Six Skills for 2026: 4. Adaptability

Your plan is not the final goal. It never was.

Does it feel like someone just quietly turned up the speed on the treadmill — and nobody asked if you were ready? Because life is moving fast right now. Really fast. And most of us are just trying to keep our footing, quietly hoping that today might be the day nothing new gets thrown at us.

It won’t be. But here’s the good news.

The leaders and teams who thrive aren’t the ones with the tightest plan. They’re the ones who’ve trained themselves to move without one. And that’s a skill — not a personality trait you either have or you don’t.

In the fourth instalment of their Six Skills for 2026 series, Phil and Pen get into what adaptability actually looks like in practice — not as an abstract buzzword, but in your body, your meetings, and your leadership in real time.

In this episode, they walk you through how to:

• Treat your plan as a hypothesis, not a contract — releasing the route doesn’t mean abandoning the goal
• Understand what your body is doing when change arrives — and why willpower alone will never be enough
• Reframe failure as data — and build a team culture where adaptation is celebrated, not hidden
• Use the weekly pivot review — a simple habit that transforms how you respond to the unexpected
• Model adaptability as a leader — because your team will follow exactly what they see at the top

When the ground shifts beneath you, there are three choices. Wait. Stagnate. Or create.

The competitive advantage now isn’t knowledge. It’s the speed at which you can learn. And here’s the thing — you are far more remarkable at this than you give yourself credit for.

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As mentioned in this episode, Philippa explores the improvising mindset and how every connection and interaction shapes your reality in her TEDx Talk. Watch it here: The Improvising Mindset

Transcript

Adaptability Teaser And Definition

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Adaptability is the capacity to recognise when the context or something has changed and you need to change your response accordingly. And it's not about giving up what you're trying to achieve, it's not about giving up your goal, it's about releasing your attachment to the root to get there. You know, imagine being a leader that doesn't wake up thinking, I hope nothing changes today, but wakes up going, ooh, I hope something interesting comes in. Yeah. Treat your plan as a hypothesis and not a contrast. Very nice. Isn't that nice? Life in both of those scenarios. Like things change, we adapt, we are remarkable as human beings, and we're so much better at looking back at how we've adapted than looking forward. So we need to make it a practice for looking forward into adaptability, knowing how well we've done it in the past.

SPEAKER_06 0:46

Yeah.

Welcome To 4D Human Being

SPEAKER_04 0:47

What I realise as I reflect back is of course encouraging adaptability in others. Here's some things you can do. Hello, my name's Philip Walla. My name is Penelope Waller, and we are two of the directors at 4D Human Being. And welcome to the 4D Human Being podcast. What's it all about, Pen? It's all about your personal and professional relationships, it's about your communication skills, how you lead, how you work and build teams, how you are looking after yourself and your well-being, and how you are much more at choice. What do we mean by that? Well, sometimes we can get a little caught in patterns in life, and we can all be a little bit on our automatic pilot. So 40 human being is all about helping us get back to choice and being a four-dimensional human being, and your fourth dimension, of course, is intention. So whether it's about your impact, your leadership style, your team dynamics, whether it's about your well-being, whether it's about your communication or your presentation skills. Anything that involves human beings interacting with other human beings, 4D Human Being are here to help. We're gonna take a deep dive and look at some tools, insights, theories that are gonna help you go from a 3D human doing to a 4D human being so that you can happen to the world rather than the world simply happening to you. Recording. Woohoo! Good afternoon, it's the end of the week. Well, Phil, do you know I've made a big boy? I've just been walking, I've got leaves in my hair, and do you know what I don't know? I've made a big mistake. Mistake. I thought Friday afternoon, go wild. I've poured myself a zero beer. Zero beer, I'll as we call them. I've taken one so and I've got the hiccups. Yeah. These are the unintended consequences. Well, I think as we call them. The digestive system changes with age. Fizzy drinks. Is that where we're starting? We can't start every episode with now that we're physical. Exactly, exactly. Exactly. Just women of a certain age moaning about ailments. I do enjoy zero beer there. And also they they sell themselves as isotonic sports drinks. It's basically a health, it's basically juice, isn't it? It really is. Yeah, it really is. It's fibre. Which is the new which is the new protein. So we're all we're all we're all good. Alright, if anybody followed that, well done. So welcome, welcome to. It's like it's like being inside the brains of like some sort of fairground ride or like kaleidoscope. I do think that's what it's like inside your brain. It is, it really is.

SPEAKER_05 3:36

And sometimes it's just flat line. It's like they unplugged it, you know, you need a red. Well, yeah. Super segue, Phil. Yeah, go on. Laura! Whack is the jingle. Whack is the jingle. You are highly adaptable to what you need and what the world needs around you. When you need to be creative, Phil, that is, yeah, yeah.

When Plans Break Choose Calm Nimbleness

SPEAKER_04 4:07

And then we adapt to the flatlining. So today we are talking about adaptability. The fourth of our six skills for the new era. May the fourth be with you when it comes to adaptability. Exactly. So here's the thing. We like plans.

SPEAKER_05 4:25

I love a plan, Phil.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

We fall in love with them.

SPEAKER_05 4:28

Yeah.

