Course3 prepared by profs:

Mme Basma Ben Brahim Ben Fadhel

Mme Afef Yahyaoui

Leadership challenges in the V.U.C.A world

It is said: «The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Alvin Toffler

Warming up:

1.What is VUCA. 2.

How can leaders adopt to the fast-paced transformations of the VUCA world?

3. Can leader’s old models and styles be effective in the 21 st Century?

Keywords:

VUCA/ unpredictable /proactive/ agile/ disruption/ FUD/ mitigation /BANI

Text:

The VUCA World is considerably impacting work across governments, sectors, industries,

businesses and organizations right from multi-national companies, public sector corporations,

small and medium enterprises . The affect is seen in changing business models, organizational
designs, structures and performance. The volatility and uncertainty in the business

environment has confronted leaders with difficulty in predicting future competitive conditions.

The complexity and ambiguity in understanding technological advances, customer markets

and digital media have complicated strategy formulation and implementation that appear to be

an exercise in futility. Leadership is not only increasingly challenged in conducting business

but also being probed the way they lead their human resources and companies towards

sustainability.

The modern world has ushered in the Fourth Industrial Revolution - one of progressive,

cutting-edge technologies. Therefore, the focus is on how to assess strategies, which leaders

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can adopt proactively to encounter this fast-paced transformations and technological

disruptions in the VUCA environment.

Alibaba and Tencent are already providing worldwide competition in game changing

technologies of Artificial Intelligence, Drone technology, robotics and project to become

world leaders in AI by 2030. The acronym VUCA - Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and

Ambiguity is being used much too frequently to describe our current world. It was originally

used in the American Military to define extremely complicated positions in Iraq and

Afghanistan. The competencies, skills and knowledge of corporate leaders, once winning

mantras have unexpectedly become bare minimum requirements to succeed in the business

world. This much talked about catchphrase discussed by today’s leaders in annual meetings
describes current business affairs. Any efforts to analyze and formulate future strategy and

plans to respond to changing environment are rendered useless in VUCA condition.

Transforming Business Models In today’s business scenario, VUCA is not voluntary and

neither is it avoidable. Its impact is tremendous, altering rules of carrying out business. In

recent times, highly successful business painstakingly built over time, Nokia had to sell their

mobile division to Microsoft due to their inability to adapt to Smartphone technology. Kodak

could not survive in this turbulent environment as it did not evolve to digital technology

although it invented the digital camera but did not pursue its own innovation. Therefore, in

2012, Kodak a company worth $28 billion market capitalization with 95,000 employees went

bankrupt while Instagram, a digital photo-sharing app, at the time was a startup with 13

employees was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion.

VUCA has greatly affected rules of conducting business, ascertaining leader’s expertise to

manage human capital, technology and lead organizations successfully. VUCA needs leaders

to unfreeze traditional functioning philosophy, learn to think futuristically and adapt new

competencies. It is becoming important for organizations to identify competencies and

knowledge suitable for surviving in the VUCA world and developing their leaders

accordingly. Ten years ago, disruption meant bringing a product or service in the market that

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people needed but did not have, finding a way to produce it with higher quality and lower

costs than the competitors. This entailed hiring hundreds of employees, requiring large

physical space to put them in and waiting years for hard work to pay off in profits.

Today, digital technologies are developing at exponential rates of change; the landscape of

21st-century business has taken on a dramatically different look and feel. The structure of

organizations is changing. Instead of thousands of employees and large physical plants,

modern start-ups are small organizations focused on information technologies. They

dematerialize what was once physical and create new products and revenue streams+ in

months, sometimes weeks. It no longer takes a huge corporation to have a huge impact.

Technology is disrupting traditional industrial processes, and they are never going back.

This disruption is filled with opportunity for forward-looking, progressive entrepreneurs. The

potential for entrepreneurs to disrupt industries and companies, who unexpectedly go extinct,

has never been greater. Powerful technologies that were once only available to huge

organizations and governments are becoming more accessible and affordable thanks to

digitization. Anything that becomes digitized grows exponentially as digital information is

easy to access, share and distribute spreading at the speed of the internet. The technological

progression has been leading to enormous upheaval and opportunity.

