Michael Page - eBook - Adapting is Thriving | Page 9

Leadership
Making
adaptability
a habit
Mindsets, tools
and practices are on
hand to help us instil
agility and adaptability
into everything that
we do, writes
Adam Kingl.
We are living in an age of exponential change, but while we’re
well versed in narratives about shifts in landscape, industry,
market needs and redundant strategies, familiarity with the
challenge does not necessarily create a solution.
What do we have to do as leaders to navigate these waters? What skills
do we require to keep our organisations relevant and successful in the
21st century? There are mindsets, tools and practices that we can use
for ourselves, and in the development of others, to make adaptability
and agility a habit.
Three barriers to adaptability
In my consulting and executive education practice, I consistently
see three barriers to adaptability, no matter the size or industry of
the company.
1
The organisational culture punishes failure, or at least
attaches a strong stigma to failure. As a result, the priority is for
perfection and predictability.
Generally, new practices, processes, products or services that we
create are but tiny incremental adjustments or improvements to
what already exists. Such an enterprise rarely develops the sort
of game-changing supernova innovations that create exponential
rewards and disrupt its industry. So, the first area to work on
is your organisation’s attitude towards adaptability. You can be
error-free or you can be agile; you can’t be both.
How many times
do we try to adapt
to a new world, but
only discuss the
potential responses
among a small set
of colleagues?
2
People
don’t have clarity about what change is supposed
to look like; a huge reason that companies struggle to adapt. Too
many of us are familiar with the scenario:
Boss: “After the board meeting, we’ve all received a memo that
we need to encourage agility and innovation.”
Put-upon employee: “Ok. What should I be doing?”
Boss: “What do you mean?”
Put-upon employee: “What do I need to do that’s different to
what I’m doing now that would demonstrate that I’m being agile
and innovative?”
Boss: “You’ll work it out. You know – explore!”
Since routines and habits are difficult to disrupt at the best of times,
it is incumbent on leaders not only to set direction but to suggest,
(not dictate) a vision for what a new direction could resemble,
how it might impact day-to-day work, and what behaviours are
encouraged.
3
People don’t have a chance to practise adaptability.
I have found it immensely helpful to suggest lenses through
which leaders and their teams can practise adaptability and
innovation with a little more focus. For example, a team could
run a 24-hour hackathon where they create experiments
and then prototypes of innovations that they wish to
develop. That activity automatically moves the organisational
needle forward in terms of enhancing its creative capacity.
Similarly, a department could conduct interviews with customers,
suppliers, and partners about emerging trends they’re seeing in
the marketplace. This exercise would, by definition, break that
team out of its internal perspective. How many times do we try
to adapt to a new world, but only discuss the potential responses
among a small set of colleagues? Yet, we decry that we keep
coming up with the same solutions to any problem! It’s probably
because we’re drawing from a toolkit that rarely refreshes.
Change usually feels like a difficult, drawn-out, top-down, military
campaign instead of an organic, market-driven, exciting prospect.
It can be the latter, but we have to question some of our long-held
management paradigms about leading change that have fostered
collective disabilities.
Adam Kingl is the author of Next Generation Leadership, and a
keynote speaker, educator and advisor. He was previously the
regional managing director, Europe, for Duke Corporate Education,
Duke University, and the executive director of thought leadership
and learning solutions at London Business School.