Adapting is about being flexible and accommodating change.
Particularly when it’s difficult.
Businesses in the 21st Century are rapidly moving away from the traditional structured ways of working. Businesses now need people who can adjust to conditions that vary and who can be relatively comfortable working with incomplete or loose definitions.
Consider these four simple examples :
Most businesses now run a lot of projects which are temporary by definition. Project success is all about completing it with targets met, so eliminating the need for the team. Personnel involved, roles taken and location of work will frequently vary with the different projects, so flexibility is essential.
Global operations now means that offices in a business need to be open when their colleagues, customers and suppliers are open, so working location and hours may need to flex.
Many businesses are moving to partner-based models where some of the key services are delivered by specialist third party companies. Many business roles now involve collaberating with external parties as a matter of course.
Developments in telecommunications mean that many people can realistically do their work well away from the business environment. Management of the workforce is now very different.
All are new ways of working, and only possible if people can adapt and handle change.
The skill of changing
On a personal level, you need to train yourself to accept, embrace and even encourage change. Some change is easy to accept, but a lot – normally the most ambitious or the one that wasn't YOUR idea – isn’t. The most effective way to do this is to properly understand the reasoning behind it, then actively adjust the way you do things by choice. If you don’t do things differently, things won’t change. They can’t.
At a business level you may be put in a position to to manage change. The key to this is to make it as easy as it can be for people to accept the change by addressing any fears and concerns they have. There are a number of ways to do this, but the majority revolve around reassurance and explanation. The single most effective way an individual in this position can encourage change to happen is to be seen to adopt it themselves.
“For change to happen, things must change”
Not all change is necessarily healthy or easy to accept, so it is always important to perform the exercise of understanding what it’s all about. This isn’t always easy, as you will need to be able to appreciate the Big picture and recognise that difficulty with change isn’t unique to you!
In all cases, a positive attitude and a will to succeed are massive attributes. Although it can be a torrid journey, as people successfully adopt changes, there is almost inevitably a major increase in their confidence. Because it shows they can develop the skills to do it. Many objections to change are based on fear of the unknown or an unwillingness to move away from what is known.
Good adaptors typically
Understand or find out what the real reason for a change is
Don’t play politics
Are highly focused
Are often team players but also strong individuals
Have high personal standards
Are self starters
Take responsibility
Are confident, or at least have reasonable self esteem
Actively make sure things happen
Have a positive, constructive attitude
Actively embrace change, rather than wait for it to happen
Are stimulated by the New