discussion is solely around the skills that we can use to become grittier and more resilient, which is missing the point.

Rather, identify a vision that is clear and connects with both the head and the heart of your team members, and the grit and resilience will come naturally. Sure, some of the skills identified such as developing emotional intelligence and clear communication between leaders/team members is important, but the vision is the basis from which engagement, grit and resilience grow.

Again, most experienced mountaineers are pretty gritty and resilient, but I recall leading an expedition a few years ago that included some members who had never travelled to the Himalayas before. On this occasion, the environment was a lot more demanding than they had expected (a classic case of VUCA!) and I had failed in my duty as their leader to clearly articulate the vision. The end result was

only a 30% success rate of the expedition’s objectives. I learned a lot about leadership and teamwork on that trip. Teams that are gritty and resilient have strength; those without it are much weaker.

Learn from Mistakes

We then ask: “What could we do better?” Undoubtedly, the sweet spot for learning is once we’ve made a mistake from which we can recover. Based on an early organisational theory called Experiential Learning, the key is to have an experience and then be given the opportunity to review and learn from it. Being taught about theory alone is not enough, but making a mistake from which recovery is not possible is too much. A process for identifying mistakes made and learning from them is crucial.

Much of my mountaineering career has been about this: making small mistakes from which I have been able to recover and have learned never to make again. Teams that open to learning from mistakes will be open; teams that are not are effectively closed.

Think Long-Term

The final and often over-looked question we ask is: “What’s next?” The VUCA Century presents many challenges, which means there will be many important projects to implement. One of the biggest risks of this is that we focus so much on the immediate horizon of our current project that we lose sight of the bigger picture and forget to continue the sensemaking process to see what else is out there.

In the VUCA Century, organisations will not only have to be highly proficient at implementing big projects, they will have to work on multiple projects at the same time. Not only does this ensure that the multi-faceted VUCA landscape is always being observed and understood, but it ensures that teams won’t burn themselves out on one single project and won’t be without purpose at the completion of a large project.

I’ve seen this a lot with mountaineers – myself included – who work fastidiously hard towards a mountaineering objective but fail to think about what they will do once they have achieved it. A team with a growth-mindset open to new opportunities in the long-term will be a team that lasts; a team that does not will be a one-hit wonder.

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The VUCA Century is upon us, and with it comes considerable discomfort. It’s time to get comfortable getting uncomfortable.

This paper provides 9 steps to guide you and your organisation through the VUCA Century. The framework is the structure that you and your team can rely on as the world goes to VUCA around you. When it all feels too uncomfortable, go back to the structure. It’s the proverbial lighthouse in the storm, or the base camp at the foot of the mountain. Regardless of whether you

work in a large multinational corporation or a small start-up, this framework will give you a taste of what you need to be doing to support committed, inspired workers and to build strong, purposeful teams ready to achieve great things amidst the challenges and discomfort of the VUCA Century.

SUMMARY

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About the Author

Patrick Hollingworth is an everyday family man from Perth, Western Australia. He’s also a high-altitude mountaineer, and an expert in leadership, teamwork and safety. He worked towards his own personal goal of an unguided ascent of Mount Everest for ten years, and in 2010, after a lot of hard work and perseverance, he achieved it. Standing on the summit of the world’s highest mountain reinforced his belief that the benefits of taking oneself out of their comfort zone far outweigh the initial discomfort experienced.

Today, Patrick’s works with clients across the globe to help their leaders and teams get comfortable getting

uncomfortable in an organisational landscape which is becoming more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous by the day. He del ivers keynote presentations, workshops and programs, and has been awarded the coveted Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation – it is the speaking profession’s international measure; at last count in 2014 it had been awarded to fewer than 500 people, worldwide.

COPYRIGHT Copy this the right way.

So please be sure to take specialist advice before taking on any of the ideas. This book is general in nature and not meant to replace any specific advice. Patrick Hollingworth, employees of said company and brand derivations disclaim all and any liability to any persons whatsoever in respect of anything done by any person in reliance, whether in whole or in part, on the paper.

DISCLAIMER We care. But you’re responsible.

You have permission to post this, email this, print this and pass it along for free to anyone you like, as long as you make no changes or edits to its contents or digital format. Please pass it along and make as many copies as you like. We reserve the right to bind it and sell it as a real book.

PHOTO DESCRIPTIONS Just in case you're curious...

Cover: A clearing storm on the south-east ridge of Pumori  Page 5: Passing under the north face of Nuptse, in Everest's Western Cwm Page 6: Slogging hard at 6,800m on Baruntse Page 8: Sunrise at 8,100m on Cho Oyu Page 9: Taking in the view on Denali's final summit ridge Page 12: Starting the steep descent off Ama Dablam's summit ridge Page 13: Dragging heavy loads into Camp 2 on Denali Page 14: Happy to be on the summit of Denali. Now we can go home...

To discover more, check out www.patrickhollingworth.com or contact Patrick on +61 401 004 402 or patrick@patrickhollingworth.com

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