From VUCA to NAVI: why Systemic Team Coaching® matters now

In today’s world, disruption isn’t a passing phase - it’s the environment we operate in. From climate volatility and AI acceleration to geopolitical fragmentation and shifting stakeholder expectations, organisations are navigating a landscape that is increasingly nonlinear, accelerated, volatile and interconnected - what EY calls the NAVI world.

But NAVI is just one of several frameworks that attempt to capture the complexity of our times. Others include:

• VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous
• BANI: Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible
• RUPT: Rapid, Unpredictable, Paradoxical, Tangled
• TUNA: Turbulent, Uncertain, Novel, Ambiguous

Each of these models offers a lens on the same truth: the world has changed, and leadership must change with it.

The limits of linear leadership

Traditional leadership development often focuses on the individual - building confidence, communication and decision-making skills. But in a NAVI world, no single leader can see the whole system. The challenges we face are too complex, too fast-moving and too interconnected.

What’s needed is a shift from heroic leadership to collective intelligence. From siloed decision-making to systemic awareness. From reactive firefighting to future-back, outside-in thinking.

This is where Systemic Team Coaching® comes in.

What is Systemic Team Coaching®?

Developed by Professor Peter Hawkins, Systemic Team Coaching® is a methodology that helps leadership teams operate not just as high-performing units, but as value-creating systems. It enables teams to:

• Align around a shared purpose that serves their stakeholders
• Engage with the wider ecosystem - customers, regulators, communities
• Navigate complexity with agility, clarity and cohesion

As Hawkins puts it: “The purpose of systemic team coaching is not just to improve the team’s performance, but to enable it to co-create value with and for all its stakeholders.”

Why Systemic Team Coaching® matters now more than ever

In a NAVI world, organisations must do two things simultaneously:

1. Transform for agility in the near term - adapting to fast-moving risks and opportunities.
2. Make no-regret moves for the long term - investing in capabilities that will matter across multiple futures.

Systemic Team Coaching® supports both. It helps teams:

• Scan the horizon for weak signals and emerging trends
• Challenge assumptions and reframe problems systemically
• Build trust and psychological safety to enable bold, adaptive action

It’s not just about better meetings. It’s about better futures.

From complexity to clarity: the Systemic Team Coaching® advantage

Here’s how Systemic Team Coaching® helps organisations turn complexity into opportunity:

1. De-risking strategic blind spots

By engaging with the full stakeholder system, Systemic Team Coaching® helps teams surface hidden risks - from cultural misalignment to reputational exposure - before they become crises.

2. Creating value through alignment

Systemic Team Coaching® fosters alignment not just within the team, but across the organisation and its ecosystem. This coherence is essential for delivering on purpose, strategy and impact.

3. Enabling future-back thinking

In a world of multiple possible futures, Systemic Team Coaching® helps teams work backwards from a compelling vision - identifying the capabilities, relationships and decisions needed today.

4. Building adaptive capacity

Systemic Team Coaching® develops the relational and reflective muscles teams need to adapt in real time - not just reacting to change but shaping it.

A progressive path forward

Systemic Team Coaching® is not a quick fix. It’s a progressive development pathway that builds the leadership capacity organisations need to thrive in a NAVI world.

It’s about:

• Moving from control to connection
• From silos to systems
• From short-termism to long-term value creation

In a world defined by disruption, Systemic Team Coaching® offers a way to lead with clarity, courage and coherence.