Disruption isn’t about what happens to you, it’s about how you respond to what happens to you.
Jay Samit – Entrepreneur
Decision making in VUCA time often focuses on downside consequences and is fear based. Fear based choices are a form of doom addiction. We become addicted to watching, tweeting, or listening to online grim-reaper news – one after another. It’s called ‘doom scrolling’ or ‘doom surfing’. Algorithms exacerbate this.
They feed us the infinite scroll of catastrophic news. The result is classic fear-based, reactive problem solving and decision paralysis – almost primal cave dwelling escapism. (1) So now, fashionable acronyms are coined for today’s dominant decision making paradigms, which are fear, risk, and anxiety based. Let’s look at a few:
Story: FOBO, the Fear Of Better Options, means VUCANs can’t make a final decision because they relentlessly want to pursue the dream of capturing and experiencing all options. This eventually leads to do-nothing, decision paralysis and huge regrets. FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out, was a popular pre-COVID decision making option. It means VUCANs are continuously searching for and fearing not being part of the next big thing, great experience, investment opportunity, selfie, or social interaction.
For college kids in COVID time, FOMO is also Fear of Moving Out of home. FODA, the Fear Of Doing Anything, is a do-nothing or risk avoidance approach to anxiety-based, decision making.
We’ve all been there. You’ve seen the thousand-yard stare or deer-in-the-headlights look. FOGO, the Fear of Going Out, is fear of social distancing. COVID FOGO is overwhelming. Should you fly? Should you go to the store? You don’t have enough information. You don’t believe you can make a good decision. You’re overwhelmed with FEAR. There are too many unknowns and unknowables.(2)
We’re only now seeing more people based events. But human closeness and belonging norms are still there. Think about sex, friends, sports, travel, etc? You still have these emotions, wants, and needs. COVID has accelerated FOMO from a want to an addiction because you’re not getting what you need. So, what are you doing differently?
Work Lesson Earned: FOMO, FOBO, FOGO, and FODA are real. They cause decision fatigue and anxiety. They are reactive forms of decision making. They result in bad choices.
Your Intentional Self-Management focus on FOW should be based on responding NOT reacting to situations and then making smart choices. So in VUCA time are you: 1. Risk taking; 2. Risk-sensitive; or 3. Risk-averse? Each of these specific lenses or filters may bias, color, or distort your FOW vision of life, work, career, and job.
1 ‘Grim News Online Spurs an Urge for More’, Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2020.
2 ‘How to Beat FOBO, From the Expert Who Coined It’, New York Times, July 30, 2018.