Constant change is here to stay and it is changing.

It is not going to slow down. It is only going to get faster.

It will get increasingly unpredictable and uncertain.

The next big thing is just around the corner. It might not be a pandemic but I bet you won’t see it coming.

You cannot ‘manage’ change

You cannot manage what you don’t know. So how can you ‘manage’ unprecedented change?

That makes ‘change management’ an oxymoron.

I argue that you can’t. You can only ‘adapt’ to it.

Organizations that embed adaptability to change into the essence of their being are the ones that will not only survive, but thrive in the face of whatever is thrown at them.

Whilst many organizations are trying to stay afloat on the tempestuous sea of change by setting a course based on weather reports and barometer readings, others are weathering the storm brilliantly.

They are not trying to forecast the changes ahead but are ready to rapidly adapt and change course as needed.

Understanding change

In order to be ready to adapt to change, we have to understand the nature of it.

I think it is best described by American author, inventor and futurist Raymond Kurzweil.

In his book, The Singularity is Near, he says:

“The future is widely misunderstood. Our forebears expected it to be pretty much like their present, which had been pretty much like their past.”

In a nutshell, he is saying, that we cannot base what we think about the future, purely based on the past.

It is this thinking that is likely to sink the ship.

The future is not unfolding linearly but exponentially, which makes forecasting what change is coming a challenge.

Kurzwell also wrote in the same book:

The future will be far more surprising than most people realize, because few observers have truly internalized the implications of the fact that the rate of change itself is accelerating.

In October, 2020, Aneel Chima and Ron Gutman wrote an article in Harvard Business Review called “What it Takes to Lead Through Exponential Change.”

They describe how change has been accelerated through advancements in technology, automation, human interconnectivity, artificial intelligence and the networks effects among them.

Change is marked by three dimensions say the authors.

• It’s perpetual — occurring all the time in an ongoing way.

• It’s pervasive — unfolding in multiple areas of life at once.

• It’s exponential — accelerating at an increasingly rapid rate.

This three-dimensional (3-D) change is defining our emerging future and, as a consequence, effective leadership will be defined by the ability to navigate this new reality.

This is what we are now dealing with and we need to be ready to continually adapt to this “new normal.”

I believe there are two key things organizations need to do. Build adaptive leaders and adaptive leadership teams; and build a workforce resilience in the face of 3D change. Both of these have to be part of the organizational culture and not something bolted on as an afterthought.

Adaptive Leaders

Adaptive leadership is knowing what to do, when you don't know what to do. Adaptive leaders learn through experimentation and manage the context, not the instruction set. They cultivate a diversity of views to generate a wealth of options. They lead with trust and respect and provide autonomy.

In my 2019 article, The Adaptive Leader, I used a soccer analogy to explore the concept of the adaptive leader.

Just as a soccer manager or coach understands that when change is constant, they have to be able to sense, respond, and act rapidly to stay ahead of the game, leaders in organizations have to do the same.

Soccer is constantly changing and evolving and the rate of evolution is increasing. Managers, coaches, and players may adopt the winning tactics of other teams or come up with opposing tactics to topple the opposition.

I described how team formations change to adapt to changing conditions.

In 2017, English Premier League was responsible for the emergence of the ‘back three’ formation, the 3–4–3 (or, sometimes the 3–4–2–1), which plays with three dedicated defenders rather than the traditional four. Chelsea manager Antonio Conte had always favoured playing three defenders, but after his team was thumped 3–0 by Arsenal, he made the leap. Chelsea went on to win 13 consecutive league matches, during which time it only conceded four goals.

Other teams have adopted the formation including West Ham, Borussia Monchengladbach, Palermo, and Genoa. But each 3–4–3 is different to the other as managers and coaches adapt the formation to reflect the strengths and weakness of the players.

None of this, however, is new. Many managers, over the years, have experimented with the 3-4-3 formation illustrating how they continually adapt to changing conditions and increased competition. It was used in the late 1990s at Milan and at Liverpool in 2012 under Brendan Rodgers whose team struggled against the 4–2–3–1 formation of Basel. Following a 1–0 defeat, Rodgers responded with the 3–4–2–1 formation.

Leaders in organizations have to adapt continually to the changing conditions if they want to stay ahead of the game.

Adaptive leadership teams

In my article, “Adaptive Leadership Teams”, I continued the soccer analogy. Adaptive leadership teams have role fluidity - anyone can play in any position depending on what needs to be done.

There is shared leadership with a shared purpose and widespread collaboration and innovation as a result.

This was demonstrated with the tactic of “total football.”

Total football is a tactical theory in soccer where any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in the team. It was made famous by the Netherlands national football team in 1974, when they reached the final of the FIFA World Cup.

Total football could be described as ‘organized chaos.’ Any player can move into another’s position. Another team member replaces a player who moves out of position. In this fluid and flexible system, no outfield player is fixed in a predetermined role. Anyone can successively play as an attacker, a midfielder or a defender. The only player that stays in position is the goalkeeper.

Every employee also need to be able to adapt to meet the demands of constant and volatile change.

Workforce resilience

2020 saw the publication of two of my books “Unleash The Resiliator Within. Resilience: A Handbook for Individuals” and “Unleash The Resiliator Within. Resilience: A Handbook for Leaders.”

As I said in the article that answered some of the questions about the publication:

“We have been in need of resilience well before the COVID-19 pandemic hit us.

Change is happening to organisations, and to the people within them, at a speed never encountered before. It is not going to slow down. We cannot predict it or control it.

We must all embrace the uncertainty, be truly agile, diverge and converge, and be ready to adapt and reposition at pace not experienced before.

The question that raises is, “How do we do that whilst dealing with the difficulties, demands and stress without burning out?”

We need to be The Resiliator. The Resiliator has a myriad of superpowers to use in the face of adversity, challenges and problems.

The Resiliator doesn’t just bounce back from setbacks – they bounce forward and make good of the situation. They embrace change and are ready to adjust and adapt as necessary.

Summary

Becoming truly adaptive to change and resilient in the face of it is not created by a point solution.

It is an eco-system of information, instruction, interactions, interventions and integrations - the five I’s.

These are not bolted on as an after thought, but embedded into the fabric of the organisation through both intentional and thoughtful design.