I/Reading comprehension

1/What are the steps that leader can take to meet the VUCA challenges?
Be direct in complex situations=transparency in inforpation communicated and received will gain

mutual trust and collaborative efforts

Be reliable in volatile situations= follow through on what is said and agreed to will accelerate positive

momentum, be understandable in ambiguous situations = clarity in perpose, direction, and

responsibilities will empower others, be trustworthy in certain situations)= invest in people, keep

teems engaged, involve partners, seek to understand, speak to be understood, act with respect

always

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..................................................................................................................................... 2/Correct

these false information below.

1/Nowadays the structure of the organizations is stagnant.

encounter this fast paced transformations and technological disruptions in the VUCA

environment

……………………………………………………………………………………………

2/According to the author traditional industrial processes are coming back soon.

………… they’re never going back.

3/Digitization is negatively affecting new businesses

… The technological progression has been leading to enormous upheaval and opportunity .

4/ Competencies, skills and knowledge are paramount for the success of any corporate leaders

in the VUCA world.

The competencies, skills and knowledge of corporate leaders, once winning fortune have

unexpectedly become bare minimum requirements to succeed in the business world.

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

3/Find in the text words or expressions that mean the same as

a)Useless§1=……………….

b)Examained§1=………………..

c)Introduced§2=……………….

d)Turmoil§4=…………………

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e)Carefully §4=……………….

Useless§1=……………….futile

Examained§1+………………..probed

Introduced§2+……………….ushered

Turmoil§4=…………………TURBULANT

Carefully§4=……………….painstakingly

4/Match words in column A with their definition in B

1-Volatilility a-is unclear and the present future is uncertain.

2-Uncertainty b-there is a lack of clarity or awareness about situations.

3-Complexity c-many different, interconnected factors come into play, with the

potential to cause chaos and confusion.

4-Ambiguity

d-change is rapid and unpredictable in its nature and extent.

1+ D /2+A /3+ C 4+B

5/From the old VUCA acronym, guess the positive VUCA Prime
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 Old world New world

1/Volatile a-V………………………………….

2/Uncertain b-U…………………………………

3/Complex c-C…………………………………..

4/Ambiguous d-A…………………………………

-vision

Understanding

Clarity

agility

6/Put the words or expressions in the right blank.

Organizational/ long-term/ gradually/ unpredictable/ emphasize / competencies /

courageously/ approach/ nutshell / effective

Being a leader in the VUCA world means having to realize that rigid …long term…planning
does not always make sense. For many projects as well as departments, an agile approach is
more effective: Following the agile mindset, more space should be created courageously
testing new ideas. And more emphasize should be put on “learning while doing”. In a nutshell
our world has become more VUCA than it was before. To gain a competitive advantage in this
unpredictable, quickly changing business environment, business leaders should commit
themselves to work on their NOPA competencies.They should create the right networks and
use their power. They should create an organizational climate of openness rather than
punishing mistakes. They should gradually allow employees to take more and more
responsibility and thus allow them to participate. And they should apply an agile approach,
wherever it makes sense.

Being a leader in the VUCA world means having to realize that rigid ……………..planning
does not always make sense. For many projects as well as departments, an agile approach is
more ………………: Following the agile mindset, more space should be created ..…………
testing new ideas. And more ………… should be put on “learning while doing”. In a
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…………our world has become more VUCA than it was before. To gain a competitive
advantage in this……………, quickly changing business environment, business leaders
should commit themselves to work on their NOPA………………... They should create the
right networks and use their power. They should create an……………. climate of openness
rather than punishing mistakes. They should ……………allow employees to take more and
more responsibility and thus allow them to participate. And they should apply an
agile……………, .wherever it makes sense.

7/Circle the right option.

Today’s VUCA world is rife with ‘wicked ‘problems that necessitate finding solutions by

networks of public, private and non-profit organizations. Such a world demands that leaders

(develop, development, developing) the capabilities to mobilize individuals, organizations,

and networks (includes, including, included) those beyond national boundaries to formulate

and enact specific prescriptions.(increased, increase, increasingly) management

professionals are being seen as(influencing, influencers, influence) and ‘public leaders’

shaping and influencing debates in the public sphere. The focus has shifted to how leaders

representing (corporation, corporate, incorporate) and non-profit organizations contribute

to the broader public interest (to, with, for) the larger social welfare.

