Stressed Out? Blame VUCAD.

VUCAD = The Five Elements Of Stress

At the risk of stating the obvious, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant stress. The pandemic and resulting global volatility has impacted our lives in unprecedented, complex ways.

In the face of all this chaos, how do you make sure that you’re still making great choices for yourself, your family, and your career?

At Meseekna, we study VUCAD to understand how to manage and mitigate the impact of stress on individual decision making.

VUCAD stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity and delayed feedback.

Over the next five Substack drops, we’ll dive deeper into each of these factors and explore how to reduce their impact in your day-to-day life. For now, take note of when you might experience each in your life.

You can spot volatility when you feel “whiplash” or “up and down”.

You can spy uncertainty when you have a few possible outcomes in your mind, and you just can’t figure out which is most likely.

Ironically, complexity is clear to see, but hard to manage. If you feel “information overload” or a deep confusion about what you should know, you’re heading into complexity.

Ambiguity is just as murky as it sounds- when you have no clear idea of what is going to happen, and “things are up in the air”, you’re probably steering right into ambiguity.

Waiting for news or the outcome of a choice is where delayed feedback lurks.

If this Substack is giving you delayed feedback stress, you can peek ahead to our Medium guide on VUCAD. Otherwise, stay tuned.

Be well,

Akhila