The focus we adopt becomes our reality. The common instinct when we are in the midst of a crisis is to adopt a perspective that is based on our previous experience of how we have handled similar situations. This gives us a clear map to what we believe is the solution to problems. However, this map is outdated and it doesn’t align with the territory anymore. The sense of stability and certainty in our solutions has no basis since the world is just the opposite – (VUCA) volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous!
We need new maps to understand this world and develop innovative solutions. Author through his new book offers a new map with a caveat that the map doesn’t attempt to simplify a complex world or build certainty in an ambiguous world. The map helps leaders to embrace the complexity and work with it as an ally. The word VUCA was coined by Warren Bennis in 1987. According to Bennis, the VUCA world meant new ways of seeing and responding to changes. The old dogmas, strategies and management tools will not work anymore. Organisations have to learn new orientations of management and leadership.
The author believes that, in these times of the pandemic, we are in a double VUCA world requiring not just new orientations and approaches, but a transformational focus to our purpose and meaning as organisations. Organisations are living organisms and our response to the uncertain world is to strengthen our core. Citicorp Overseas Software Limited (COSL) was an outlier company during its times. COSL believed that relationships at work was its core strength that helped the organisation transform an adversity into an opportunity. When the world becomes more VUCA, COSL leveraged the strength of relationships not only to get results, overcome the situation but also to transform itself.
Author believes the success of COSL laid in its culture can be stated in this one short sentence if you feel good, you work good. People feel good when they have interesting and challenging work, when they have great relationships with colleagues and when they experience their organisation as their home. When people feel good, a relationship contract gets established with the organisation and people deliver their side of the contract through great results.
In his book “If you feel good, you work good†Relationships lead to results, Author has outlined some of the enduring insights from the story of Citicorp Overseas software Limited (COSL), an organisation that was an outlier of its times. This story, is highly relevant to organisations and leadership to deal with the uncertain world.