Why Adaptability Matters Now

What Adaptability Is Not Drift

SPEAKER_04 4:28

We go, especially now we've got Claude or AI on there. Yep, we exactly love the diary, love a list, and also now we've got Claude, other AI uh chums are available. Do you know lots of people are you talking about Claude now? Yeah, I think he's like. Really noticing it. He's so good. So you get all your structure, you get all your plan. So I think it's going to be even more like we'll get, you know, we'll get attached to a plan. Yeah. And then reality arrives and the plan doesn't fit anymore. It's, you know, it's an army concept, isn't it? No plan survives the enemy. But you do need one. But it's how quickly and usefully you can, it's not really completely letting go. It might be, but how quickly you can adapt. Well, we had this really interesting conversation, didn't we, as we were walking the dogs this morning. If you think about a scale from sort of inertia, yeah, right up to kind of just rapid panic and doing things. We're not really talking about either of those things. We're talking about a sort of a calm nimbleness. Yes, exactly. If we think about adapting to, I mean, this makes you think of the Charles Darwin quote, you know, it was it was always misquoted as survival of the fittest, but of course it's the survival of the most adaptable. If we exactly that, if we think about a passive, like you said, inertia, yeah, where we're not adaptable because weighted because we're just letting, as we would say, the world to happen to you. And there's another version of that, isn't there? There's sort of passivity, but there's also rigidity, yeah, resistance, resistance. And then at the other end, it's just constantly, like you say, just constantly, constantly changing. Sorry, sorry, change, change, like, yeah, but we can't do that. No, that's not working. Yeah, and that and actually this is somewhere in the middle of the way. That can feel like I'm being really adaptable, but my goodness, you're gonna burn out absolutely change that's going on. That that middle ground, there's something actually not just practical and strategic and smart and incredibly important at this point in time and you know what's happening in the world and where we are, there's something very beautiful about it. It's that middle ground of readiness, responsiveness. It's travelling lighter. Yes, you've got your plan, but you can put it down. If I think about the analogy with dance, it's being right there with your dance partner, not rigid in your own way of doing things, neither like a sack of potatoes that they've got to lug around the dance floor. It's right there. And nobody needs that. And it's and it's the same thing in uh in in business, in relationships, in teams, in innovation, in in products. It's that responsiveness, it's being ready without that being panicky or heavy. And something else that I was thinking about, why this is so important and what we really want to talk about today. I think adaptability, or you know, sort of we talk about agility as well, is something that's either talked about in abstract terms, or it's talked about in organizational terms. So everybody knows the stories of Blockbuster companies who who didn't adapt, who didn't adapt to the market. Exactly. So we know those stories. We go, oh, there's the there's the warning story, you know, Blockbuster still selling videos when you know things were clearly changed, like it clearly had a timeline on it, or Kodak, or or you know, any number of organizations. And when you hear those stories, you get you get the story, you get the meaning of the story, but on an individual human level, what would it have actually meant in those meetings, in those strategic planning meetings, to have been able to adapt? Because it's not you might even know that you've got to adapt, but what are you actually how are you actually building that muscle? So today we're gonna talk about, yeah, the world is changing very quickly and faster than our nervous system was designed to handle. So it's not it's not just how you can understand that, it's what you can actually do about that in the moment. And listening to you, Phil, it's a it's a combination, isn't it? Of well it's a combination of many things, but a couple of things that come to mind are it's kind of simultaneously letting go and act and do it. And and do that, that's right. And that's quite hard for us as human beings, I think. It is, and I think that for me is when we learn that, when we can access that, that's what I mean about that being something really beautiful because it's a very, it's got a much lighter feel, it's got a much less sort of you know, rigid or heavy or slow. Some organizations feel very slow, particularly when they're big. It can both be sort of planned, strategic, and well thought through, but it can also be quite quick and rapid. And it's not just intellectual. I think this is the important thing we want to talk about. This is uh we're gonna look at three things today. It's a mindset, yes, that's your intellect, it's your body response. This is the big one that I think people really miss, is what it feels like when sudden change comes and what your body wants to do versus what's gonna be useful. And so the third one, which leads directly off of that, is a daily practice. How do we how do we practice um becoming really that that that's a very familiar response? And of course, we will talk to improvisation, yes, which is something that you learn to do, not something that you just get up on stage and can do. There is a practice to becoming super flexible with what's happening in the room. And there might be different places for this. So if I I mean we can definitely talk about our own business, but if I think about my personal life as an example, it's quite easy as a mother to be, if you're a certain type, to be the organizer and you know the planner, and this is what's happening, and all the ducks are in a row, and this is what it proved impossible to do. And I remember still trying to do it for quite a long period of time, and I simply you know, the biggest thing in that adaptation was letting go of the plans or the expectations or whatever it might be. And of course, you realise over time that the importance you place on all of these things collectively so that it feels like everything's under control and you know, doing all the things you do. Once you start letting go of things, you soon realise how unimportant a lot of the things are. Well, and and I would add to that a yes and to that is the fantasy of the amount of control that we have. Yes, well, very true. Because even if even if you say no, we're leaving the house at nine o'clock, this is what where we're going, this is the timetable, you cannot control the traffic. No, you cannot control, you know, whether we went to a dinosaur exhibition one day and they'd had a technical problem and they were completely satisfied. That you can't control it. And some and some really useful stats exactly around that in terms of the workplace, really to demonstrate how much we cannot control and how much things are changing. So even in the last kind of six years, the pace of change has doubled, and that will just continue sort of exponentially. In terms of jobs and what we think they're gonna be, we know this that you know people are saying that 50% of uh all the automated jobs that we do in the workplace now will be gone within the next 10 years, might even be a shorter time frame. And this is one of my favourite pieces of research, a stat, which is that in the past, the average sort of period of time for a long-term strategic plan was about 17 years. And now that has significantly reduced in the in the last sort of five or six years, that's reduced to seven years, and that's gonna get shorter and shorter. And by that we mean those sort of long-term market plans in terms of what's your strategy and how you're gonna how you're gonna settle in a couple of decades. You know, I remember working at um a big organisation for a long time, and I used to be responsible for creating the strategic plan every year, and we're only talking about how long are we talking about about 25, I mean it's about 25 years ago, Phil, to be fair. Time flies, Pem. But I remember at the time that it so you started working there when you were 10 years ago. I mean very, very young, Phil, very young. Um I can remember at the time, I mean it was a very dynamic organization, but fundamentally, what sat underneath our business in terms of what we did didn't really change that much for the period of time that I was there when I was there for 11 years. Now the business has radically shifted and quickly and continues to and continues to and continues to. So things have things have really changed. It didn't mean that I found doing those strategic plans every year easy, but I'm sure now they're even harder, to be honest. Because trying to predict what the market's gonna be. Yes, yes. Well, and that's a good that's a good reason to not create your plan and then marry it, yes, get wedded to it. That's right, and and so it means that the processes that we we now have, you know, it's not gonna be sort of, well, let's lock down this sort of book claw, this document, and that's gonna be the thing for the next five years. I mean, yeah, and we've got some really practical pieces around that. So we're gonna look at what is adaptability, um, why is it important, and how can you become more adaptable both for yourself and for your teams. And really importantly, is adaptability is not, I love this, adaptability is not agreeing with everything and just going along with every change and abandoning your plans and your values whenever anything shifts. That is not adaptability or flexibility, that is drift. And I just love that word. I do like the word that is just passive drift. So this idea that's like Billy getting on that sort of mini raft as well, just like drifting down the river. Exactly, dog on a raft, quite a nice feeling. Well, exactly, nothing wrong with a bit of drift, but that's not what we're talking about. And I think And I'm not necessarily useful in business, not useful in business, exactly. And that's the thing, that exactly as we get we as we started with, there is there is a place in the middle that is neither rigid or passive or frenetic. It is, it's absolutely acknowledging you've got a plan. Anyone who's done any house renovations, and I'm right in the middle of a garden renovation at the moment, knows that you make a plan, you have a nice really good on paper. On paper and in your head, it's like you got it, it's absolutely clear. And then, you know, the building materials and then the the what is possible and then the lay of the land or the slope of the whatever it is, and then it just it just looks slightly