A President heralded to bring about change when he was first elected, now finds himself on the verge of being impeached, possibly ending his political career. 

In today’s world, this does not come as a surprise since change is the only constant.

Lauded as the world’s most competitive economy in the World Economic Forum report in 2019, a nation yet faces a pressing need to improve its skill base and promote entrepreneurship to address a widening skills gap. It is an ongoing demand for industries to undergo digital transformation and to equip employees with the relevant people skills that will augment technology.

Our VUCA World

In the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world we live in, comes the clarion call to navigate change. The challenging situations we encounter in the workplace may present some or all aspects of VUCA. Some suggest adopting different approaches in response to each distinct aspect.

In uncertain situations for instance, where we have some information about an event’s cause and effect but cannot predict the future, it helps to be relational to gather more information and share them so as to reduce ongoing uncertainty. On the other hand, in ambiguous situations where causal relationships are completely unclear, experiments help to gain some basic understanding of the situation first. 

Regardless of which aspect(s) of VUCA, it still demands a response. The question is, are we ready?

Academics, human resource consultants and industry professionals told the Straits Times that new jobs requiring new skills are being created. They added that speedy changes to industries are making it harder to predict what the future workforce needs to stay relevant. Many are struggling to navigate it through. 

Adaptability & Agility

From the early humans, a key behaviour that ensures the survivability of a population is adaptability. According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), a highly adaptable CEO regularly keeps in touch with the world around them. They plug into wide networks and diverse sources of data to find information that may at first seem unrelated to their businesses. The CEO may read about economics despite being in the entertainment industry. He may choose to borrow a book on psychology despite being in the service sector. Perhaps he may choose to watch a video on how the body works after a long day leading a banking firm.

Yet this gives the CEO an edge and a good grasp of the overall global landscape affecting him and the company. As a result, change can be sensed earlier and strategic moves can be made to take advantage of it. 

With that, it is no surprise that agility is another key behaviour. High-perfoming CEOs make decisions earlier, faster, and with greater conviction. They do so consistently—even in VUCA environments. As former Greyhound CEO Stephen Gorman shared with the HBR, “A bad decision was better than a lack of direction. Most decisions can be undone, but you have to learn to move with the right amount of speed.” 

You might be wondering if there are more essential behaviours for navigating change that impact leadership success. Complementary behaviours such as flexibility also play a major role in managing and relishing change. Flexibility, however, is commonly used interchangeably with adaptability and we need to differentiate it.

Flexibility has to do with the tendency of an individual to modify one’s approach in response to altered circumstances. This happens primarily on a smaller scale. Adaptability, on the other hand, has to do with the readiness of an individual to adjust oneself to different conditions in the workplace. For one, flexibility is how willing you are to shift your schedule around and have it changed depending on circumstances like traffic or a virus outbreak. Whether you have a set routine for completing regular work tasks or decide not to stick to them because of interruptions like last minute meetings.

Adaptability falls on the same spectrum but in a broader landscape. How ready are you to accept and find solutions if political forces disrupt your livelihood? Say by banning mobility vehicles that help productivity in your work? Or how about handling an outbreak of a deadly virus that the world declares as a global emergency? How ready are you to commute in face masks and make deliberate lifestyle choices to eat more kiwis instead of burgers? 

Therefore, adaptability is the tougher yet more needed attribute of the two. 

Unless these buzzwords are accurately defined, differentiated and assessed within individuals, we will not reap the full benefits on how we can effectively navigate change. This applies to all individuals regardless of their job level, since everyone would need to navigate change that has been imposed on them one way or another. 

Overcoming Mind Set Hindrances 

Adaptability, Agility, Flexibility. These are distinct behavioural attributes that each comprise a combination of different work personality traits. They are covered in the SQI Managing Change Report, one of the many reports that can be generated from the input of a single questionnaire. 

By delving deep into the underlying traits, we are:

1. Empowered to identify the root causes as to why an individual may have a low inclination on a particular attribute among others
2. Encouraged to know that workplace personality traits are mainly nurtured and can be managed 
3. Equipped to do so through SQI to shift perspectives in order to overcome mindset hindrances

Assurance On the Assessment Front

A solution’s effectiveness hinges on the accuracy of the diagnosis. In this case, it has to do with the accuracy that we assess an individual’s psychological readiness to manage change. 

With the SQI assessment, accuracy lies in the trustworthiness of its 5-level quality checks on inputs. Due to the questionnaire design and psychological model, candidates find it difficult to predict the outcome of the reports. Hence, they are unlikely to be incentivised nor able to beat the system in order to score high on their readiness to manage change.  

We hope you are just as excited as we begin exploring how we can navigate the changes we encounter. Who knows, you may even enjoy the experience as you ride on the waves of change!

References: 

Harvard Business Review. What Sets Successful CEOs Apart

Elena Lytkina Botelho Kim Rosenkoetter Powell Stephen Kincaid and Dina Wang

From the May–June 2017 Issue