I recently began a series of posts, aiming to encourage thinking and an exchange of ideas about how we enhance our adaptability to thrive in an environment of change.
One of my insights through my learning about the subject has been that we intuitively recognise adaptability as being important, but it can perhaps feel intangible - developing our adaptability needs a really clear 'why?'.
Just think for a moment about the following challenges. How many do you recognise in your context?
- A business struggles, because the leadership team were not willing or able to adapt fast enough to changes in market conditions.
- A colleague leaves your team, because of changes to their job role. It will cost you more time and money to replace them than to reskill them into the role, and you will lose valuable experience.
- An employee has to take time off, or leave, because of anxiety and stress, caused by the uncertainty associated with changes outside of their control.
- There’s a merger or acquisition and employees need to adapt to new rules, new values, new cultures for the business to move forward effectively.
- You know you need to innovate, but you are not sure how to manage the tension between this and keeping existing activities on track. And who has the right capabilities and mindset for these activities.
- There is a major re-organisation in your business involving changes in strategic direction, structure, positions, titles, and job roles – how can you ensure the support needed in different parts of the business is provided effectively?
You have probably experienced some of these challenges and can most likely anticipate others in the foreseeable future. Thriving and growing during these kinds of change is helped by understanding and utilising our adaptability. It is no wonder that adaptability consistently lands at the top of desired employee skills, cited by HR and executives alike.
Working with AQai - Adaptability Assessments & Coaching provides insight across 3 Dimensions of adaptability (illustrated below) and enables us as individuals and teams to better understand how we can respond to the kind of changes we are all experiencing and achieve better outcomes.
So how well do you know your own adaptability strengths and challenges, and those of others affected by change?
In my next article I will begin to share some perspectives on the first Dimension of AQ - Ability.
