How to Improve Your Resilience with Better Adaptability to Change

Each one of us is in the business of solving problems. In fact, each time you act to improve a situation, you’ve brought about change, whether it’s as grand as resolving a matter for a client or as mundane as putting together flat-pack furniture or cleaning up the kitchen. We’re all agents of change.

Now consider that people are agents of change differently because they have a strong inborn preference for how they solve problems. Dr. Michael J. Kirton’s Adaption-Innovation Theory deepens our understanding of this truth by providing a framework that describes the different approaches. “Adaption” is an approach that accepts the existing construct or way of doing things and uses the existing structure to develop a solution. “Innovation” describes an approach that may seek to alter the construct or way of doing things to develop a solution. Under Kirton’s theory, problem-solving styles span a roughly 120-point scale of more adaptive to more innovative, with most people in the middle.

The key is that differences in approach (referred to as problem-solving, creativity, or cognitive style) mean that people also prefer to solve certain problems and, of course, don’t like and can struggle with other sorts of problems. All you need to do is look to your colleagues and clients for evidence of the range of problem-solving styles. Consider practices that require intense planning; more adaptive lawyers will gravitate to those practices and likely thrive. Alternatively, industries or practices that require bold risk taking will attract more innovative lawyers. To be clear, both adaptive and innovative lawyers are creative, just differently. And, both adaptive and innovative lawyers are agents of change.

Not only can change that differs from our inborn preferred style of change be quite difficult but change that is quite close to inborn style can also trigger discomfort when the stakes and uncertainty are high. The degree of discomfort with change, or said more positively, the degree of adaptability to change determines our experience.

What we’re really talking about is resilience. Resilience is often defined as our ability to withstand or overcome adversity and successfully adapt to change and uncertainty. It’s more than bouncing back. Strong resilience means a person bounces forward, toward a future that feels positive, in the face of adversity. While the building blocks of resilience are much broader than just adaptability to change, according to the ResilienceBuilder data insights, 99 percent of highly resilient people are adaptable to change. Thus, improving adaptability to change will improve a person’s resilience. 

How to Bounce Forward with Grace and Ease

Dr. Kirton was known to remind his colleagues that the only constant in life is change. And, paradoxically, change can be difficult even when a person intentionally initiates the change. Improving resilience to bounce forward, therefore, improves not only comfort with the change, but efficacy in the face of change. While we typically embrace “adaptive changes” as system improvements that are often barely noticeable such as most computer updates, innovative change is, by definition, a shift in paradigm and thus disruptive. It is in the face of innovative, paradigm-shifting change that our resilience is, therefore, tested. These seven strategies will improve your adaptability so that you can pass the test.

1. Embrace acceptance. Buddhists were on to something by adopting “radical acceptance,” which means embracing reality as it is, without resistance or negative judgment, fostering a sense of peace and equanimity. While this may seem lofty and ungrounded, the practice is practical. Acceptance is what happens after denial, disbelief, anger, bargaining and depression. In addition to being unpleasant, everything prior to acceptance renders a person ineffectual. Once you’ve accepted the change, you can focus on navigating toward success and stability.
2. Strengthen your sense of self. With confidence, embracing your strengths and struggles with objectivity will ground you so that you can marshal the resources and people necessary for success. Don’t fall into a trap of self-loathing over being afraid or lack of a particular skill. Instead, plan––with others––around it.
3. Go from driven by fear to objective assessment. While it’s part of the human condition to experience fear, we don’t have to be driven by fear. Take this short-form, emotional-intelligence based leadership assessment help you recognize when fear has taken charge. Next, consider that when you exhibit any of the behaviors noted in the “at your worst” column, your unconscious fears, not your rational mind, are compromising your capacity to think clearly and creatively about challenges. While difficult to effectuate, choose objective thinking over fear-driven thinking by taking the time pressure off yourself and considering what you would do if you knew you would not fail.
4. Know yourself and your “change” style. Knowing your “change style” allows you to adjust your thinking to be more adaptable. As with much of life, self-awareness improves efficacy and experience. List the types of problems you like solving, and the types that you don’t. Strategize how you will address with the latter.
5. Discern what doesn’t still serve you. Step back to discern whether existing routines, processes and perspectives are still effective. If not, experiment with alternatives until you find what serves.
6. Embrace what still works. We live in a fast-moving world where change is the constant all around us. Focus on the simple routines that still work and what you can control. Prioritize self-care routines, including bolstering social support and physical stamina.
7. Don’t let your tolerance for risk derail you. We’re all risk-averse in our own way. Our survival depends on it. Our survival also depends on us taking risks. Recognize rather than let yourself be ruled by your appetite for risk. Slow your thinking down to consider what might happen, upside and all. Then decide.

Consider that while a paradigm shift may feel like a threat, it could, in actuality, be providing you with the opportunity to achieve personal goals, capitalize on new ways of offering services and complete projects that you’ve put off.