Skip to main content

Adaptability through experimentation

Adaptable Leadership and Changemaking




Adaptability is a big buzzword right now. Makes sense, the CoronaVirus has up-ended the status quo and everyone needs to be able to adjust to their new conditions.

If everyone values the ability to pivot and adapt, why then are we seeing such inertia?

The answer? Adaptability is more of a mindset and approach versus systems and tools.

I was out running this morning. I have been back and forth with runs, cycling and rucking, overall I am pleased with some of my progress and less so with others. For this week I wanted to start a new program: 5km run on Monday, 10km ruck on Tuesday and a 20km cycle on Wednesday (rinse and repeat for R, F, Sa - day off Sunday).

I knew the route I had been using for my runs up until this point was just shy of 4km, so to keep it one continuous flow, I changed the route to what was closer to a solid 5km loop.

The run started fine (the first few minutes always make you think it will be easy all the way!). As you get out of that first phase and you find yourself about 20 or 25% complete you start to have to push a bit.

My goal was to do the 5km at pretty much the same pace, without stopping (now I'm more of a gorilla than gazelle so you might need to up the distance to relate).

As you start to 'force' a little bit more with each step, I started focusing on what I could experiment with and get immediate feedback with respect to how I was feeling.

I started focusing on my breathing. The depth of my inhales and exhales, the ration of in vs out, nose vs mouth. From there I looked at my stride. How long, how short, what was the feedback my body was giving me? Temperature, how would removing my hat and undoing my jacket make me feel as I started to cool off a bit?

My point here was playing with and tweaking things that were completely under my control allowed me to learn in the moment and to continually make small adjustments and cadence.

Result ... I finished the run as planned, without stopping and at the same relative pace.

This is all great, but how does it relate to the challenges that we face today in our professional lives?

The answer? We should look at our ability to adapt at work the same way.

I find it interesting how people have a tendency to accept certain types of things or approaches in their personal lives, yet the second they walk through the doors of the office, they forget about it.

How many times have you had your coworker, boss or president imply that real change only can come with the next shiny thing? The new system, the new org structure, the new data ...

We have a tendency in business to equal tools to solutions.

The reality is, tools are just that tools; and like any tool, their value is directly related to how well their are wielded.

Open your mind to the possibility of more.

Adaptability at work is the exact same thing. You will succeed when you try. Once you identify an area that could be executed better, try something different (experiment) and see what the results are.

Are they what you expected? If yes, great. If no, why not?

When it's a why not, what is the next thing you can tweak and change to get you back towards your goal?

We have created cultures within our organizations where people are afraid to experiment. We are rewarded for success and 'punished' for failure, and we are so afraid to look 'stupid', how could we ever have thought something like THAT would SOLVE the problem?

The truth is, as long as you are focused on your goal, as long as you are trying to improve and make the results better ... you are not failing (and don't let anyone tell you that you are); one of my favourite quotes answers this by saying "you haven't failed, you simply learned a way that does not work". Take that to heart.

Keep it simple:
• Know your goal
• Know why you feel your experiment / tweak / change moves you closer to it
• Make sure you are able to measure and get immediate feedback
• Reality vs expectations
• Try again

As our circumstances keep changing, so must your mindset and approach. When you can do this, you are adapting.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This 1 Thing Increases Your Career Capital More Than Anything Else

The Art of Better Decision Making Have you felt scared to make a decision? Maybe you get preoccupied with making the 'wrong' decision?  Did you know that 68% of people have admitted to not doing because they thought it would be harder than it actually is. Getting comfortable with making decisions is one of the biggest challenges new leaders face. You will be placed in situations where there isn't enough time to get all of the information. Or even harder, you will be placed in situations where you'll never get more information than what you have. The good news? Making better decisions is something that you can improve by being deliberate with your learning and how you choose to approach it. This is the approach I take to decision making. These have been test and is what I have used over my 15 year career to teach and develop teams. - Accept that you will make mistakes. There is rarely a perfect answer. Getting comfortable with ambiguity is a leadership muscle you need to...
2 comments
Read more

Your Next Five Moves

 There are two streams of thought when you start reading a book and you don't feel like you are connecting with it. Some people will say to stop reading it and move onto something else, the theory is that there are so many things in the world that you will enjoy reading, that you shouldn't be wasting your time on things that you don't. Camp B will tell you to stick with it, get through it and see what happens. If I had to "pick a side" I probably fall more into team B than team A, even though I do feel that there will always be some books / material that you should just put down. What has me more B than A? Some of the books that have had the most impact on me were a STRUGGLE to get through. I challenge that this may because they are pushing your boundaries and putting something up against your current worldview / paradigms. True growth and learning comes from when you can challenge and dismantle your own ideas, and rebuilt them anew. My first real experience with ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Your Interesting

   How many times have people told you the best thing to do is make your job something you love? Easy right, just go out, get hired into a role that speaks to you professionally and personally, love life and be happy. Reality? Not anywhere near that easy. That dream is out there an exists, however it is probably one of the hardest things to define, find and then actually make happen. I am not sharing that to discourage you, far from it, if you follow my writing here and on social you know that I constantly encourage people to push themselves to do the things they want to do. The point of the post is to support you until that happens. We all need to work, maybe you don't have everything completely figured out yet, so what do you do until you do? Or maybe you will never be one of those people that has one burning passion that you can turn into your life's work, and that's more than okay too. If you don't have that passion, what do you do then? Follow your interests, follo...
Post a Comment
Read more