No one needs to be convinced that adaptability is necessary.
But maybe we do need reminding that adaptability is:
- a skill (not a trait),
- comprised of other “sub-skills,”
- and therefore, there are almost unlimited ways to improve it.
Hire for Adaptability
Have you experienced a moment of insight that felt like an accomplishment, then upon arrival someone with your best interest at heart says, “You’re still thinking too small. What’s past that step?”
I watched this happen in a recent group coaching conversation. In response to the question, “What would be an audacious step in your business?” someone said they wanted to be on Oprah’s Soul Sunday and another said they wanted to be on Brené Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast. I thought, “Wow — good for you!” until the leader said, “Oprah and Brené? They’ve been around awhile — who’s bigger and next?” Stttrrrrreeeetttttccchhhhhhh!
Continue reading “Hire for Adaptability”Invent or Improve?
When a process or product or idea isn’t working, do you want to tweak the design slightly or throw it out and start over?
This is a distinction I’m learning about through my work with the Adaptability Quotient tool. It’s an assessment that measures individual and team adaptability, and one of the results is an aggregate measure that reflects if a team prefers to approach adaptability through a lens of “utilize and improve” and/or “explore and transform.” The former will lead you to approach change systematically and build on existing solutions, whereas the latter would have you trying different ways of working and experimenting with newly invented solutions.
Continue reading “Invent or Improve?”Zero Sum Adaptability Thinking
As I explore the metaphor of elastic leadership with groups, they continue to find new ways to apply it. One participant recently observed that if an elastic is stretched hard in one direction, it doesn’t have much give available to be stretched in other directions. Sounds familiar, right? We can only stretch so far before we snap, and the demands on our stretchiness feel cumulative.
Continue reading “Zero Sum Adaptability Thinking”Resisting Adaptability in Real Time
One of the most piercing coaching questions I’ve heard (courtesy of Jerry Colonna) is, “How have you been complicit in creating the conditions you say you don’t want?” Ouch.
One condition I say I want is to be “easy to buy.” I want my clients to find the process of working with me to be clear, smooth and easy.
Continue reading “Resisting Adaptability in Real Time”