Navigate complicated business environment
In a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) business environment, leaders must navigate back and forth across the complexity chasm. Unfortunately, many leaders commit fatal errors that exacerbate the complexity of their operating context and culminate in devastating unanticipated outcomes. Leaders can learn to avoid these errors by refracting what they see, rewiring how they think and reconfiguring what they do. Using a strategy similar to Sully’s, these strategies help them to glide gracefully and safely across the gap.
One of the most common fatal errors that leaders make in navigating anson funds back and forth across the complexity chasm is misdiagnosing their operating context. Specifically, they often mistakenly assume their operating context is complicated when it is actually complex and apply a leadership response required for a complicated operating context to a complex operating context.
To avoid these fatal errors, leaders need to continually identify which side of the chasm they are on and immediately apply the appropriate leadership response. Specifically, they need to analyze known possible outcomes to determine the optimal course of action, isolate risks that could impact this optimal path and create contingency plans to minimize these risks. Lastly, they need to quickly test progress-paths within the complex operating context to learn whether they can deliver against their desired expected outcome.