An exercise to test your readiness for the next unforeseen disruption

There’s not an executive on the globe who hasn’t realized the important of navigating a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) business environment. But are you ready to respond to the next big disruption?

Sit down and ask yourself the following questions – they make up the basics of the LACE framework for navigating times of uncertainty. LACE stands for four pillars of action: learn, adapt, collaborate, and experiment. These are the questions you should be asking to test your readiness.

Learn

• How do you embrace new ways of thinking and doing? 
• How do you train your curiosity muscle to identify and act on opportunities?
• What systems are in place for active and continuous learning? 

Adapt

• Can you transform at the speed of change?
• How does your organization engage in rapid adaptation and increase its flexibility?
• How focused are you on customer centricity?

Collaborate

• How are you striving to be a partner of choice? 
• How do you foster a common purpose within your organization? 
• Do you co-create with partners in a way that offers shared value? 

Experiment

• Does your organization learn by doing?
• How often do you rethink your value creation strategy? 
• Do you engage in “sense-making” – interpreting and seeing potential in innovative ideas, trends, and technology? 

If you regularly revisit these questions with your team and work on building the four pillars, you will become ready to handle whatever is around the next corner.