A convergence of events has disrupted the construction industry. Leaders of firms are responsible for decisions made today and in the future that impact their capital projects and these decisions are being made in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world.
Based on the leadership theories of authors Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, the term VUCA was first used in 1987. Later, the term was embraced by the U.S. Army War College to describe the military challenges in a post-Soviet era. Military leaders no longer had a single enemy on which to focus but faced a multitude of threats that required new ways of thinking, seeing and reacting.