'What the hell do we do now'?

The sh*t hit the fan, a pandemic struck and the world shifted! 

As things changed, we had to change. At each turn there was a new set of choices, options ... and often there were opportunities too. 

We kept asking, ‘what the hell do we do now?’ 

And the changes and challenges keep coming! 

Over the past few months, I’ve collaborated with 17 other authors to write the aptly titled 'What The Hell Do We Do Now', an enterprise guide to COVID-19.

I contributed the chapter ‘Adapt’ and share some of the examples of different intensities of adaptation. 

Adapt - it’s what we need to do when we’re faced with changing conditions. 

 
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The back cover reads: 

2020 has been a year of significant disruption to organisations all around the world. By the end of February, bushfires, protests, riots, drone strikes, impeachment and Stock Market crashes had shocked the world. Britain left the European Union and some Royals left Britain. The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken business, economy and society to its core and profoundly changed our priorities and operations. In these times where business, society and economy are being reshaped, we have also seen people and organisations step up and forge a path into the New Normal.

In What The Hell Do We Do Now, 18 authors explore the tools and frameworks that can help you and your organisation navigate and emerge from crisis in better shape than when you entered it. Drawing on their own research across a wide range of domains, the chapters follow the narrative arc of Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s Heroine’s Journey, the classic story-telling formula of heroes who are thrust into chaos and return transformed through the challenges they face.

Could you yield … rather than resist

Of all the skills we can learn and develop, what if we just focused on how we could become more adaptable… more willing to change?

Imagine how this one capability - a willingness to change - could impact our world and our lives.

Imagine how it might help a team learn new things and deliver better services.

The progress we would make, the ideas we would put out into the world, the conversations we’d have, what we’d find out and what could be possible.

The problems we’d solve instead of the additional ones we tend to create.

Imagine how less frustration there might be in the world if we were all a little more flexible, adaptable, changeable.

And imagine how we’d grow, individually and collectively, if we became more tolerable of change, looked for it, sought it out, welcomed it and 'went' with it. Adaptability is the capability.

What if we chose to yield… instead of resist? Look for opportunities to change and adapt; it gets easier.

4 more ideas on adaptability

9 - Ingenuity

The Institute for the Future's 2020 skills included novel and adaptive thinking. We’ve got to find ways to be more resourceful and clever to get more of the right things done. This means hacking ourselves, hacking our systems and processes, and quite possibly, hacking other people too!

10 - Empathy

To understand and feel what others are experiencing is a power shift to make; from caring less to caring more. Trust goes deeper, quicker, and it’s not about you, it’s about them.

11 - Creativity

The subtle art of making things up is a human capability we’re born with - ranking highly on the list of the World Economic Forum's future work skills. Creativity creeps up higher in the rankings each year! The cry of ‘I’m not creative’ is done. Time to change that script!

12 - Curiosity

Our childlike wonder has been replaced with compliance, following rules and systems without knowing why. Don't jump to solutions, deny or discount; wonder more.

There you have 12 ideas about adaptability; it's THE capability of today.

Developing adaptability - your willingness to change

The next 4 ideas I’m posting on adaptability are:

5️⃣ Facilitation

Our world of work needs greater ease and progress, less red tape. Facilitation is about making things easier and to facilitate we'll need to give up being a control freak and be able to flex.

6️⃣ Visualisation

We're drowning in information! We need quicker and clearer ways to convey ideas and thinking. It's time to get over our ‘I can’t draw’ complex, and start making sketching, imagery and visualising an everyday kind of thing.

7️⃣ Experimentation

Do you test, try, fail and learn? That's adaptability right there! Good things are often brought about through advancing and pioneering schools of thought. Today’s workplaces need to be more laboratory than court room.

8️⃣ Improvisation

Responding to uncertainty is a daily requirement. Operating from principles rather than prescriptions can help because no two situations are the same, no two people are the same. Improv doesn’t just belong on the stage, in comedy festivals or on TV. 

Adaptability - one of the biggest capabilities of our time

I’m posting on ADAPTABILITY; one of the biggest capabilities of our time.

It's our capacity, willingness and ability to adjust to new conditions.

Here are 4 of 12 BIG ideas about adaptability:

1️⃣ Sensemaking We need to gather, sort, filter and process information rapidly. Without making sense we’re in the dark. It gives us insight so we can decide what to do next.

2️⃣ Listening We fail to listen; Hugh Mackay says we fear we will be changed if we listen. But by entertaining ideas, information and insights, we can become willing to adapt. Oscar Trimboli says deep listening is what's required... beyond words.

3️⃣ Learning Understanding and knowledge opens us to possibility. We mature. Try, trip, fail, learn. It’s the portal to even more skills and capabilities, yet so many of us think we already know it all.

4️⃣ Collaborating We can’t go it alone. Our future requires us to work with others, engage, listen, communicate, tolerate, include, invite, welcome. It takes work and doesn’t happen naturally for some. We need to collaborate to adapt, and adapt to be able to collaborate.