different or quite different from what you had in your head. And that moment is tough because you've got to let go of what that plan was and very quickly, very quickly, and incorporate reality. That can be really painful, and that's where the resistance is. So, but it's not about right, well, I'm just gonna give up, yeah, just do whatever you like. It's now you know what do we do now? What's possible? What's gonna make so it's that conversation, it's that meeting in the middle, that improvisation. Yeah, and I like what you've said here, which is that there's still a goal. It's not that we're just sort of floating aimlessly and being buffeted around by whatever's changing out there, there is still a goal. I mean, even the goal might shift slightly, it might shift a lot. But we are adapting. I sort of like to think of it as a tree with branches, and we are just adapting how we are gonna get where we need to get to. Absolutely. Rather than think, well, we've got the plan. Absolutely. We're gonna stay here. And that's one of the big pieces is adaptability is the capacity to recognise when the context or something has changed and you need to change your response accordingly. And it's not about giving up what you're trying to achieve, it's not about giving up your goal, it's about releasing your attachment to the root to get there. And that is the key. And this for me, I mean, I know we're gonna come on to improv um improvisation, but this was such a huge thing when I was in an improvisation troupe. With an improvisation troupe, you can have 70, 80% of them in that we're just playing, we're just doing. You know, maybe you think of those canoeists, we're just in real. We're in real. Like just that that energy of sort of delight at whatever's happening. Yeah, no, I've got an idea. Let's try this. And it can be that very free form, you know, nearer that end of the scale we were talking about that doesn't it's slightly chaotic. It's slightly chaotic, but very but potentially highly creative. Well, you must have in an improvisation trip, and we had three, maybe four of us, but definitely three of us, you must have a percentage of people who can play in that space and are always holding the goal. And always shifting the goal. Or yeah, exactly. They might adapt the goal, they might shift it, but say, for example, you're you know, you've been given the title of you know King Edward's golden, you know, vase. So you know that at some point you there's got to be a vase found, or you know, there's got to be something you know, you've you've got something there. So you know you've got to get somewhere that's around that title or that idea. Someone comes in someone comes in and says, you know, oh you know, m master, the the flood has arrived. You know, you're no longer digging at the archaeolog. Yeah, you're now with you're now it's a water. Yeah, so you're on a boat. You're on a boat. So exactly. So you're constantly, constantly shifting, but you but you're constantly holding three of you at least, or you know, have many percentage. How's the bars coming? How are we getting there? Yeah, we still need to get there, and you're drawing all these brilliant ideas, so it's a really good analogy for adaptability. And you're you're you are so brilliant at it, Phil. And we teach this stuff in really nice sort of bite-sized chunks to to clients because we are actually all pretty good at it. It's so tangible. It it I think that's what I mean about it. Can feel like if someone says, Oh, we need to be more adaptable, more flexible. I don't know what I mean. What is that? I mean, it's just words, isn't it? But you can make it so tangible with some practices that you can literally put into your meetings, and we're not talking about everyone putting silly shoes and hats on and improvising, we're talking about really practical ways to communicate and share ideas and move on. It's also useful to say that you know, one of the reasons that perhaps some of us find that word a little bit challenging is because, of course, it feels the opposite of control or certainty. But in reality, it's not really the opposite of it. It's it's really the only way that you can have any control in the longer term. Well, this is what's so I think this is a paradox at the centre of the idea of adaptability is how much stress and unhappiness comes from trying to control and and keep things the same. And we see it, you know, we're seeing it now, of course. Because if you're any of those of us who've lost important people in our lives, anyone who's been made redundant, anybody who's, you know, suddenly their you know, roof has sprung a leak, like none of this was in your plan. And how much you're attached to that shouldn't be happening and something else will I mean this was this is my TED talk, wasn't it? Yeah, that if only other people in the world fitted what I needed, it would be fine. And of course, that is an absolute guarantee of unhappiness. So that there's a real paradox in the idea that if we can control things, everything will be fine. Actually, if we can adapt and be flexible, things will be fine. Things will be fine, yeah. So adaptability is a is updating your approach whenever new evidence is um in front of you, things change. It's releasing a plan, or certainly the route to a plan that no longer fits your situation. It's staying clear on that purpose. So it's purpose not past. I think that's a really nice way to think about it. Purpose not past. It's a it's a really good point in terms of conversations you have at work. I mean, we were talking to a group uh of leaders yesterday and talking about how we can get locked into conflict because that's my idea, I'm right, or whatever it might be. If you've got that purpose, if you can let go of things on the way to it, you've just got much more chance collectively. That's exactly right. If we think about I mean exactly, like a couple arguing about, so they've decided they're going to Greece on a holiday, and now they're arguing about sort of where to go or how they're gonna get there or what to pack, and all of that is path. The goal is if you can stick to we're gonna we we want to have a really enjoyable holiday together. Now come on, this is this one to get adaptable. Here's a big one, which is what adaptability is it's moving through discomfort towards what's needed. I know we're taking a deep breath there. This is the tough bit, and that's why we're gonna talk about it. This is the bit that we fall that where we fall down because it hurts, the body's uncomfortable, it's stressed, the nervous system has gone into overdrive, and we start letting that drive, and that's when we start trying to lock down and control. So we've got to look at the body. I would say on that, if I look back over the last 15 years and think about all the hoops I've jumped through and changes I've made, at the time I wouldn't have thought, and it wasn't easy, there was definitely discomfort, but we absolutely can do it. Yeah, we can do it. We absolutely feel the fear, do it anyway. Um and finally, and finally, and I know they say from recent. Do you know they say this in um when you're giving birth? Yeah, because what you want to do is you want to start is to pull back, yeah. You want to pull back, the body wants to freeze and resist because it's painful. Yeah, and they tell you the discomfort will be there. Breathe into the discomfort, and I cannot tell you the difference it makes. Which is also pain management, of course. When you go into the pain, you can start to release it's the resistance. And we talk about it in psychotherapy. What you resist persists. Yeah, that you know, so think about that with adaptability. If you keep resisting, you're gonna keep facing the same problem. And then finally, uh, what adaptability is is learning in real time from what's actually happening. What adaptability is not is agreeing with everything to avoid conflict, it's not abandoning your commitments whenever things get hard, it's not shape shifting and giving up your values just to please others, it's not reacting impulsively without reflection. I just have this image, it's like my new dog, your dog, my my dog Humphrey is not a year old yet, and he's just like everything is so distracting. And it's not mistaking busyness and constant change for growth, not the same thing. Yeah, and we are absolutely wired for this, which is why I sort of want to. I I want to give everybody some comfort. I have a sense, I mean I'm not a market predictor, but I have a sense that yes, the marketplace, the what the workspace is likely to likely, we don't know for sure, but likely to be potentially tough for for lots of people. Even young people, particularly, are already sort of feeling it quite hard to get those new uh new jobs. So it's it's looking very likely that it's going to be challenging. And this is exactly what human beings are wired for. Like we I think we think, because even though it might not feel like it, because things have been relatively stable for quite a long period of time, we feel like well, oh this is this is how life should be and this is how we we should operate. But actually, we are actually wired to predict, to adapt. We are, but there's uh and there's a paradox there, isn't there? Because because it's both. We've got this straight, we've got this sort of strange dual track that we're really good at adapting. Look at what yeah, look at what we've gone to the moon. I mean, we we are really, really good at adapting, and yet we've got this underlying sort of yearning to not have to do it. So, and it's the to to have for everything to stay the same. So we we have to acknowledge this. You're right, in one way we're wired for it, but in another way, we're absolutely wired to to to not want uncertain certainty, to want things to stay the same. You know, this is the um David Rock scarf model status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. We're absolutely those five things we're looking into. We're looking, I want to keep my status the same. I don't want people to think I'm an idiot or you know, lose my position. Certainty, I I want to know what to expect. I don't want a surprise birthday party. Autonomy, I've lost control, now I'm not in control anymore. Relatedness, will my relationship survive this change? It's a really tough one. And I've heard this from a married couple. There was a story about it on an art on a podcast or radio show I listened to, where the man in the marriage wanted to, I think it was even to vote differently or it's to change his life or to become maybe to go into a different job, and he didn't think his relationship would survive it and he and he didn't do it. And the last one is fairness when this doesn't feel fair, and that's a tough one for change.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

