Leaders in higher education are being called upon to lead as never before.

Dr. Ruth J. Simmons, currently President of Prairie View A&M University, offers the following for all leaders: “It’s very important in a leadership role not to place your ego at the foreground and not to judge everything in relationship to how your ego is fed.” Prescient advice given COVID-19 and how higher education leaders are being asked to respond to its impact.

At the end of the Cold War the U.S. military created an acronym to describe the emerging new world order. They described it as Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous, or what they called VUCA. Since the 1990’s the U.S. has faced several major VUCA events, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Great Recession, and now COVID-19 and its emerging impact. These events create tremendous disruption and great uncertainty. The resulting solutions, adjustments and changes are complex, and ambiguous. The lack of a clear playbook about how to lead makes it particularly unsettling. Some suggest that we have always lived in a VUCA world and that when unpredictable events occur, they exacerbate a VUCA environment.

Today we are in a VUCA environment on steroids. How does a leader react but not overreact to events within the current crisis? How does one resist the strong tendency to want to bring things back to a degree of normalcy when that may not be possible? It’s useful to use the concept of VUCA as a way to describe things, yet it doesn’t offer much in terms of how to address times like these with actionable responses that calm and instill confidence.

Bob Johansen at the Institute of the Future reframes the VUCA model and calls it VUCA Prime. He reconceptualizes as the critical thinking skills needed to address VUCA environments. He suggests we think of it as Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility.

For those in a campaign or about to launch one, it’s keeping a clear focus on vision of your campaign and what it means to your institution. We’re already seeing examples of “Days of Caring” as clarion calls of support during difficult times. Being laser focused on knowing where you’re headed, and why, is critical. As events unfold at breakneck speed, it’s easy to get side-tracked. You must remain thoughtful and focused on the bigger picture relating to your vision and mission.

For those in a campaign or about to launch one, it’s keeping a clear focus on vision of your campaign and what it means to your institution. We’re already seeing examples of “Days of Caring” as clarion calls of support during difficult times. Being laser focused on knowing where you’re headed, and why, is critical. As events unfold at breakneck speed, it’s easy to get side-tracked. You must remain thoughtful and focused on the bigger picture relating to your vision and mission.

Maintaining your focus on vision will lead to greater understanding. As a leader, reflection is critical. Stop, look, and listen, to better understand. Others will be looking to you for understanding. You won’t have all the answers. However, how you communicate what you know, and don’t know, will go a long way toward clarity. It’s about facing your “brutal facts” then using that knowledge to help guide how you create clearer understanding.

Clarity counters complexity. It helps make sense of chaos. That’s not to suggest that you will have perfect clarity, especially when chaos is happening all around you. Your ability to tune out the less important things will improve. Think of triage nurses who do this well, drawing on both training and part experience.

General Hal Moore’s four principles of leadership dovetail well with understanding and clarity.

Three strikes and you’re not out. As a leader you can do one of two things

• Inspire confidence
• Infect the organization with pessimism and indecision (attitude & action)

There’s always one more thing you can do to improve your situation, then there’s one more thing, then there’s one more

• Take time for personal reflection
• What am I doing that I shouldn’t be doing?
• What am I not doing that I should be doing to influence my situation?
• The only thing wrong when nothing is happening is that there’s nothing happening
  This is when you have to be the most alert
• Trust your instincts

Finally, agility is gained through understanding and clarity. In situations like we’re confronting there is no clear playbook for how to respond. Not only is it about agility it’s also about adaptability as a leader. We’re seeing in real time how increased understanding and clarity about COVID-19 is changing how governments and health care providers respond. It’s taking what you’ve learned – guided by your vision and the new understanding and clarity that you’ve gained to become agile.

Like today, leaders during 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Great Recession learned in real time, and as a result of applying the principles of VUCA Prime, emerged stronger and better equipped to handle future crises. I’m confident that history will repeat itself and we will emerge from this current VUCA event stronger, wiser, and with more resolve as to what it takes to be succeed when events like these occur.