A Slight Modification to VUCA Volatility, uncertainty, confusion and ambiguity

You are probably familiar with the VUCA acronym and that we live in a VUCA world.

• • Volatility is where things change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.
  • Uncertainty is where it is impossible to predict the future or the correct course of action with any reliability.
  • _Complexity is where things are highly interconnected and interdependent; there is no cause-and-effect chain.
  • Ambiguity is where events are open to more than one interpretation.

You will find a more detailed description of VUCA and its roots on Wikipedia.

But when I think about VUCA or refer to it, I replace the C for Complexity with C for Confusion.

• Confusion is when something is difficult to understand, strange or new, or because many different things are happening simultaneously.

I make the change as I see the four VUCA attributes as a consequence of our living in a hyperconnected world that has, in turn, led to increased complexity.

So hyperconnectivity has led to complexity that has led to a volatile, uncertain, confusing, and ambiguous world.

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Knowledge Letter: Issue: 268 (Subscribe)

Tags: ambiguity (2) | complexity (76) | confusion (2) | uncertainty (10) | unpredictability (6) | volatility (2) | VUCA (3)

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