Adaptability – the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions; the capacity to be modified for a new use or purpose. It sounds like a very valuable quality or skill in work with lightning speed technology changes and statistics that indicate people will change their career on average 5-7 times during their working life and where a full 30% of the total workforce will change jobs every 12 months!

In her TedTalk, Natalie Fratto talks about looking for adaptability as a key factor in choosing businesses to invest in. She highlights three specific areas that she focuses on - areas of skill that can be practiced, built upon and improved. These are:

What if – Being able to imagine, play with and plan through what-if scenarios. What if your revenue stream disappeared, what if your clients could not physically get to your location, what if a key supplier shutdown? Practicing “what if” questions stimulates alternate thinking and new possibilities.

Actively unlearning – Unlearning is the deliberate act of challenging what you already know – or think you know and allow new data to be considered and a totally new way of looking at something emerges. A phone used to be tied to a wall and was only used to talk to people – unlearning the function, role and user need related to communication spurred the technical advancement of the smartphone.

Exploration, not exploitation – This form of adaptability is about being curious for the sake of being curious, the mindset to proactively seek out the new not for the purpose of conquering or winning but to create and improve and build.

Have you got some shining adaptability skills or like me are you thinking there might be a couple of personal development goals related to adaptability on your to-do list?