vuca presentation_20150410
TRANSCRIPT
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What the US Marines Know about VUCA That Business and HR Don’t 17 APRIL 2015
Daniel Mitchell Talent, Learning & Diversity Leader, Asia-Pacific Singapore
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MARSH 1 13 July 2015
What we’ll discuss today
1. Origins of VUCA in a post Cold War world
2. VUCA – what does it mean?
3. My story
4. VUCA and the Marines – it’s one acronym of four distinct parts, and why that matters
5. Incorporation of VUCA into leadership, development and performance culture – don’t be faddish
6. Lessons for leaders and HR - Aim for the 70% solution - Organize according to the Rule of Three - Seeking and not fearing input – a strong culture can override fear - Staying close to the front lines – CEOs measuring the customer experience? Yes! - Build authority throughout the hierarchy - Avoiding Groupthink – breaking the mold with sourcing, hiring and on-boarding - Learning from failures and successes – the AAR - Underinvest in training at your peril - Breaking the stranglehold of the 3-year plan
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MARSH 2 13 July 2015
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MARSH
The end of the Cold War, therefore, brings not an end to threats, but rather a diffusion of them: one can no longer plausibly point to a single source of danger, as one could throughout most of that conflict, but dangers there still will be. The architects of containment, when they confronted the struggle between democracy and totalitarianism in 1947, knew which side they were on; the post-Cold War geopolitical cartography, however, provides no comparable clarity. In one sense, this represents progress. The very absence of clear and present danger testifies to American success in so balancing power during the past four and a half decades that totalitarianism, at least in the forms we have considered threatening throughout most of this century, is now defunct. But, in another sense, the new competition between the forces of integration and fragmentation presents us with difficult choices, precisely because it is by no means as clear as it was during the Cold War which tendency we should want to see prevail.
3 13 July 2015 Toward the Post-Cold War World by John Lewis Gaddis www.foreignaffairs.com, Spring 1991 Issue
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MARSH
The end of the Cold War, therefore, brings not an end to threats, but rather a diffusion of them: one can no longer plausibly point to a single source of danger, as one could throughout most of that conflict, but dangers there still will be. The architects of containment, when they confronted the struggle between democracy and totalitarianism in 1947, knew which side they were on; the post-Cold War geopolitical cartography, however, provides no comparable clarity. In one sense, this represents progress. The very absence of clear and present danger testifies to American success in so balancing power during the past four and a half decades that totalitarianism, at least in the forms we have considered threatening throughout most of this century, is now defunct. But, in another sense, the new competition between the forces of integration and fragmentation presents us with difficult choices, precisely because it is by no means as clear as it was during the Cold War which tendency we should want to see prevail.
4 13 July 2015 Toward the Post-Cold War World by John Lewis Gaddis www.foreignaffairs.com, Spring 1991 Issue
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MARSH
The end of the Cold War, therefore, brings not an end to threats, but rather a diffusion of them: one can no longer plausibly point to a single source of danger, as one could throughout most of that conflict, but dangers there still will be. The architects of containment, when they confronted the struggle between democracy and totalitarianism in 1947, knew which side they were on; the post-Cold War geopolitical cartography, however, provides no comparable clarity. In one sense, this represents progress. The very absence of clear and present danger testifies to American success in so balancing power during the past four and a half decades that totalitarianism, at least in the forms we have considered threatening throughout most of this century, is now defunct. But, in another sense, the new competition between the forces of integration and fragmentation presents us with difficult choices, precisely because it is by no means as clear as it was during the Cold War which tendency we should want to see prevail.
5 13 July 2015 Toward the Post-Cold War World by John Lewis Gaddis www.foreignaffairs.com, Spring 1991 Issue
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MARSH
VUCA
6 13 July 2015 What VUCA Really Means for You Nathan Bennett & G. James Lemoine Harvard Business Review, January–February 2014 Issue
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MARSH
My story
7 13 July 2015
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MARSH
My story
9 13 July 2015
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MARSH
My story
10 13 July 2015
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MARSH
VUCA and the Marines
“You cannot control your environment. Do not try to control your environment. Instead, understand your environment, including its terrain, risks, fluidity, and opportunities. Assess, then execute, and correct as you go.”
11 13 July 2015
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MARSH
Understanding VUCA conceptually isn’t the hard part.
The hard part is figuring out how to operate in an environment where one or more elements of VUCA is a near
constant.
12 13 July 2015
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MARSH
VUCA isn’t a fad.
It’s our reality.
The lesson: don’t inflict Cold-War solutions on a 21st century problem.
13 13 July 2015
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14 13 July 2015
LESSONS FOR LEADERS AND HR
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MARSH 15 13 July 2015
Aim for the 70% solution It's better to decide quickly on an imperfect plan than to roll out a perfect plan when it's too late. Everyone is always looking for perfect truth. Even if you find it, the other guy is up to something. So by the time you execute it, your truth isn't perfect anymore. When time is of the essence, Marines act as soon as they have a plan with a good chance of working. Indecisiveness is worse than making a mediocre decision. A mediocre decision swiftly rendered and executed at least stands a chance. If your decision-making loop is more streamlined than your enemy's, then you set the pace and course of the battle.
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MARSH 16 13 July 2015
Organize according to the rule of three Especially in times of stress
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MARSH 17 13 July 2015
Organize according to the rule of three Especially in times of stress
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MARSH 18 13 July 2015
Organize according to the rule of three Especially in times of stress
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MARSH 19 13 July 2015
Organize according to the rule of three Especially in times of stress
www.fastcompany.com
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MARSH 20 13 July 2015
Seeking and not fearing input A strong culture can override fear
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MARSH 21 13 July 2015
Staying close to the front lines CEOs measuring the customer experience? Yes!
www.unboxedthoughts.com
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MARSH 22 13 July 2015
Build authority throughout the hierarchy More VUCA should drive decisions down, NOT up
www.unboxedthoughts.com
Train &
Glorify
Manage by end state and intent
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MARSH 23 13 July 2015
Avoiding Groupthink Breaking the mold with sourcing, hiring and on-boarding
www.imageshack.com
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MARSH 24 13 July 2015
Learning from failures and successes The After-Action Review
“Amid the high risk and uncertainty of combat, shared experience-especially lessons hard-earned should be promulgated laterally as quickly as possible so that the learning curve of the entire organization is elevated by the creativity or misfortune of the individual units.”
http://www.tecom.marines.mil/Units/Directorates/MCCLL.aspx
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MARSH 25 13 July 2015
Underinvest in training at your peril But focus on three key areas
Corps Business - The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines (by David Freedman)
Make training realistic
Cross-train
Train for certainty;
educate for uncertainty
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MARSH 26 13 July 2015
Breaking the stranglehold of the 3-year plan
www.imageshack.com
“It's better to have a few options that can be easily adapted to changing situations than to try to make specific plans for every contingency.” ~ Corps Business - The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines (by David Freedman)
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MARSH 27 13 July 2015
Any Questions?
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