VUCA and the Age of Air

What is VUCA?

In recent years, the business world has begun to recognise that the business environment has changed rapidly and unpredictably. The World Economic Forum has begun to describe such a situation as a 'VUCA world'. VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

What is the Age of Air?

When I heard about the quality of 'VUCA', I quickly found similarities between VUCA and the 'Age of Air' or 'Age of Aquarius', that is often used by Western astrologers and those who resonate with the perception. The Age of Air is the term which represents a new mood of recent years, which are flexible, changeable, conceptual, etc.

Set your perspective right

Although both VUCA and the Age of Air are describing the same unusual quality of the present time, their perspectives are completely different. It's like seeing the same glass half full or half empty.

Seeing the world as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, VUCA makes us feel anxious, vulnerable and powerless. On the other hand, seeing the quality of the world as floating air, the Age of Air makes us feel flexible, free and omnipresent.  

It's really up to you how you want to see the new era.

The age of change

The most important thing that VUCA and the Age of Air suggest is that we have entered an "age of great change". Change' means that previous ways of doing things and systems may no longer be viable and that sudden change may occur.

Since 2020, VUCA and the Age of Air have begun to appear in reality as concrete phenomena, such as the pandemic and unexpected wars, and various social systems and economies are constantly changing rapidly.

Now is the time to question everything you've believed about the way things are or should be. Perhaps what is really important cannot be seen from your current perspective. It is vital to continuously expand your perspectives, be curious and observant, and dare to experience 'change'.

Image by me at Ale stenar, Skåne, Sweden