We talk a lot about VUCA—volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity—as if it only lives in boardrooms, the military and policy discussions. But long before the acronym entered leadership theory, I met VUCA on dusty footpaths, sleeping under open skies, carrying too much gear on too-small shoulders.
I grew up as a Boy Scout, 1st Gold Reef later to be 1st Helaman LDS scout group to be specific- and those experiences became my first real classroom for leadership. Not the textbook kind—the lived kind. The cosmotheandric (now there’s a word for you, and it will be a common one as we explore the life philosophy of Ubuntu), interdependent, situational kind Africans practised to build their legendary empires, thriving villages and strong families for centuries. What I now recognise as Ubuntu wasn’t taught to me in words. It revealed itself in moments that demanded collaboration, humble vulnerability, and shared responsibility.
On survival hikes, there were times when exhaustion blurred judgment and the map no longer made sense. Leadership changed hands depending on who had the clearest mind, the sharpest instinct, or simply the courage to speak. That fluidity wasn’t chaos—it was trust. And trust is Ubuntu in motion.
“On my honour I promise that I will do my best – To do my duty to God, and my country; To help other people at all times; To obey the Scout Law.” was the scout promise we repeated in meetings, `and boy did people need our help as Scout’s at all times. During service projects—clean-ups, community projects, rehabilitating rivers or helping the elderly move house —I learned that progress was rarely about the tough boy’s individual lifting power or the nerd’s intellectual brilliance. It was about collective stamina.
One person carries the bench; another understands how to load and pack just right; there’s always another who often ‘does nothing but talk’, but it is they who actually lift morale when spirits dip; and there’s always the one invisible scout, who reminds you all he was there all along when he saves the patrol from errors or from getting horribly lost during a night hike because he remembers distinctly what the instructions were to begin with or what clue the Scout Master said to look for on the map. Everyone becomes essential, not because of rank but because of relationship and need.
These early experiences built a truth I still hold today:
Ubuntu is not philosophy. It’s survival protocol.
In a world that is constantly shifting, no single person can hold the entire answer. But together, we become intelligent enough, resilient enough, adaptive enough.
Today’s global VUCA environment—economic shocks, societal shifts, technological disruption—demands that same scout-camp wisdom:
- Leadership must be situational.
- Teams must be co-creative.
- Community must be central, not optional.
- Progress must be shared, not hoarded.
African-inspired leadership makes sense not because it’s “cultural”, “exotic” or “hip” but because it is functional in chaos. Ubuntu gives us a way to anchor humanity in uncertainty, build cohesion amid fragmentation, and create solutions stronger than any individual could design alone.
As families, institutions, governance professionals, and everyday decision-makers, the question isn’t whether the world is VUCA—it is whether we are willing to draw from the wisdom that prepared us long before acronyms and decks existed.
What lessons and principles shaped you in your early years that still guide you through uncertainty today?
Let the real chat begin.
Vusumuzi (Dominic) Tshabalala
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