I first heard of the BANI framework a few weeks ago when I ran an updated post on leading in an age of non-stop VUCA and a reader left a comment on LinkedIn that the world isn’t so much VUCA now as it is BANI – brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible. Yeah, that feels about right.
I don’t necessarily think that VUCA and BANI are mutually exclusive; rather I think they complement each other and can provide a lot of guidance for executive leaders pondering how to navigate uncharted waters. (If you want to read an excellent overview of what’s underneath BANI, check out this post from Mark Hope.) Still, the turbulence that BANI brings feels like a new order of magnitude.
At least three things seem to be critical for executive leaders and their leadership teams in a BANI operating environment:
- agility,
- seamless, no drama collaboration,
- setting the early warning radar system to high.
Let’s briefly unpack what each of those three might look like in practice.
Having the agility to quickly respond as a team is going to be critical. To develop it, focus on:
Strengthening Emotional Resilience: A BANI environment is stressful and can leave everyone in a state of chronic fight or flight. Emotional resilience mitigates that and helps maintain clear thinking and decision-making under pressure. Take care of yourself and your team. Focus on human connection. Take meaningful breaks. Get enough rest. Eat well. Stay hydrated.
Fostering Psychological Safety: To thrive in a BANI environment, leadership teams need to create a culture where team members feel safe to express ideas, challenge norms, and admit mistakes without fear of retribution.
Practicing Rapid Prototyping: Keep the long-term goals, but question the long-term plans based on assumptions that will likely buckle under BANI. Stay agile by testing ideas quickly, learning from real-time feedback, and making adjustments on the fly.
Success in a BANI world will demand seamless, rapid, consistent, and no drama collaboration. To bake that into the way your team operates:
Reinforce Shared Purpose and Vision: Keep coming back to two questions:
- Why are we here? (Purpose)
- What does it look like when we’re delivering on that? (Vision)
When team members are united by a common purpose and vision, collaboration soars. Shared purpose and vision provides stability and direction in the face of uncertainty and the conflict that can come with it.
Clarify Roles, Expectations and Connections: Prevent conflict by being super clear about roles, expectations and how they connect across the team. Everyone should clearly understand their role, its expectations, and how it connects with others on the team. That level of understanding makes it much easier for team members to identify and act on opportunities to help and support each other.
Promote Transparent and Open Communication: Keeping secrets in a BANI world is a recipe for team disaster. Insist on transparent and open communications as the engine of trust. If you expect it from your team, they should expect it from you. Role model it.
Like Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast.” Here are ways to navigate BANI by upping the amplitude on your radar system:
Cultivate a Broad Network of External Insights: Get the outside-in perspective by nurturing connections with industry experts, academics, consultants, and other stakeholders who can offer diverse perspectives. Participate in industry forums, subscribe to relevant content producers, and engage with thought leaders to get early warning signals of shifting paradigms or new applications of technology.
Set Up New Customer Feedback Loops: Direct feedback from customers can serve as an early indicator of shifting market needs and potential disruptions. Go get it by implementing robust mechanisms for capturing customer feedback, such as surveys, focus groups, and online reviews.
Implement a Scenario Planning Process: Raise your level of preparedness through regular scenario planning sessions to map out various possible outcomes based on current trends and uncertainties. Use them to identify key change drivers and develop “what if” strategies to address possible futures.
Forewarned is forearmed, folks. It feels like a given that more shit is going to hit more fans this year. If you and your team have done some assessment and work to get ready for whatever BANI brings, you’re going to be better prepared when it does.
The leaders who successfully navigate a BANI world will be those who embrace agility, collaboration, and foresight. How are you equipping your team for the unexpected? Leave a comment on LinkedIn or send me a note.
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