Should Change Management Embrace Adaptability?

I increasingly come across leaders or managers who are confronted by numerous problems, many requiring urgent attention. For example, departments and teams are communicating in silos, or not at all, struggling through poor performance, or a loss of talent. Making decisions is challenged by where to start or how to diagnose the exact cause of a problem. Besides the pressure to act, the adage of adapt or die seem to feel like the only constant for leaders and the workforce. That is where I come in.

I have been fascinated with dynamical systems since I learned about the ‘butterfly effect’ or chaos theory in my younger years. I certainly have seen and experienced some chaos, most frequently when an organisation I was working in or alongside experienced unexpected or planned changes. I have tiptoed through that emotional journey, knee deep in uncertainty and fear. From big company merges where I had to re-interview for a role, to new product launches, implementing new IT systems and culture changes. Some of these changes were as exciting as they were fraught with tension and many unknowns.  

Change is often referred to a transition, making a move, adopting something new, or taking on a novel approach. These shifts require motivation to keep the momentum going and get to the end goal. However, we are firmly entrenched in an era of complexity and constant change, characterised by rapid technological advancements, globalisation, and changing consumer and employee expectations. This cyber-physical revolution is very reliant on individual and organisational adaptability- more than just managing changes. Adaptability (which itself has a few meanings) can be thought of as more like change’s big brother.

If change management is a deliberate process that guides an organisation or project to a new destination or process, adaptability intelligence is a conscious modification of the behaviours and actions to facilitate that change. Adaptability takes advantage of the constantly changing and complex environments businesses and organisations function in. Adaptability intelligence is also a learned approach to managing change, especially when looking at organisations through a lens of ambiguity and uncertainty.

Where can we start with learning the skills of adding adaptability to existing change management approaches?

First, it starts with viewing organisations, people, and processes through a complexity lens, here is why:

A Few Reasons to Adopt the Complexity :

Adopting complexity thinking as an approach when viewing an organisation looks at the structure, performance, communication, and the leadership practices. They are all part of a dynamic network and a vastly interconnected system. This approach accepts, but also actively anticipates, that small changes in one part of an organisation can have ripple effects across the entire organisation or in another part of the organisation.

Here's are some reasons why the complexity approach is in such demand for organisations right now when it comes to managing change and uncertainty:

1. Adaptability:

It is no coincidence that adaptability was rated LinkedIn‘s most in demand skill for 2024. Organisations experience rapid changes, unexpected disruptions, and plenty of uncertainty.  A complexity or whole-systems approach equips leaders and organisations to expect and embrace sudden and unforeseen changes. Challenges are seen as opportunities for innovation, and organisations develop the agility to better respond to their changing environments.

2. Improved Decision-Making:

A complexity approach emphasises the importance of shared decision-making, collaboration, and feedback, therefore, equipping organisations to harness the knowledge and experiences of the whole organisation. This leads to more informed decision-making.

3. Resilience in the Face of Uncertainty and Ambiguity:

Uncertainty is a constant struggle in today’s organisations. It must be factored into every decision that is made. Resilience prepares leaders and organisations to navigate challenges with more confidence. Therefore, organisations develop a culture of adapt then respond, and develop resilience strategies and mindsets, ready to navigate adversity with confidence and less stress, even when the path ahead is unclear.

4. Competitive Edge:

Embrace the messiness. Innovation becomes second nature when there is the ability to respond quickly to many novel sources of information, or a lack of clear information. This puts an organisation ahead of its competitors- who may remain trapped and slower in traditional ways of operating.

5. Employee Engagement and Satisfaction:

Finally, a complexity approach (guided by the right type of leadership-this is for another article) encourages collaboration and motivation by getting the whole organisation involved and ready to respond. This culture of empowerment, inclusion, and engagement, leads to higher employee satisfaction and talent retention.

Conclusion:

In my experience, after implementing and experiencing numerous changes- both big and small- from strategic planning, to engaging various stakeholders, and hosting knowledge-sharing workshops- challenges, complexity, and uncertainty are the only constants in the workplace. Leaders can choose from the many approaches and methods that best suit their purposes when incorporating a change or a new project. Not as many leaders are embracing a complexity approach to problem-solving, become risk-ready, and are yet to include adaptability intelligence.

How to create adaptability intelligence is a topic I plan to discuss in greater detail soon.