When you are coaching a leader who is navigating a really challenging issue, where do you begin? What kinds of questions do you ask? How do you remain in the coaching role and not morph into the role of consultant, especially when you have experience and/or expertise in the problem being solved?
In the best scenario possible, I have found that when I can ask curious questions that are not tethered to an agenda, other than helping the other person, I can be helpful. When I let my bias contaminate the questions, then I risk losing the leader’s trust.
When coaching leaders in the ministry space where I spend my working hours, I have discovered the VUCA 2×2 can apply.
The notion of VUCA was introduced by the U.S. Army War College to describe the more Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous multilateral world which resulted from the end of the Cold War.
- The “V” in the VUCA acronym stands for volatility.
- The “U” in the VUCA acronym stands for uncertainty.
- The “C” in VUCA stands for complexity.
- The “A” in VUCA stands for ambiguity.
Consider a real issue: a leader comes to you and is searching for ways to engage people in the church. You have two “buckets” you are thinking of when you envision engaging people. These overlap, but for argument’s sake, think of these two buckets as the discipleship/spiritual formation bucket and the leadership development/service bucket.
Note – the VUCA 2×2 above was initially intended to assess and diagnose an event; however, for our purposes let’s apply this to discipleship and leadership development.
Thinking about a church plant scenario that I serve in, come with me as I apply the VUCA 2×2. We are constantly wrestling with people’s engagement in these two buckets. Gina (my wife) and I serve on the Welcome Team at our 2-year old church. We have grown to 200 in our community, and last fall launched a second service. Our Welcome Team members often are serving at two services beginning at 8:30 am through the start of the second service and tear-down, which finishes around noon. You can see the problem. Burn out!
Knowledge about the Welcome Team
(Horizontal Axis)
We need to build our capacity = grow our team. That is easier said than done given a couple of key variables:
- Connections to People – new, newly established, or long-term attenders
- Bandwidth – people are busy
- Leadership Capacity – Gina and Gary’s margins to recruit and train more team members and leaders
Predictions of Outcomes for the Welcome Team
(Vertical Axis)
- Current Team members will become tired and disenchanted
- New people will be excluded from a place to serve
- People will not have the opportunity to use their gifts and be part of the community our team offers
Just from the analysis above, the situation has become clearer. We know what we need to do; now we just need to execute.
One of the big developments for us in our church is the addition of a new staff position under the title of Operations Director. Eventually, this person will oversee the Connections process where people are asked to take a spiritual gifts assessment, meet with a coach, and find ways they can use their gifts by taking the next step in their journey. However, we are not quite ready to launch this platform and process quite yet. In the meantime, our Operations Director is contacting people new to the church community to follow-up with them from a campaign our lead pastor launched to engage people in ministry. The initial signs are encouraging; we are receiving “hot leads”, people who have indicated an interest to serve on the Welcome Team. This has put light on our path by creating a pipeline for newer people to find places to serve. For the Welcome Team, this has addressed some of the issues listed above. We are quickly moving to a better place to staff both services with separate teams and rotate people so no one burns out.
Anticipating the potential outcomes balanced with a clear understanding of our current reality helped us address the Welcome Team’s capacity problem which we have been facing for the last 12-18 months.
Here are descriptions of each aspect of VUCA with a key question that will help you coach a leader through.
Volatility: The challenge is unexpected or unstable and may be of unknown duration, but it’s not necessarily hard to understand; knowledge about it is often available.
Key Question: How long has this problem been occurring?
Uncertainty: Despite a lack of other information, the event’s basic cause and effects are known. Change is possible, but not a given.
Key Question: What would it take to improve the situation?
Certainty: The situation has many interconnected parts and variables. Some information is available or can be predicted, but the volume, or nature of it, can be overwhelming to process.
Key Question: What things can you influence?
Ambiguity: Casual relationships are completely unclear. No precedents exist; you face “unknown unknowns.”
Key Question: What things are you unaware of right now?
Four Key Questions to Coach Through VUCA:
- How long has this problem been occurring?
- What would it take to improve the situation?
- What things can you influence?
- What things are you unaware of right now?
Here are two VUCA blogs that were originally posted that will give you more insight to navigate complex situations leaders face:
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