The VUCA Reality and Challenge

Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity are the elements of the VUCA environment

Bartek Wrzosek, Managing Director and Game Developer of Develor Polska talks about the VUCA reality

What is the VUCA reality?

It is difficult to imagine nowadays a company that is not in a constant change. The constancy of change is the first thing. The second is that it’s very difficult to predict the future and the old routines, old habits, don’t work. Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity are the elements of the VUCA environment.

That’s why the companies need specific answer and should change their habits, should change their mindset to answer properly this very difficult environment. I think that the phrase ‘Adapt or Die’, nowadays, is 100% true.

So only those companies which change their mindset or try new things, try new operations, focus more on the clients, could survive or build a huge advantage among the competitors.

So I think this is crucial, nowadays.

The Key to Implement Agile

I think to be successful while implementing agile in the organisation, you need to think about the human factor. So this is crucial, because we could have a great methodology, we could have rebuilt structures, but without people supporting this change, it isn’t possible to reach anything.

Start with the people, start with the change of mindset of people and encourage them to the project. After that, follow with the routines, follow with the behaviours and develop the skills and at the end, give them tools to make this change happen.

The VUCA Challenge Training

The VUCA challenge is a training supported by very interactive – immersive simulation. This simulation gives participants an opportunity to experiment and to feel how the VUCA world influences their business life.

So they could immediately, in this experience, try the new things, like, for example, the routines from the agile world – retrospective meeting, how to do the stand-up meeting, how to convince people about following the vision.

The participants could experience how to react to the VUCA world, how to respond to the VUCA challenge. They could immediately try new things. This training is fully packed with tools from agile world, from LEAN – like retrospective meeting, like Kanban…

They could also try how to convince people, so the convincing communication is a part of this and the instant feedback. And by the way, this game gives participants a lot of fun and is based on a true story. I think that the most important thing is, that people will receive the comprehensive feedback about their skills and how to react – how they should react in the VUCA environment.

What are the benefits of agile operation?

Being more agile is appropriate for everyone. Even if your company is not following or transferring into the agile direction, because of the fact that you as an individual – a leader or an employee – it could make your job easier, faster, you could equip yourself with the new routines, new habits that give you less stress or make you more effective in your daily job.

DEVELOR as partner in agile

DEVELOR is a leading international training and consulting company and we are also working agile way. For example, when developing projects for our customers, we are doing pilots. We are testing; we are continuously improving our programs.

I think this is the first advantage. The second is that we are an international company, so we could use our experiences from one part of the world and implement those case studies, for example in the single, local country or company.

So I think this is also an advantage of working with us.