Leadership & Management69

Leadership Agility in a VUCA World

Nick Horney, Ph.D.

February 23, 2017

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Conference Video

Watch the video here: https://www.infoq.com/presentations/leadership-agility-vuca

Abstract

During the 20-minute presentation, Nick will share his experience as a former Navy Special Operations Officer (e.g., SEALs, EOD and Diving) serving as a coach for other Navy SPEC OPS leaders and how they demonstrated leadership agility. He will also focus on how leaders like Sally Jewel, former CEO of REI and now Secretary of the Interior, embraced leadership agility to help transform REI to a more agile organization. Nick will also share his experience working with Mark Nelson, President at Aramark, to sponsor a decade-long focus on leadership agility, to help create a more agile enterprise, resulting in Aramark’s placement on the Fortune 50 list.

Dr. Horney will reinforce the stories with leadership agility data gathered from several thousand leaders over a period of about 10 years. The primary purpose of the data is to demonstrate where the typical strengths and weaknesses are in developing leadership agility.

About Nick Horney, Ph.D.

Photo of Nick Horney, Ph.D.

Founder and Principal @ Agility Consulting and Training

Dr. Horney founded Agility Consulting and Training in 2001and has been recognized for innovations in organizational and leadership agility which includes The AGILE Model®. He has been recognized as an expert in organizational agility by journals such as People & Strategy and CIO Magazine, books such as Rothwell, et. al’s Human Resource Transformation (2008) and organizations and professional associations such as the American Management Association, Project Management Institute, IBN International and Human Resource People and Strategy. Dr. Horney has recently presented at the Global PMI Conference and PMI’s PMO Symposium on the topics of Change Management, Talent Management and Organizational Agility.

Nick coauthored a book in 2015 entitled Focused, Fast and Flexible: Creating Agility Advantage in a VUCA World and coauthored two other books -- Managing Change in Organizations published by the Project Management Institute and Project Change Management published by McGraw-Hill. He is currently working on a book that features a 10-year study of leadership agility with 1078 global leaders -- Decoding Your Leadership Agility: Getting Fit for Continuous Course Corrections. He has been interviewed for various podcasts, magazines and journals (e.g., People & Strategy, The National Productivity Review, Training and Development Journal, CIO Magazine, enterpriseleadership.org., Bank Marketing Magazine, American Way--American Airlines In-flight Magazine, etc.) addressing leadership, agility and change management issues.

Dr. Horney’s first-hand knowledge of leadership, team and organizational agility was developed during his 23 years as a Navy Special Operations officer leading diving and explosive ordnance disposal teams, where team agility was a defining characteristic of success. Nick retired from the U.S. Navy reserves at the rank of Captain. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of South Florida in 1984.

Follow them on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickhorney

Presentation Slides

Summary Transcript

Well, based on all that hoo-ha, I'm 85 years old. So anyhow, I'm looking forward to this, and I really appreciate the opportunity to come together with many of you—different lenses, different points of view, etc. I think that's what business agility is all about. I'm really excited that we have an opportunity to share some of this with you. As part of that process, I’ll share a different point of view as well.

Now, we’ve been talking about deep dives, and Bill just mentioned deep dives. You see a picture of me right there—that's doing a deep dive. That's what deep dive means for everyone who has been talking about it. How many divers are in here? All right, that's deep diving, right? I like it.

Leadership Agility in 20 Minutes

With that, I want to share a whole host of perspectives, integrate some concepts, and introduce you to leadership agility—all within 20 minutes.

Why do we even discuss leadership agility? It was mentioned briefly in a previous presentation about VUCA. We'll get into that in more depth. I'll share with you a different lens on leadership agility—one from an organizational psychologist’s perspective. Specifically, I want to introduce a concept that might resonate with you: agility fitness, specifically leadership agility fitness.

