Navigating VUCA and BANI: Stories of Leadership and Learning in Assessment

Higher education professionals, particularly those working in assessment and educational quality, are leading through environments characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) and Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible (BANI). This session explored how we responded to these conditions through personal leadership narratives and a reflective observational framework. Drawing from participant experiences and metaphor-based storytelling, we examine the inner and outer dimensions of leadership in VUCA contexts. Using visual prompts, participants shared emotional responses to leadership moments, reflecting on resilience, self-doubt, exclusion, agency, and identity. The VUCA framework is expanded through a lens of personal development: volatility calls us to vision, uncertainty requires understanding, complexity asks for clarity and connection, and ambiguity invites agility and empathy. We also consider inward reactions to chaos, brittleness, anxiety, non-linearity, incomprehensibility, and how these can transform into bendability, compassion, neuroplasticity, and new networks. This session modeled reflective leadership development in action, recognizing that while we cannot always control the external environment, we can respond with intention and self-awareness. Through this shared work, we move toward a more connected, resilient, and values-driven approach to academic leadership.