Last week I had a quick turnaround between arriving home from Costa Rica and departing again to deliver a keynote and two workshops on adaptability in Calgary, Alberta. I won’t bore you with the details, but I can assure you that a series of travel glitches put my own adaptability skills to the test. I arrived to deliver the keynote with 15 minutes to spare (rather than 24 hours ahead as originally scheduled), wearing an airline-issued men’s XL white T-shirt and working on two hours of sleep. I told the group that it’s reassuring to know the speaker has experience in that of which she speaks!
Continue reading “Adapt or Adopt?”Curated Content on Adaptability
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:
Continue reading ” Curated Content on Adaptability”Damaged Roots
This past weekend, my husband and I hiked through an area of Kelowna, British Columbia that had been ravaged by wildfires last August.
This experience was new for us, and eerie.
I was expecting the landscape to be more barren than it was. But many trees were still standing. Some were visibly charred at the base but showing new growth at the top. Quite incredible.
Continue reading “Damaged Roots”Safe to Change
I’ve been reminded in multiple ways recently that stress can stand in the way of our ability and willingness to adapt, both personally and organizationally.
When our nervous system is on high alert, our tendency is to self-protect. In that state, it’s very hard for us to be curious, to listen well, or to stay open to new experiences. We can easily get stuck in unhelpful patterns simply because we are so overwhelmed by demands and ongoing volatility that we can’t bear to introduce change in yet another area of our life — even if that change is positive and wanted.
Continue reading “Safe to Change”Three Things We Don’t Want to Admit We Don’t Want
It’s far easier to sell people something they both need and want.
I offer services I think people need. But even if I’m right about that, they may still not want them. And if people don’t want them, they likely won’t buy them. Need is not the same as demand.
Continue reading “Three Things We Don’t Want to Admit We Don’t Want”