It's a funny word, fair.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

It's such a funny one, fair, because exactly if you think, well, you know, let's say, I don't know, it was an example, you know, the market suddenly changes or you need to lose headcount. It's not fair to lose a member of your team. What do you do? Do you hang on? Like life isn't fair, but these things are the things that get us stuck. So I But there'll be other people in the organization who are creating new things because of the market adaptations, and they will think it is, you know, people will there will always be somebody on the opposite side of your fairness. Well, exactly, and that and especially when we talk about adaptability, because fair in the current context might be an absolute disaster in the coming context. Because if we say, well, it's not fair if I let people go, then my whole organization is gonna go down. Now now everyone's lost their job. So that model fills scarf. It also makes me think about the Joe Dispenser work, what you just said about that sort of paradox we've got. Because of course, our neural pathways are the way they build up, is some of them get very, very, very, very strong. And they're the they're the things about us and our beliefs and the way we operate that are just very dominant in our identity and our art, but the way we operate. So our brains are designed to build these neural pathways, some of which will get very, very strong and big. So that is like the kind of fixed certainty. I always know what what I think, what I'm gonna do. But on the flip side, our brains are also designed to be able to release those neural pathways and to be able to create new ones. Exactly. So it's both at the same time. And we're constantly managing that. And that's why the mindset is the first one. We've got mindset, body, and daily practice, because the mindset is if you start with, I believe, I I believe I can see this in a different way, I believe I can look at this in a different way. You'll you're you've done so much of the work already. Your brain will literally start wiring differently. Yes, exactly, exactly. Well, even by thinking I can handle change, you've already that's a neural pathway that's different from I can't handle change. Exactly that. So stop telling people to be agile because they won't know what to do with it.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

I feel like that's you're gonna be able to do backflips.

