4 Traits of a Highly Adaptable Person

As humans, we have the luxury of creating tools that will prepare us for times of unexpected change and crisis. We have access to forecasting charts, predictive frameworks, and can create crisis preparedness plans. We can work to prepare to the best of our abilities, but sometimes, everything just changes. I was almost six months into my new life as a business owner and consultant when suddenly, on a Wednesday morning in early March, everything changed in the matter of an hour. My clients called to inform me that my contracts were suspended, and my MBA program transitioned all classes online until further notice. 

In reality, my story is neither special nor unique. Many people have stories similar to mine. What makes our stories different, though, is what we have learned and have chosen to learn during this mutually disruptive, widespread experience. For me, it was improving my abilities to adapt.

I view adaptability is the power to detect and respond to change(s) around you, no matter how unexpected or inconvenient. By its very nature, adaptability is fundamentally cyclical. It begins with your ability to signal change in your environment, you must then decode and interpret these signals, and ultimately act with purpose to create a positive outcome. You will unavoidably and inevitably experience successes and failures as a result of your actions. Most importantly, you will build resiliency, which is, by definition, the ability to recover from or adjust easily to change.

I recently appeared on the Mindset Reset Podcast, speaking about how to intentionally improve your adaptability skills. You can become a highly adaptable person when you commit to improving yourself in the following four ways:

1. Become a Curious Learner

To successfully adapt, you must become good at learning. Whether you are a business owner or an employee, you must recognize how valuable you can become when you are curious and learn to do new things. Regardless of the situation, curiosity pushes you to be more open to experimenting with new ideas and methods, to think creatively, design solutions, solve problems, and overcome challenges.

Start by asking “why?”. Curious minds seek to understand how and why things work. In fact, resistance to change, which is the opposite of being adaptable, often results because people don’t understand. For example, they don’t understand why they are performing a certain task in a particular way and therefore can’t recognize its benefits and potential value. By asking why and investing in learning, you will develop a greater awareness and understanding of the situation. This will empower you to adapt to change more effectively. 

2. Be Fluid and Flexible

Through curiosity and investing in learning, you can train your brain and refine your instincts to become more flexible, which is a quality of which adaptation thrives.

Be intentional about scheduling free time into your daily routine. This can be reading a book, listening to a podcast, meditating, going for a walk, or just doing nothing. Adding this element to your day breaks up fixed, rigid routines and introduces flexibility to your thoughts and actions. This cultivates learning and improves your ability to adapt to change.  Adaptive people and businesses are fluid and flexible in their routines and with their processes.

From a broader organizational perspective, evaluate the structure of your business. Does your organization have strict boundaries and routes that people use to transfer information and responsibilities? If so, this describes a fixed structure, which lacks the flexibility necessary to learn and adapt to change. 

To the contrary, does your business structure allow and encourage people to detect changes and provide them the opportunity to respond and make decisions? This is one characteristic of a fluid environment that encourages autonomy, risk taking, communication, and flexibility. As organizations become more fluid, they transition decision-making to those people in the best positions to detect changes. An interesting example of this is Whole Foods. I recently read an article and learned that each store has about eight teams. These eight team leaders, not the national buyers, work together to decide what to stock on their shelves in their individual stores. 

We can all look at the structure of our lives or businesses and create room for flexibility so that we can learn to become better at adapting.

3.  Just Do It

In too many situations, people fail to adapt to change because they don’t act. You could be intimidated by the task, so you often deliberate instead of acting. You want to wait for the right time, but that time may never come. You want to be perfect, so you delay until you can meet perfection. In reality, however, taking action is the perfect choice in becoming more adaptable.

To be adaptable, you must properly balance deliberation with action. When you feel 80% ready, it is time to act. Don’t act solely on impulse, but don’t wait for perfection either. Your ability to make quick and effective decisions is one of the most defining qualities of adaptability. 

When I feel stuck, I often channel Nike’s brand identity, ”Just Do It”. It provides context and meaning in everything I do. In fact, it speaks to me in both my business and personal lives. In addition to using it on my most productive days as a business owner, I also rely on it for days when I would rather do anything but my morning workout. To me, “just doing it” is a better option than doing nothing at all and improves my ability to be adaptable.  

4. Celebrate Failure

Adaptive people and adaptive companies are tolerant of failure, often to the point of celebrating it. They recognize that fear of failure can prevent curiosity, flexibility and acting, all the primary qualities of being adaptable that were previously discussed.

When you succeed, you can provide valuable knowledge and learning opportunities by teaching others about your new skillset, technique, or process. When you fail, however, you can provide even more value by sharing what didn’t work. You are acquiring and sharing knowledge in a similar way but can focus your attention on improving efficiencies. Through failure you learn, you grow, and you adapt. The identification of small successes amidst larger failures can be the most important step in adapting and thereby improving future performance. 

In conclusion, adaptability is not about predicting the future. Instead, it is about having awareness of your environment, being curious and flexible, sensing a change, and then acting to create a positive outcome from a difficult situation. When you are intentional about adapting, you will begin to lead your life and your organization to more productive and agile processes, which can ultimately create far greater success.