Adaptability - 10 SMART skills to become better people!

Adaptability is kind of a paradox in the human condition! On one hand, adaptability is one of our most fundamental survival skills; we are hardwired to adapt, to evolve and to survive. On the other hand, we are naturally quite resistant to change, and we can feel threatened by the unexpected. Adaptability is to me a reconciliation of these two things and that’s what makes it such a fascinating smart skill. 2020 was the year of global adaptability to working in a pandemic. Overnight, we had to figure out how to work from home, communicate digitally, manage our teams virtually, share space with family and pets, and face mental health issues and social isolation. Back in 2011, in a HBR article, Martin Reeves and Mike Deimler called Adaptability “The New Competitive Advantage”, arguing that believing that we live in a relatively stable world is dangerous. We must learn how to adapt to new environments by reading and acting on signals of change, we must experiment, and constantly move. Or as Prof. Charles Fine explains in his Clockspeed book, “every advantage is temporary”, and adaptation is the only survival mechanism. Adaptability, however, is expensive, painful and can even cause trauma. In this chapter, we will hear a perspective on adaptability from Asia School of Business’ Senior Director for Admissions, Emily Preiss. There are few people that I admire as much. She is beloved by everyone, she’s profound but also light and easy, she’s charismatic but without an ounce of ego, and more than anything, at ASB, she has been the magnet that attracted our extraordinary and unconventional students. Emily talks about how too much stimulation and we become too hyper, too aggressive. Too little and we get bored, numb, passive and even depressed and she speaks about the window of tolerance, the best state of stimulation in which we are able to function and thrive in everyday life. Make sure to download the book: “The Job Is Easy, People Are Not! 10 SMART Skills to become better people! by Loredana Padurean