Old narratives about change are themselves slow to change. Although we might rationally acknowledge that change is constant, emotionally we continue to resist and resent it, subconsciously waiting for things to settle down and ‘get back to normal.’
Have a look at Nadya Zhexembayeva’s recent piece in the Harvard Business Review. It describes both the pace of change and workers’ unhappiness with it. A couple of elements jumped off the page at me:
- In 2022, one in every five organizations was reinventing itself every 12 months, faster than its budgetary cycle.
- You may have heard of “quiet quitting” which describes the experience of 62% of employees — but according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report: 2024 a whopping 15% of employees worldwide are “loud quitting”, directly harming their organization, undercutting its goals and opposing its leaders. Yikes!
Nadya runs the Reinvention Academy and is featured in a newly released documentary called Pivot Point, produced by AQai. Watching it is 15 minutes well spent. It makes the case for incessant and accelerating change, but also for upping our adaptability skills in response.
Some good news for you about adaptability, from my research for the A in ELASTIC and my work as an AQai coach:
- Adaptability is a learnable skill
- There are lots of ways to be good at it
- When we’re good at it, we’re energized rather than depleted by the need for it
The AQai tool is excellent for measuring adaptability at individual and team levels. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more.