Abstract

The willingness of individuals and teams to experience the ‘discomfort of adaptation’, as opposed to the ‘comfort of learning’, is the crucial meta-factor in the drive to increase performance. Too much time and effort is spent on strategy and knowledge. This is not to say that strategy and knowledge are not important. However, the focus on looking ‘outside’ rather than ‘inside’ for performance solutions, while it may be more comfortable for everyone concerned, does not quite cut it. As Grashow and Heifetz state in The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, “The most common error organisations make is to try and solve adaptive challenges with technical means.”1 An adaptive factor is one that requires the individual (or team) to examine themselves and then adapt their mental models or beliefs, rather than simply feed new strategies and actions into the thresher of their existing mindset. Applying new technical factors is like pouring new water into the same vessel, whereas using an adaptive approach involves shifting the form and the shape of the vessel itself, so that the water can move in new directions. Let’s explore three crucial adaptive factors.