The Adaptive Mindset Practical Reframes

The Body Stress And Regulation

SPEAKER_04 26:28

Yeah, you could be like sort of DIJ. This is a really good point, Phil, for feedback generally. That I think these kind of, I mean it's not really a platitude, but I think these kind of language is very often used with the best intention, and I think also through change, you know, can you be a bit more adaptable? Can you try and see the other person's point of view? Can you I get it, and then the the other person's like, but my job is to do things like this, so I don't know how to integrate what you've just said into what I'm doing day to day. Yeah, so it's it's it's tough in terms of behaviours, which will we'll come on to some more sort of tangible things, but I love that. Yeah, don't tell people to be where I it's it's like what am I gonna do? Yeah, what do I do with that flip? Exactly, exactly. So, and I love this phrase the competitive advantage now is not knowledge, it's speed of learning, and that's a really good reframe on when things change, when things when you've got to be adaptable. It's not we've screwed up and our plan is wrong, but ooh, what have we learned here? What could what's happening here? What can we learn here? Exactly. So we're gonna look more at that now. The adaptive mindset. So this is probably the most important segment in a way, only because if you can't get your mindset right, if you can't open that door, then you're not gonna do the rest of it. Because if you if the mindset is I can't do it, the body's gonna agree with you and go, I'm panicking and terrified, we can't do it. And then you're and your daily routines and habits will follow that. So and you'll surround yourself by people who probably agree with you. Who would agree with you, exactly? So hold the goal, release the route, decide what is non-negotiable and what is negotiable. That's a really good starting point because even by asking that question, you're saying something here is adaptable. Yeah, what is absolutely non-negotiable? So you might have well, it's interesting, isn't it? Because it I was about to say you might have some uh costs that you absolutely must hit that you've got to cover. But even that is that negotiable for one year, yeah. Can you so there's always when you start asking that question, what is actually negotiable here? This is my absolutely favourite one. Treat your plan. This is my favourite, I'm just gonna say that again. Treat your plan as a hypothesis and not a contrast. Very nice. Isn't that nice? Yeah, it's just a hypothesis. This plan could be what we do. Well, if you think about this in the field of scientific research, if this was not the way scientific researchers approach, we would have such bias and poor research outcomes and information. But we'd still we'd still we'd still be treating diseases with leech. Totally, totally. And actually, very occasionally research papers are kind of hauled over the coals for the fact that a decision has been made prior to preemptive and then you'd want to prove it. Exactly. Whereas those that have a fully kind of hypothesis but open, that's the great thing. That's exactly right, it's exactly right, and that's why I think often we there's been a lot of problems with um psychology um research and papers because you've set the goal that you want to achieve and then you do the experiment and then you can't repeat it. So exactly that. Uh, number three, I love this reframe failure as data. So that's a really brilliant way to be adaptable and agile. This is, I mean, this has been said to me a few times, it's such a useful reframe, it's just information. You know, this is another really good one, going back to what I said earlier about how to make these things tangible. So when something goes wrong in a team, you know, it can be can feel scary, you don't want to admit it, or maybe the manager gets frustrated, you know, this is all of that. If the team can have a culture of this is data, this is it's totally neutral, it's not pointing the finger at somebody, it's data, it's informational, and ask the question what does everyone learn from this? I mean, boy, that would change the game and the psychological safety in the team. Exactly. And you and this comes into our managing difficult conversations program. That if someone gets back to you and says, I can't, you know, I can't do Tuesdays, we can go into a whole fight around, well, Tuesdays is the day that I put aside for this. Like, you know, Bob, once again, difficult to work. I sent you an email last week. Yeah, I send you an email last time. Rather than, well, that's that's data. Yeah, that's interesting. Like, what's what's going on behind that? Let's explore it. Ask the question, oh, it's another brilliant one. What would I do if I was starting afresh today? Like that might open Pandora's box, Phil. I mean, but it's interesting, isn't it? Because because if I think about that, that has been my learning curve on our digital platform. Yeah. Every time we do a new series, you don't think, well, we did it like this last time. No, I really don't. I think what did we learn from last time? And what if I if I was starting the project now with what I know, I would do it like this. So that's what the next series is, that's how I do the next series, exactly. And that's what we all do here. But it's gonna look slightly different. Yeah. Or no, well, we started like this, we've got to stick to it. Definitely not. Because also, the other thing I think about that is, well, if we start the the next series with all of that learning, by the time in five, six, seven years' time we start re-recording those, yeah, yeah, they'll be a I mean, they'll be amazing. Very, very good. But yeah, with all of that learning, that's true. That's pretty amazing, right? Um, so if you were gonna start whatever it is, your business or the project or the deal today, and then this is another brilliant one, develop periphery vision. And I think that this is something that it's so key to my work as an integrative therapist. And one of the tutors of my course said towards the end, stay broad, read broadly because it something on history or archaeology, or yeah, it could be psychology, but it could also be, you know, it's the Steve Jobs thing, isn't it? Calligraphy. You have no idea where those ideas are going to come from. So staying adaptable, you want those connections. Someone said to me years ago, we did an improv show at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London. It was a the um dramatology, uh dramaturgy teacher from Radha came up to me at the end of the show and said, your references, he said, broad. Yeah. Which means that when somebody says, can we see Mozart done in the you know style of a you know, I don't know, Korean pop group, yeah, you've got something. You've got something, you've got those references. So read broadly, you know, stay interested in things. It's hard to adapt if the only thing you know is what you know is what you know and what you do. Well, that goes back to our previous episode, which was curiosity, of course. So, Penn, I'm gonna hand over to you because this so that's mindset is ask yourself those questions. Yeah. Now we're gonna look at the body, because this is one of the things that really can get in the way. And we, you and I were talking about this. That if we if we made all of our decisions based on that initial nervous system body response, we'd either lock down or panic. Yeah, and we often wouldn't have good conversations either. So we really need to recognise what goes on in the body. It's such a good point. I've been speaking about this to groups of leaders over the last two weeks so much because through change, which everybody accepts, every client I've met recently, just it's the number one topic without fail. And of course, what we're thinking about is we're thinking about problem solving, we're thinking about the conversations we need to have on strategy, and that's all brilliant. And as I said to them, we very often overlook the physical dimension, and that is the thing that's driving it's gonna drive the show, Phil. I mean, the thing is because the body is screaming to say, make it stop, make it stop. Yeah, I mean, both in terms of us, in terms of how we operate, but also relationally in terms of other people as well. I mean, I I say it until I'm blue in the face, and I I really hope the message is getting through. So the first thing to think about, of course, is that if we have gone into sort of freeze because we are frightened of the change, or we feel confused, or powerless, or powerless, or if we've gone into kind of that sort of hyper hyper agitation, chicken, just like, well, I don't want to be the one that overwhelm stress, panic. I don't want to be the one that gets the different job spec, and I want to do the or whatever, or we've got to throw it all out. We've got to completely change. So if we've gone into either of those states, we've spoken about this a lot into on well-being episodes. We've gone into the hypo or the hyper, and the fight or flight system is activated. So the in one way or another. Yeah, so the sympathetic nervous system, which is your kind of, it's your it's narrowing your field of vision dramatically. Literally. Because what the body is saying is you don't need to think about anything else other than surviving this thing that we've got. It's just the tiger in front of you. Exactly. So deal with this. So we so so we stop the we we lose the ability to take in information. Yeah. So we we will not be thinking, oh, I wonder what would be possible in terms of how we can adapt. Exactly. Or let me think about what my customers would like right now. Or let or let me let go. Yeah, people. We are not in that state. Let's take some time here. Yeah, exactly. We are absolutely wired to either act, run, or freeze. Yeah. Or punch someone in the face. Well, true, conflict. So, first thing is is the body, it's not just about your well-being, although it is about your well-being, it is also about what your body state is then doing to how you can how you can think and respond to whatever changes just. This makes me think of our personal lives as well. You know, you have an argument with a loved one, the nervous system is up, the fight or flight is absolutely kicked in, sympathetic nervous system. And that is when we think we've got to resolve this. We've got to have the discussion now. And from that state, to try to have a conversation with a partner or with a friend or with a sibling or parent, whatever, where to try to understand really what you're thinking, what might be possible for you, what might be negotiable for you, and to empathize with them or to understand to think about it. It's absolutely impossible. But the other thing I say, well, this was in the context of giving difficult feedback, but it's similarly in change, you know, leaders are having to give some quite difficult messages at the moment. So, very likely that some of your team members, their brains will be flooded with cortisol. They're waking up in the morning, they know there's going to be a difficult message delivered to the team today. Already the adrenaline's pumping, the heart's racing, they get in there, possibly cortisol is being released, which is our stress. And there is a and the morning can be a very strong time for cortisol. And so the brain is flooded, which is the opposite of the brain state we want for people to take on the message and think, well, what might this mean for me? And what how might I be able to broader thinking? Yeah, it's narrowing it down. So getting your body into the sort of the calm, physical, parasympathetic state, and also your team, I mean, it's going to do wonders for how people can adapt in a really positive and healthy way. So that's the first thing to think about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:41

The second thing is that I mean, on a very similar track, of course, we think that thinking is going to be the thing that will change our change our perspective, change our habits, make us think, oh yeah, so let's adapt to this. The concept of willpower, we should do a whole podcast on this.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

