Adapt or Die

It only takes a glance at the headlines or your messages to know that changes are outpacing our ability to cope with them. Phrases like disruptive change, urgent need, and new normal are now clichés.
If you cannot adapt to the current pace of change, you will find yourself reacting to crisis after crisis without any opportunity to stop and catch your breath. And no one is going to offer you a chance to slow down. In contrast, the pace of change is only going to get faster.

So how do leaders and teams cope with this “new normal”? Here are a few insights into what it takes to thrive in an unpredictable and churning environment.

The old paradigm of leadership is that of the expert, charismatic hero, who takes the reigns and directs the solutions to problems. The myth of the single heroic leader is outmoded and perhaps never was true. Today it takes a well-networked and inclusive team to generate creative ideas and implement working solutions in real-time.

Think about who the critical links are in your team. Who do teammates repeatedly seek out when they need resources, information, or support? Chances are this critical employee is not the highest-ranking member of the team but someone who is well connected and trusted, someone who has been around a while and knows where things are, like an experienced administrator or veteran front-line employee. These are the real heroes who can make or break your organization’s response to challenges.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s advice “plans are worthless, but planning is everything” highlights the need to plan and be flexible once engaged in carrying out the plans. Innovation requires improvisation, but that does not mean creativity does not require planning. Design thinking and creativity provide a framework that anticipates challenges and opportunities while supporting adaptation to real-time conditions.

There is an old yarn about a surgeon who had his sports car repaired at the local garage. The mechanic took disassembled parts laid out on a garage floor and expertly reassembled the car. He asked the surgeon why he was paid so much more than a mechanic when they both did complex work. The surgeon replied, “now try that with the engine running.”

Adaptivity requires ambidexterity, or the ability to keep the organization running while creating and implementing new solutions.

The creative process involves generating volumes of ideas (breathing in), then refining and choosing the most likely solutions (breathing out), then piloting those ideas to generate data (breathing in), then refining and improving the model based on that data (breathing out). Developing the ability to create as instinctively as breathing requires a specialized set of tools and techniques that are unique but learnable.

The best way to learn adaptability and creativity is through experience. It takes more than reading a book or hearing a great talk. Learning creativity is an active and inclusive process where teams can experiment and learn together. The best part is the learning is fun. Imagine having fun at work while learning to be a more adaptable and healthy organization!

If you and your team are ready to develop adaptive creativity, we can support you. Visit Creative Focus for more information. We would love to talk about your needs and generate a training or consulting plan that will help you survive and thrive in these times of accelerating change.