Adaptive Change Is Different From Innovation
You recognize things are changing. Have you been experiencing adaptive change?
Many people, likely most people, realize that change is always happening. There are technology advancements, societal shifts, and even history that becomes understood in a different way.
Is there a status quo? How long does a status quo last? It is minutes, hours, a year or more?
There are pockets of people who want life exactly the way it was years ago. There are groups of people, the Amish come to mind, who believe the ways of the past are the pathways to the future.
In a world of constant change the riskiest place to be might be staying in the status quo.
What do you do? Do you adapt or do you innovate?
Adaptive Change
Many people are on the path to adapting. Change is happening. Sometimes too slow and sometimes too fast. In some cases, the expectation is to go back to the old way of doing things. It suggests that perhaps there isn’t a new normal.
Think of the cars of the 1990s, or older, on one hand, it seems not that long ago, on the other, the technology in newer automobiles is drastically different.
Is different better?
It may depend on who you ask. If you’re driving a brand-new car, as compared with one manufactured 20 or more years ago, you’ve adapted to change.
Sure, it’s still an automobile with four tires, but many things about its movement, suspension, comfort, and onboard tech are very different. Perhaps, you didn’t even notice.
It is true for your computing devices. From mechanical storage drives to static storage, to the cloud. As an end-user do you even realize where your data is being stored? If you are a smartphone user, probably not. You’ve just been going with the flow.
If you engage at nearly any level in society, your community, or your workplace, you’ve probably changed recently.
Adaptive change doesn’t make you an innovator. Yet, innovation is something someone is doing.
There is always a new normal.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