The concept of willpower is a very challenging thing. Yeah. I mean, willpower, I think we think willpower lives in the brain. And it's just kind of sitting there, we've just got to think ourselves into finding it. And in reality, there's such a ceiling, there's such a limit. There's such a limit on the body. In reality, regulation of the nervous system is by far an easier and a much more effective access point to helping us to helping us respond and adapt. It's such an interesting one on adaptability because this this has come up for me recently in in dance, and we see it so much in leadership that you begin a career, you work really hard, you're very effortful, you stay late, you do, do, do, do, do, and then you hit a certain place and you can't understand why you're not getting the promotion. And it's the same with change and flexibility, and the same in dance. It's such a head screw because the only way through it is to reduce some of that effortfulness and that tension, because you can only get so far, and it's the same with that. I think any athlete would say the same. But willpower sounds like come on! That's exactly right. So exactly it's a forcing, it's a pushing, and so much of this is regulating the body to start with to allow yourself to get into the best state, which it's Deb Darna's phrase, story follows state. If you get your state sorted out, you are gonna have so much more action.

SPEAKER_05 39:27

Well, it goes back to that.

Yes And Improvisation For Work

SPEAKER_04 39:28

So it goes back to that periphery vision thing you mentioned, and you were talking about sort of being broad in your vision in terms of uh sort of questions, curiosity, learning. Similarly, literally our field of vision reduces when our sympathetic nervous system has kicked in, when that fight or flight has kicked in. So you literally won't be able to, you won't see other people in the room in terms of they might say something, they might make a facial expression, you won't be able to see it because we literally kind of get tunnel vision when the when this when the system's uh gone into fight or flight. Exactly. No one, no one in blockbusters, you know, in that poor blockbuster. But if anyone says, right, you know, sales are down, no one's renting videos anymore. No one from that state is going. Imagine a world. Imagine a world where you click of a button, you just like sell more, do emotions! Films are just in your house, and they go, Bob's mad, he's gone mad. We need to sell more videos, you know. It's the it's the it's the Ford thing, isn't it? We just ask for faster horses, not a car, because we don't know what a car is. It's the imagine, what if, what if what's possible? Uh the other thing is name the feeling. So um some leaders are absolutely brilliant at this. Some some some of us find it a bit a bit edgy. Sometimes naming the feeling in the space or in the other person can be a very, very good way. Engages your prefrontal cortex. Say, oh, I'm the I'm feeling a lot of um anger here, or I'm feeling a lot of um fear here. If you can name it, you can own it. We talk a lot, don't we, about messaging through change. I mean, firstly, just messaging through change is a good thing, communication. But secondly, bringing that bringing that shared emotion in. I know we might all be feeling a bit whatever. And then we've normalized it. And then someone in the audience can go, ah, it's not just me. Yeah, that's right. That's right. I'm not the other one, exactly. Everyone else isn't just sitting here going, oh, this is fine, and I'm in panic. And this last one I absolutely love. I mean, this is a life's work, this is your own self-management. So, of course, as leaders, we take responsibility for ourselves, and we also take responsibility for our teams. And as individuals, as team members, whatever your field of work is, getting aware of what's happening in the body, understanding what emotion you're attaching to that, and being sort of kind to yourself and kind of just saying, okay, I can feel this. This is leading me to feel like this, this is normal. I don't necessarily need to respond to this now, but really that self-awareness can do an awful lot. It's such an interesting one because we're so not taught and trained this in in school. In anywhere. In anywhere. And that physical awareness, that emotional intelligence, well, to recognise my chest is tight, I'm feeling hot, my shoulders are tense, my breath is shallow. If you can recognise that and notice it and prioritize that, you're you're it's a validator, it's an absolute game changer because the otherwise you're just gonna create chronic stress because you're gonna be trying to think and trying to think of a solution when it's like, what's your equivalent? It's like it's like driving a car with sort of sugar in the end, in the, you know, that it's filled up with sugar, or you know, it's a broken engine, and you're just frustrated and you're just putting your foot down on the accelerator, you're much better off. It's going, oh, I know this. I'm feeling like this. Something's not right here. So let's sort this out. Which takes us on to the next thing. On to the next thing is pause. Yeah. So when we think about adapting to something that's just happened, so let's let's call that something the stimulus. Whatever it might be, someone's made an announcement, or I've been told I've got to change my job, or market conditions have changed. Whatever has changed out there, that is the stimulus. What we're often not brilliant at as human beings, you know, we're under pressure, we're busy. We're often not brilliant at taking a pause between that stimulus and our response. And that pause can be a game changer in terms of how we respond, and much more likely that we're gonna adapt to something different. Because if we respond quickly, it's likely that the emotional part of ourselves, which in that particular moment is feeling a bit kind of fired up and triggered, it's much more likely that that is driving the bus. It is gonna make a decision in how we want to respond, and that is not necessarily thinking broadly and differently, it's thinking much more controllable a lot further down. Well, there's also another problem with that reacting quickly. If we don't pause and we react from a place of fear or panic or anger, and then we say the thing, we can't do that because, or that's never gonna happen, or don't be stupid, Bob. And the problem is you've got we then believe it. Well, first of all, we then believe it, but you've got the same you've now got an added problem. Of, oh, now if I now I've got to deal with my defence and shame because I've now stated from the sympathetic nervous system response, I've made another statement, I've taken another step towards rigidity and not being adaptable and not listening to anybody else. So now I'm going to defend my position even more because I'm going to feel like an absolute idiot. Bob's gone away and feel and feels hopeless. Yeah, Bob's gone away and feels hopeless. I'd have to acknowledge that I'd said something when I wasn't in the right state. And I'm doing that, so I'm going to have to double down now. And now we're even more stuck. So you just you're in the loop. And this is happening across divisions and silos in organizations all of the time. And it it's really understandable. And of course, there are some practical reasons behind it in terms of you know what is possible, what's not possible. But this is not, this is not just about how organizations collectively responding to the world. It's how internally we're responding to each other because we're kind of locking down, if you like. Yeah. Yes, and that's my super segue. You're absolutely right. And one of the big skills of adaptability is hearing an idea or someone's um a new hypothesis or the.

SPEAKER_03 45:55

On this episode, I'm kind of a bit gutted about that. Yeah. So you know that I'm competitive.

