People and the VUCA world
Hakuna Matata and the concept of Bliss in the Corporate World
“Hakuna Matata” is a Swahili word meaning “there is no trouble here.”
For all businesses today, this is a death trap.
Businesses exist in a VUCA world. The world is changing dramatically – probably every single little speck of your business is under scrutiny. From your internal business processes, to the way in which you select your People, how you retain them, how you prepare a Leadership Pipeline, how you prepare the organization to listen to your Clients, and how you prepare to serve the Clients time is ripe for everything to be put under the microscope.
So, the question is no longer Why train? Rather, it is the cost of not Training. Not preparing your People to play the real match. The cost of having a ‘good’ Team on paper but one that has not been made to go through the grind to face the rising delivery or the spinning ball.
Typically, there are three aspects that the Top Leadership needs to look out for in their Teams- 1. The Technical Skills- Are the People technically capable of providing the promised Solutions to the Clients; 2. People Skills and orientation- for the People Leaders in the Team to know and understand their People (their Competencies and their Values) and how to manage them as living, breathing contributors and not just as cold ‘resources’; and 3. Attitudes- do the People in the Team display the Attitude to move ahead, dirty their hands in the turmoil of the business and learn from each other in a collaborative way?
A Learning Organization stands out from the others in this- its Top Leadership is sensitive and is willing to work on these three aspects. They are aware that it’s not one versus the other- it’s all three.
It starts with the Leadership. Leadership agility is becoming the key to survival. In the context of the ‘continuous disruption’ that’s evident in every aspect of our lives new models based on agility and critical thinking in decision making are the only way out. Some pundits have even argued that agility may be more important today to business than accuracy.
What is equally important is learnability and ability to adapt to the changing landscape. And remember it is the entire organization that one is talking about.
‘Hakuna Matata’ is long over. Before the tsunami of change drowns the organization count the cost of not training and learning afresh.