We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
Anais Nin – Author
The planet is shifting into an epochal change. Climate change seems to be the beginning of a global paradigm shift – something the earth hasn’t seen in thousands of years. But facing any significant change, there are deniers – good VUCANs that don’t ‘get it’.
Several years ago, there was an ad for Putnam Investments: “You think you understand the situation, but what you don’t understand is that the situation just changed.” Amen! When I think I’ve just got it, ‘got’ and ‘it’ both seem to change. This is on a global, business, and personal level. And, it’s scary! I don’t like the sudden change.
Disruption and change are inherent in all paradigm shifts. Disruption distorts our perceptions of our life and work. Disruption can distort our reality – the ‘is’ of what is happening around us. For example, I follow good and prescribed COVID safety practices. Can I assume that others will do the same? If you believe VUCA, COVID work disruption and risks are the new normal, then a critical issue is how will businesses and VUCANs cope, sustain, and compete in COVID time. This will be a critical issue for all VUCANs.
COVID work disruption is distressing. You then react according to your false perceptions of the ‘is’, which if distorted by old career assumptions or work rules and how you respond to your work, career, and job. This results in a vicious cycle.
Work Lesson Earned: George Bernard Shaw, the philosopher, offers wisdom. He said that the world is populated by three kinds of VUCANs: 1. Those who make things happen; 2. Those to whom it happens; and 3. Those who wonder what happened?
If there’s one thing I want you to walk away from Working It: Disruption Rules is that it’s much better to be clued in rather than clueless. And, I want you to be in the first Shaw category: 1. Those who make things happen. Or in other words, you want to be a disruptor, NOT a disruptee.