Daily Practices To Build The Muscle

SPEAKER_04 45:59

So yes, and I can adapt to it. Seriously. So you just gave us one of the solutions, one of the routes through, which is the body regulation. I am saying yes and it's also I like being yes-anded, Phil. Yeah. There you go. Isn't it? I know. And so yes, and it's also Yes, but Pleppy, be quiet about the body. I'm going on to something more exactly. Yes, but I've got something better. Or yes, and I'm gonna build on that. And of course, we're talking about improvisation training and improvise, the skill of improvisation, which really is the adaptability tool. And that is all it is. I mean, that is all it is. That is usually what it is, but I was thinking about it. As you were talking about the body, I was going back in time, decades now. It's not possible, Phil. But I know not possible. Back when I first started to learn to improvise with some amazing teachers at the Spawn shop, at the spontaneity shop. And of course, we used to meet and rehearse. And when I first started it, I was like, oh, this is going to be really difficult. And most actors really hate improv, but they taught it so well. And what is so what I realize as I reflect back is of course a little bit like going to the gym when you regularly use some of these tools like yes and or games that we that we offer our um leaders and delegates, you what you're actually doing is training the body gradually, gradually, gradually, to walk on stage, be completely relaxed, completely open to whatever your team members or the audience offers you. Which means that when the audience, when you say, Oh, can we have a suggestion? And the audience, as usual, calls out gynecologist or toilet, you're you don't go, oh my goodness, that's not what I want. No, I don't want to do that. You're so relaxed that you can immediately respond. That's absolutely brilliant. So I'm going to be a mouse gynecologist in this scene. You know, you immediately give yourself something that's comedy value, gets you out of difficulty, absolutely says yes. The reason you can do it is because your nervous system has been trained to be absolutely and it means you've got so much access to so many ideas. And of course, it's the perfect analogy for when something happens out there in the market or something shifts in the organization or supplies and costs are changing or whatever it might be. You go, okay. All you're thinking is, oh, what can I do with that? Yeah, how can I use that? Yeah. Oh, what would be a different way to think about that? Even if I I remember I because I I did a bit of improv with you, but I watched a lot more. Even if you you open one door and you kind of, like you say, I'm a mouth guy in a college and you go down that route, it may well, that may well not be how the story ends up unfolding. It might just lead you to another door and you do something else. But you've stepped in to something rather than desperately trying to keep that door shut. That's exactly right. That's that's the analogy with with business, is we've got to make sure that we are not just kind of uh holding the door and trying to try and change not to come in. Well, exactly, you know, but you know, I'm already my mind is going to what would be a funny scene. So the funny scene is, you know, a giant mouse walks in and says, I'm a mouse, I'm a mouse, and you go you're a dog disguised as a mouse, aren't you? You know, you just you do the you know, it just because you're looking for those, you're looking for those changes. And that's what's so wonderful about improv. You know, imagine being a leader that doesn't wake up thinking, I hope nothing changes today, but wakes up going, ooh, I hope something, I hope something interesting comes in. Yeah. But to challenge us, to give us something to work with. Yeah, so so improvisation, the yes and is perfect for adaptability. It's basically all you're doing. Yeah, it's the capacity to really listen and be alert, it's the absolute comfort of not knowing what's coming, it's the speed of response in novel situations, it's a very, very high tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. Almost a desire for well, I exactly. Let me come to that. And and and it's the yes and reflex. It's that you're gonna pause, maybe, and then you're gonna say, yes and what's possible here. You're so right, because we often say to people when we're training in presentation skills or public speaking, or kind of running events like MCing, is we want to we want to get you to a place where you don't just know how to deal with the unexpected from the room. You hope something unexpected comes out of the room. There's a gift, because there's a gift and you can turn it into gold. And let's just quickly touch on the gift. Yeah, so I love I I really do love this, and this this really is about dealing with the unexpected, or actually, maybe more than that, dealing with things you don't want. Yeah. Um adaptability to the unwanted. Yeah. So let's say you're you're running a team meeting and one of your team members makes a comment. Now, if it's a nice comment, if it's a really useful suggestion, if it's some appreciation, great! Like, love that, brilliant, or unexpected question, great. But of course, often we're dealing with things that we don't want to have to deal with. So we've got a problem thrown at us, or we've got a disgruntled employee, or we've got a really challenging question, whatever it might be. And I always say to my clients, there is always a gift, there's a hidden gift. And I said this to the group of leaders yesterday. Even if you've got somebody kind of ranting at you about this change that's happened, or this problem, the gift might be that they are very passionate about what's going on, like, but there'll always be something. And if you can find it and respond to that, you've got much more chance together of adapting to the new situation rather than both of you blocking. Exactly. And that's it's not always easy, but there's always a and to yes and that if you think about so someone challenging you, coming up with we the reason we can't do that, actually, there's an adaptable response rather than fight it, is amplify it. Really say more about that. What if you what if that was times 10 that problem? Because now you're now you're curious, or you're I now you're exploring. Well, if that's how a colleague or potentially a customer or a partner might feel in this business, let's really hear it in steroids on steroids so that we can we can think about how we might adapt and answer it. Not just if, well, we might lose 1%. What if we lost 20% of the mile? Whatever. So it's really having that that curiosity. Okay, let's bring all this together. Daily practices, Phil. Daily practices. So, number one, the weekly pivot review. Pivot! Pivot! That's a friend's reference, so far. So this is every Friday, say, every Friday of every week. You're gonna ask, you're gonna review your adaptability.

SPEAKER_03 52:41

I think my Friday review would would be a lengthy review for you. I'm not gonna lie.

