In The New Leadership Literacies, author Bob Johansen is realistic about what it means to be a leader in a VUCA world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Despite the challenges of leadership in this era, he is surprisingly optimistic that leaders can and will learn how to engage these dynamic forces and provide the guidance that organizations need to move forward.
Johansen writes, “As I’ve worked with the VUCA world concept in a variety of organizations since 9/11, I’ve come to understand that it does have a hopeful side: volatility yields to vision; uncertainty to understanding; complexity to clarity; and ambiguity to agility. Vision, understanding, clarity, and agility are foundational to the new leadership literacies that I am proposing in this book.
What does it mean for a leader, especially in a faith-based organization, to transform each of these challenges into an opportunity for engagement?
First, volatility to vision. As followers of Jesus, we serve an apostolic God--a sending God--who from the beginning has taken the initiative to call out a people who will accomplish God’s mission. God has been calling a people to not only follow God but to be God’s ambassadors in the world. God promised Abram, “I will make you into a great nation,and I will bless you . . . and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3, NIV) This vision is at the center of what it means to be the people of God.
Second, uncertainty to understanding. Religious leaders, more than many, have the opportunity draw upon centuries of sacred scripture, tradition and practice to lead their people from uncertainty to understanding. Especially in the Judeo-Christian tradition, God’s people have always been a pilgrim people, on the move from one place to another. Beginning with Abraham, through the Messiah “who did not have a place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20), to the geographical expansion of the Church into all the world, God’s people have been in motion. Did they always know where they were going? Perhaps not, but they knew Who was with them and this provided them with an understanding of what it means to serve a sending God. This has provided their certainty in times of uncertainty.
Third, complexity to clarity. Without a doubt, we live in a complex world with many competing voices, opinions, and interpretations of reality. The gift that God has given to God’s people is a clear vision, an unequivocal statement of calling. We read in 1 Corinthians 14:33, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace . . ..” (NIV) We may disagree on the strategies to pursue that calling, but the task is clear. We are on mission with God.
Fourth, ambiguity to agility. To the Christian, the ambiguity of this world provides the opportunity to take hold of the situation and chart a new path forward. Throughout their journey with God, God’s people have reinvented themselves--from idol worshippers to worshippers of the God of Creation, from slaves to followers of Yahweh, from the bondage of exile to the hope of new day, from a limited understanding of being God’s exclusive tribe to a Church engaging the world. God’s people are always reinventing themselves in order to do God’s work.
In a volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous world, the people of God bring vision, understanding, clarity and agility. We have been called and equipped by God to lead in times such as this.
Comments