Adaptability and flexibility are considered to be the critical skills required by individuals living in the present century. The demand for change is coming in a big way in the form of disruptions brought in by technology, competition and strategies. Moreover, the unexpected arrival of pandemic like COVID 19, necessitates a relook on the aspects of adaptability and flexibility to cope up with lock downs, restricted movements, social distancing, work from home, virtual meetings, online classes for students and the shoot up of ubiquitous home delivery mechanism over the brick and mortar retailer shopping activities.
The driver or the driving force for adaptability and flexibility is change.
Flexibility refers to one’s own willingness and ability to change. Flexibility is often a kind of quick response or quick change in one’s approach and way of doing things. The qualitative responsiveness to adjust to new situations is referred to as adaptability. Adaptability is more time driven, wherein the person understands that the environment will not change for him and that he will have to change his habits and attitudes to succeed in the current or transformed scenario. Hence, adaptability is the ability of an individual to change itself to the very best to meet the needs of the current situation or environment.
Ways to become more adaptable and flexible
- Have the willingness to move out of your comfort zone.
- Immerse yourself in new environments to experience more.
- Listen to others without filters and judgements.
- Be more emotionally intelligent
- Zoom out to gather the big picture.
- Gather multiple perspectives
- Never be a perfectionist
- Leave space and time for the unexpected.
- Be progressive and predictive.
- Have multiple plans.
- Be creative and innovative.
- Overcome procrastination.
Story
Once upon a time there was a spring that lived happily and safely inside a pen.Although he heard many noises coming from outside, he lived believing that outside his world inside the pen, there was nothing good. Even just to think about leaving his pen made him so scared that he was quite content to spend his life compacting and stretching him again and again inside that tiny space.
However, one day, the ink ran out, and when the pen’s owner was busy
changing it, there was an accident. The spring was flung through the air and landed in the toilet drain, well out of sight. Terrified, and cursing his bad luck, the spring was flushed through pipe after pipe, each time thinking it might be his end. During the journey, he did not dare open his eyes out of pure fear, nor did he stop crying. Swept away by the water, he travelled on and on and on, until he ended up in a river. When the river current lost its force, and the spring could see that things had calmed down a bit, he stopped crying and listened all around him. Hearing birdsong and wind in the trees, he felt encouraged to finally open his eyes. What the spring saw was the pure, crystal waters of the river, the rich green rocks of the riverbed, and all kinds of fish of many colours, whose skin seemed to dance under the sunlight. Now he understood that the world was much greater than the space inside the pen, and that there had always been many things outside, waiting to be enjoyed.
After spending a while playing with the fish, he went over to the river bank and then to a field of flowers. There he heard the weeping of a lovely flower
flattened by a rabbit and could no longer stand up straight. The spring realised that he could help the flower, so he offered to be his support. The flower accepted and slipped through the middle of the spring. There they lived happily together.
Activity
Enlist three practices that you would change to adapt to the digital world. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Quote
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” —-Charles Darwin
Take Away
1. Flexibility is often a kind of quick response or quick change in one’s
approach and way of doing things. The qualitative responsiveness to adjust to new situations is referred to as adaptability.
2. Follow the 12 point strategy to become more flexible and adaptable.
