Increasing Your Adaptability Factor – Empowering Tips for Embracing Change

Being able to adapt appropriately and quickly in a world full of continuous change can be a challenge. Rapidly changing work and personal environments can create feelings of confusion, ambiguity and uncertainty. So how do we become more adaptable?

Over the past few months, I have been working with two organizations that have experienced significant organizational changes; new executive leadership, dramatically shifting markets, new lines of business, restructuring efforts and multiple lay-offs, to name a few. Coincidentally, I happened to schedule two very similar presentations with the senior leadership of these two organizations in the same week. Although the presentations had different approaches, they were both aimed at helping the team create new ways of doing business to respond to market changes. The results could not have been more different. One group thrived in this experience and the other did not.

The thriving senior managers had, what I like to call, a high “adaptability factor”. They exhibited more acceptance of their current state of affairs. They were able to shift, transform, and change their understanding of their work and the work of others. They were positive when speaking about opportunities and they were inquisitive about how they would play out. They were perceptive of their own feelings and the feelings of others. Most importantly, they talked more frequently about their visions, hopes and dreams.

In comparison, the other group members were resistant, fearful, and defensive. They spent most of the discussion time trying to hold onto and justify the “way we do things here”. They brought up failed projects to show that implementing new changes would not be successful. They did not agree on a clear and unified vision. They talked more about their fears of the future and less about their hopes and dreams.

As a change consultant, it is more exhilarating to work with groups like the thriving senior managers. In addition and more critical to positive business outcomes, my experience has shown that these individuals are more innovative, creative, competitive and desirable in the ever-changing global marketplace. Being more adaptable could be the deciding factor in a promotion or interviewing for a new job. To empower your adaptability competitive edge, here are a few suggestions to think about:

• Be positive. Speak and act with a positive attitude. It is not enough to “believe” that changes are opportunities; show positivity through your words, actions and interactions. When others resist, be a positive, re-directing voice in meetings or within work groups.

• Be accepting of the now. To be able to change you must accept a realistic view of the current situation. Be true to the present by acknowledging that things could always be improved.

• Be proactive. Keep your ears, eyes and heart open to upcoming changes. Anticipating changes can give you critical time to process. You may “feel” a change before you “see” it.  Change feels uncomfortable and confusing and these feelings give you a heads up that you are in a transition.

• Be curious. Look within when you are feeling overwhelmed or resistance to change. Ask and be curious about this resistance, without judgment. The latter part is critical. Ask yourself: “why is this change so scary for me?. Inquire within and inquire about others. Most importantly, empathize with both.

• Be connected to your mind, heart, soul and gut (body). A wise business coach of mine once told me: “there is a reason why your head is attached to a body – use it!”. When change happens, we instinctively know what to do if we listen carefully and trust our gut instinct.

• Be a dreamer. Create a vision for your work, teams, relationships and life. Being clear on what you want will naturally design a path for how to get there. Every day, take a step toward those dreams. This will give you feelings of achievement and keep you positive through the difficult times.

Like anything in life, becoming more adaptable takes practice. Although we have all practiced the process of change many times, becoming more adaptable requires us to shift the way we view, approach, process and work through change. The example of the two management groups provides a new learning opportunity to shift our view of change. There are many similar opportunities in our work lives.  Sometimes, they are easy to embrace and other times, they can be difficult. Ease and difficulty are both equal parts in the practice process and neither are indicators of success or failure. The only indicator for your success lies in your ability to acknowledge that you have a choice. You can choose to think and act like the thriving managers. Empowering yourself with the gift of choice at every learning opportunity will make the practice of increasing your adaptability a natural progression.

By Tammy Jordan, Founder of Leader Consulting Group