Today’s VUCA world is rife with ‘wicked ‘problems that necessitate finding solutions by

networks of public, private and non-profit organizations. Such a world demands that leaders

(develop,development,developing) the capabilities to mobilize individuals, organizations,

and networks(includes, including,included) those beyond national boundaries to formulate

and enact specific prescriptions.(increased,increase, increasingly) management

professionals are being seen as(influencing, influencers,influence) and ‘public leaders’

shaping and influencing debates in the public sphere. The focus has shifted to how leaders

representing(corporation, corporate, corporated) and non-profit organizations contribute to

the broader public interest (to , with,for) the larger social welfare.

8/Put the words in the right form or tense.

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Agility ( mean) means the cyclic back-and-forth between( plan)planning and implementation

that is, between “reflect” and “act.” Each mini-test is reflected. Each intermediate result

(analyze)analyzed , and on this (base) basis the next test balloon or the next step is developed.

The agile procedure in iterative loops explicitly includes the (possible) possibility that a

decision( make)-making is revised and a path taken is completely abandoned or at least

corrected. This permanent readjustment promotes (adapt)adaptability , self-responsibility, and

reaction speed of all ( employ)employees and thus of the entire company. Through high

agility, organizations can adapt to (change) changing circumstances and volatile customer

needs more quickly, giving them a massive (compete)competition advantage over

their( compete) competitors.

IIIWriting:

1/Match sentences parts in column A to that of B to get a coherent paragraph

A B

1/In an attempt to enhance work quality, a-in training highly specialized experts and

overburdening managers with leadership

2/However, this strategy often results
roles.

3/This added complexity doesn’t always b-leading to a convoluted organizational

structure.
translate to proportional effectiveness,
c-companies fragment activities into finer
tasks.

1+C 2+A 3+B

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2/In each line there is a mistake underline it and correct it in the provided space.

Telecommunications, marked by volatile chifts, reflects the

A shifts.
essence of VUCA. Rapid technology advancements render
b-technological
devices and services obsoleete at an unprecedented pace. As

exemplified by samsung’s experience, the fluctuating c-obsolete

smartphone market and evolve technologies like 5G influence d-Samsung

profitability. Samsung, a dominant player in memorial chips,

e-technological
smartphones, and TVs, faced a significative profitable decline
f-memory
due to falling chip prices, illustrate the impact of volatile on market
leaders.
g-significant

h-volatility

IV/Language

The Subjunctive:

The subjunctive mood expresses hypothetical ideas or desires and reflects a subjective
attitude toward the statement. It conveys hypothetical situations and expresses a wish,
demand, or suggestion. In simple terms, it describes actions that have not happened.

Here are a few examples of sentences in the subjunctive mood:

 If I were the leader, I would address the agricultural problem. (hypothetical situation)
 Hannah wishes she were a leader. (wish)
 I demand that he be present at the meeting. (demand)
 The team leader suggests that his colleagues take a break. (suggestion)
Subjunctive Mood Rules
 The verbs in the subjunctive mood deviate from the regular tenses rule. In the
sentence, “It is recommended that the management review its quarterly budget,” the
main verb is in its base form instead of the third-person singular present tense.
 Both conditional and subjunctive moods express hypothetical situations. However, the
conditional mood is used to express a situation that could be real, while the subjunctive
mood is used to express a situation that is not necessarily real or factual. For example,
“If I were you” is in the subjunctive mood, while “If I had more money” is in the
conditional mood.

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1/Verbs that attract Subjunctive mood:

suggest, insist, command, wish ,recommend, ask, order ,and demand.

2/Adjectives that attract Subjunctive mood:

important, necessary, essential, imperative, and crucial.

Let’s practice: Turn to the subjunctive

We are successful in this business.

I wish that they…………. successful in this business.
Japan’s market has very sophisticated goods
I wish that Japan’s market …………very sophisticated goods
The candidates have complicated assignments
The supervisors request the candidates don’t……….. complicated assignments
The boss was remorseful of his mistake.
If I …….. the boss, I …………….. remorseful for my actions.
It is necessary for the growth of a country for the people to have quality education.
It is necessary for the growth of the country …….. the government ………… quality
education to the people.

We are successful in this business.

I wish that they…be………. successful in this business.
Japan’s market has very sophisticated goods
I wish that Japan’s market ……have……very sophisticated goods
The candidates have complicated assignments
The supervisors request the candidates don’t…have…….. complicated assignments
The boss was remorseful of his mistake.
If I …were….. the boss, I …would be………….. remorseful for my actions.
It is necessary for the growth of a country for the people to have quality education.
It is necessary for the growth of the country …that….. the government …have……… quality
education to the people.

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