How to become more adaptable

Cast your mind back to a simpler time – the nineties: Michael Jackson was moonwalking, The Cosby Show was on primetime, and offices were re-forming around an innovative new concept: hot-desking. 

Back then, only the latter was controversial.

While hot-desking promised more space, innovation and collaboration, it also created more of something else: destabilisation. By removing the comfort and familiarity of a dedicated desk, employers also removed a lot of joy from work.

Humans hate change

Ever struggled to fall asleep on the first night of a holiday? That’s because unfamiliar environments are intuitively insecure – putting our subconscious on high alert. Hot-desking does the same. So does moving houses, navigating crises, disruptive technology, widespread redundancies, strategy updates, process overhauls, economic downturns… Or your work bestie resigning.

Yup, we just listed a bunch of things that happen all the time. We are in the era of constant change, which means adaptability – our ability to adjust – is fast becoming one of the most sought-after leadership skills. In the future, it’s likely more valuable than intelligence, empathy, time management, influence and all the other components of self-leadership. 

When the only constant is change, the path to success requires knowing how to zig and zag your way there. The problem is humans are creatures of habit. Most of us have to fight the urge to resist uncertainty and train our brains to thrive in an ever-evolving world.

Adapt or die

We’ve seen what happens to companies that fail to adapt: Goodbye taxis, hello ride-sharing. Goodbye Yahoo, hello Google. Goodbye bookshops, hello Amazon. Goodbye Blockbuster, hello Netflix. Eighteen years ago, iPhones weren’t a thing. Fifteen years ago, Instagram wasn’t. 

The same rules apply to your career; we need to adapt to thrive. Work in marketing? Strong communication skills are a must, but so is the ability to learn how to use AI tools, adjust to new platforms and channels, and pivot campaigns in response to data-driven insights. If you avoid TikTok or revenue reporting, your career progression will likely be limited. 

As Darwin once said, “It’s not the strongest that survives, but the most adaptable”. And that’s good news because no matter how small your comfort zone is, you can stretch it to fit your future career.

So, how do you practice adaptability?

Start-up life is like a career on steroids. Falling in love with one way of doing things is the fastest path to failure, so the successful quickly learn to pivot. 

Take Play-Doh, for example. You may think they always created brightly coloured clay, and you’d think wrong. Play-Doh was invented as a soft compound to wipe soot from wallpaper. As energy became cleaner, demand dropped, and the company’s future looked uncertain. It was only when the sister-in-law of an exec saw its play potential that the company’s fortunes changed (no comment on the unofficial role women have played in corporate history 😉).

Play-Doh combined experience with opportunity and adapted it. They were open-minded about new uses for an existing product and flexible in their approach – simple, right? The theory really is, but action is always harder. So here’s how we can all practice adaptability in our own careers: 

Open-mindedness

When faced with change, our thoughts usually drive our behaviour. Mindset is critical in adaptability, so practice managing yours:

• Be a beginner: We learned how to walk, talk and tie our laces, so we can learn almost anything – simply by doing it. It’s not that you don’t know how; it’s that you don’t know how yet.
• Get out of your own way: Self-limiting beliefs keep you stuck. Identify and address those slippery little lies – you’re not too old, too dumb, too busy or too anything.
• The powr of positivity: Yes, our brains are wired to spot all the things that could go wrong. So, rewire them to focus on positive outcomes and give yourself a goal to work toward.
• Seek new perspectives: Yes, our bubbles are cosy, but they’re also a trap. Build your professional board of directors carefully – you want fresh perspectives and people who challenge you. Bonus points if you seek out someone with an opposite viewpoint and find common ground.

Flexibility

We use words like flexibility daily, but what does it mean? According to our research assistant Chat GPT, it’s the ability to adjust when faced with new information or challenges. Some of us are born with the ability to do the splits; others have to stretch to get there:

• Love a routine? Break it: Whether it’s breakfast times, morning scrolling or your desk, identify a pattern in your life and change it – the more you do it, the more comfortable you’ll be with discomfort.
• Be wrong: Hurt someone’s feelings? Get tough feedback? Land on the losing side of a debate? Being wrong is critical to progress, so put your hand up and own it.
• Disagree and commit: Don’t like a decision? Make your case up until the call has been made, then get on board with whatever the outcome.
• Your way isn’t the only way: Your process may be excellent, but we guarantee it’s not the only way to do things. Embrace different ways of working and the discomfort that comes with it.
• Switch between problems and solution mindset: Don’t spend too much time in either camp, but do learn the right mindset to apply at the right time.

Be malleable like Play-Doh

If Play-Doh stuck to cleaning, they’d have gone the way of Kodak.

Lol, just joking. Kodak is making a comeback. Under the new leadership and growth plan, revenues are up over 400% this year. The company has adapted through cryptocurrency and scanners before finding traction in ‘advanced chemicals’.

If they can do it, you can too.