It is often said that the only constant in life is change, but in the 21st century, change itself is evolving, becoming quicker and less predictable. International Compliance Association’s Simone Jones explores what’s changing and how the compliance pro can adopt.
Technological advances that seemed like science fiction only 20 years ago have become staples of modern life. There are employees entering the workforce now that don’t know life before smartphones, colleagues who weren’t born before the advent of the web.
How do we address and understand such changes? One attempt is the acronym “VUCA,” short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Coined in the U.S. military, it has been adopted in the business world as a response to the world’s increasing unpredictability.
Taken on their own, these nouns arouse feelings of unease. Taken together, they can amount to anxiety. In effect, they sum up the new terrain in which we find ourselves today, the gnawing feeling of not knowing what’s around the corner. What lies ahead in 20 years’ time? What about the next 10, or even five?
The fertile ground of the internet provides a veritable forest of competing predictions, but the simple truth is that no one knows for sure what lies in store. We can only focus on what we do…