Client Profiles

I want to share with you three significant client profiles—leaders from diverse industries:

  • Sally Jewell – Former CEO of REI, later promoted to Secretary of the Interior in the Obama administration.
  • Mark Nelson – President of the largest business unit at Aramark.
  • Joe Musselman – Founder of The Honor Foundation, a nonprofit focused on transitioning SEAL team members into civilian careers.

In addition, I want to thank those of you who participated in the pre-assessment on leadership agility—around 40 to 45 of you. I had to cut it off to create the slides, but I'll report on 35 responses here. If you stop by the reception, I have a Leadership Agility Guide for you as a free giveaway.

Why Leadership Agility?

Why do we even talk about agility, let alone leadership agility? Does everybody know what VUCA stands for? Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Why is that relevant?

It’s relevant because it’s accelerating. It's coming at us faster and faster all the time. We've introduced something called the VUCA Report, a tool for tracking trends and patterns affecting business. Leaders need to pay attention to this.

For example, is it the digital disruption happening? The gig economy? How many of you are aware of the gig economy? That’s a major shift in the workforce. Significant changes are happening in our VUCA world. Leadership agility, at least from my perspective, is all about effectively leading in a rapidly changing world. It’s not slowing down—if anything, it’s only going to accelerate.

The Cost of Ignoring VUCA

Several years ago, I was interviewed for Profile Magazine, a Finnish business publication. The topic was how businesses are going under due to what I call accelerated obsolescence.

Look at magazine publishers. How many of you used to get magazines? They’re disappearing. What are some other examples? Blockbuster. Kmart. These companies failed to pay attention to their VUCA environment. It’s not enough to track these trends—you have to act, something Kodak failed to do.

Agility Fitness

It’s late in the afternoon, so let’s get interactive. I want you to consider the five major contributors to physical fitness:

  1. Muscle building (strength training)
  2. Aerobic exercise
  3. Flexibility
  4. Good sleep (unaided—no drugs!)
  5. Balanced nutrition

If you do at least one of these regularly, stand up. Now, if you do at least two, keep standing. Three? Four? Five? Let’s hear it for those who do all five!

Your doctor or fitness instructor will tell you that true fitness isn’t just about muscle-building or just about sleep—it’s the combination of all these elements. The same principle applies to leadership agility.

The AGILE Model

From an organizational psychologist’s perspective, leadership agility can be broken down into five elements:

  • Anticipate Change
  • Generate Confidence
  • Initiate Action
  • Liberate Thinking
  • Evaluate Results

This model integrates people, process, and technology. You need all three to truly achieve agility. If your people are agile but your processes are outdated, you’re still stuck.

Leadership Agility Case Studies

1. Sally Jewell – CEO of REI

During an offsite meeting, Sally asked, "Who is our primary competitor?" The answer? Amazon. Despite their best year ever, REI needed to disrupt its thinking. Millennials, fitness apps, and e-commerce were changing the game. We used maps and compasses in the field to teach agility and leadership agility.

2. Mark Nelson – President of Aramark

Aramark faced new challenges—demand for fresh food, local sourcing, and multi-brand offerings. Over 10 years, we conducted agility audits region by region, followed by agility coaching and training.

3. Joe Musselman – The Honor Foundation

Before 2013, only 13% of former Navy SEALs found jobs upon leaving service. Joe founded The Honor Foundation to address this gap, helping SEALs transition into civilian life.

Leadership Agility Self-Assessment

This heat map reflects the self-assessments of 35 participants:

  • Strongest driver: Generate Confidence (teamwork, interactions, leadership presence)
  • Weakest driver: Anticipating Change (particularly monitoring trends and patterns)

This assessment helps identify strengths, gaps, and areas for improvement. The goal is to develop a personalized Leadership Agility Development Plan.

Final Thought

Let me leave you with a quote:

"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples." – Mother Teresa

Take what you know about leadership agility and use it to mentor, coach, and inspire others.

Thank you very much.

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