Helping Teams Pivot Without Blame

SPEAKER_04 52:46

In my personal life as well as my professional life. I think, I think, and I think you'd score high on adaptability every week. What's changed this week that I didn't anticipate? Cry game! What was my response? I need an A3 sheet of paper. What was my response? What would I do differently? Now, you could do this for yourself, you could do this with a team. This is not a, I mean, this would be a great thing to put out, even if you just have a if you have like a shared platform, like a Slack or like a you know, a shared learning platform. At the end of every week, what what what happened this week that I didn't expect? How did I respond? What would I do differently? This is not a blame exercise, you could actually make that the headline. This is a data gathering exercise, this is a learning exercise, this is about us noticing, updating in real time. Do you know what I love about this? It's self-awareness, it's creating a culture of normality around change and adaptation. There's a little bit of self-appreciation in there, Phil. Yeah. It's got all of it. Yeah, well, exactly. And I think actually, one of the things I want to add to this is, you know, you can take five minutes to do this, you can write it down, just be honest. Um, I think this is the one of the most underused habits available. We are learning every single day, every single week. What would I have done differently this week? I know exactly what I, you know, I would I I know how I would have responded differently to a situation with my garden, but and and and this is really important. This has been a stressful garden fair. But this is a really important addition I want to add to the weekly pivot review. And also say to yourself, and for the five days that's just gone, I did the best I could with what I had. Yes, I would do something differently. So that you I I love that that you really appreciate in that level of stress or that level of change, I adapted as quickly and as well as I could, and I had the heightened emotion, and that's what happened. This is what I do differently next time. And if this is the learning. And if we don't do it, 99.9% sure that you will repeat the same behaviour. It's rinse and repeat. It's rinse and repeat. I mean, it is, it's rinse and repeat. Okay, intention over plan. Yes, this has been this has been a big one for quite a quite a number of years now in terms of that debate around goal setting. So we love the word intention. Yeah, exactly. So intention over plan. So start each significant piece of work, or you might have kind of stages through a current project where you might just take a moment to ask yourself, what am I still trying to achieve? Underneath the plan, the plan is not the thing, the the goal is the thing. When things change, am I still connected to my intention? And given this new reality, given the things that have changed, what is the absolute best way to honour my intention to this product, to my team, to the customer, and adapt while retaining my intention? Because that will that will link you to staying true to your goal and intention, but being adaptable in your in your room. Yeah, so an example of this might be, I mean, we have this a lot at the moment with uh clients, that there's been some supply chain disruptions, and the plan is to deliver X containers of X to the to the to the client. But the intention is to delight to delight the customer and and keep as much of their supply chain going as you can. Now, there might be other solutions to that. So that that's the kind of thinking that that we're thinking about intention over plan. Yeah, and actually otherwise we get stuck in the well, we haven't got five containers of that, and then we're just arguing about it. 100% and and we're seeing so much of this. And I mean, that's something I had this week. It was a product that was delivered to me, I wasn't happy with it. And the person who I ended up dealing with was but we delivered the thing. Stuck on the plan. And I was like, your intention needs to be to take care of your customer. And I did and I actually said it to him. I said, you know, someone who runs a business, you've got an unhappy customer in front of you. I don't need your product specifications or your delivery timelines. Like, that's your plan. It's it's like it's crazy, isn't it? You need you need to get off of that ship, that ship of sales in the case. I guess I didn't know for business generally. Yeah, get alone through change. Get connected to intention. Okay, number three, seek one disruptive input every week. So read something outside of your industry. Oh, ask the disruptor. Ask the disruptor. Can we have your idea here? Um, adaptable minds are wide minds. Interestingly, those mavericks are often sort of, you know, I can imagine we sort of roll our eyes at them because we're busy and we're thinking, oh, can't we can't we just stick to the plan? Yeah, they are your goals in times of change. Exactly. Follow the thinking. They will adapt in a way nobody else has thought of. Yeah, talk to somebody who thinks differently, talk to somebody who challenges your assumptions. It's uncomfortable, but boy, is it amazing. Yeah. The 90-second rule for change reactions. This is to really talking to what we just talked about the body. Yeah. Chemical surge. Yeah. So uh give yourself 90 seconds. I'm gonna I'm gonna expand that to anywhere between 90 seconds and 48 hours. I would definitely say more than that in terms of responding to emails is a really good thing to think about. Yeah. So, yes, absolutely. 90 seconds would be your bare minute. And actually, I would say to this that if you know if you are on a timeline, if you're in a pressurised situation where you do have to make decisions, then I'm gonna argue you've still got 90 seconds to regulate your body. I well, I I remember, I must have mentioned it on the podcast before I remember seeing Steve Jobs interviewed when he was very young, and he was asked quite a difficult question, and he had a really large audience there, and he was being filmed, and he stopped, and it must have been at least two minutes. And in in front of a live audience, that's a long time, but he just he gave himself the time to think about what his response is gonna be. I was so impressed. Yeah, wonderful, wonderful. And finally, model adaptation publicly. So name it. Say, you know, I had this. It's not a word we hear enough. We don't hear it enough. I had this planned, the situation has changed. We I and all of us need to adapt, and I really want to not not not we haven't been able to deliver. No, we've adapted. Yeah, we exactly, exactly, we exactly something's changed. Yeah, we're really good at adapting. Yeah, this team has so much adaptability in it. What can we do? So you model it for yourself, you tell them that they've got it already, they've got the skill. Do you know if you're like that? There's part of me now thinking that there's a slightly sort of Machiavellian darker side to this, which is if ever you sort of don't deliver or do the thing you've promised, you can say, Well, I've adapted. Exactly. Exactly. I'm adaptable. Exactly. I'm just my key just demonstrating my adaptability.

SPEAKER_05 59:10

My kids listen to this, they'll be like, Mummy, mommy, I've adapted my homework.

SPEAKER_04 59:14

That's right.

SPEAKER_06 59:15

That's right.

Closing And How To Get Involved

SPEAKER_04 59:15

That's right. You're you're late. I'm not late, I'm just time adaptable. Okay, but teams follow what Ludith model is. Okay, encouraging adaptability in others. Here's a couple, here's some things you can do. You can ask before asking, why didn't this go to plot? What's changed? How did you adapt? Rather than why didn't you do it? Why is this different from what exactly? Celebrate the pivot. Language is important. Language is important. Celebrate the pivot as much as the platform. Celebrate when somebody adapts or changes, say, Bob, I really want to give a shout out. We do that anywhere near enough. You shifted and pivoted really quickly on that. That was amazing. I love the pivot. Um, it's exactly the right call. Love a pivot. Create psychological safety for I was wrong or you know, my idea didn't work in the current context. Praise it. Yeah. I love it. I love the fact that you try to try. I love that we tried. Yeah, I love that you tried. Let's try something else. Given what we know now, also ask this question. Given what we know now, yeah, is this still the right path? That is such a good question. Don't make that an exceptional question, make that a regular question. Given what we know now, given where we are now, given what's just happened, or that email, or that report, are we still on the right path? Again, not something I hear enough. Reward learning, not just speed and execution. Love that. Absolutely love that. Yeah. What have we learned in this meeting? Rather than what have we know how meetings? I saw this the other day. Meetings often end with, so we've discussed XYZ, and so I think we've covered everything. Nothing. Nothing. Um, somebody said that the questions they ask at the end, one of the questions they ask at the end is what decisions have we made? Which I which I like. Yeah. I also really like what have we learned. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think change the questions to get more flexibility. Exactly. And actually, to embed adaptability, as I think we've discussed everything. Yeah, no, to embed adaptability as a necessity. Actually, what would happen if you set yourself the goal of your kind of weekly update meetings? That you you have an expectation that if we don't adapt to something, we haven't had this. This meeting has been pointless. Exactly. So, and our final one is of course, yes, and watch those butts, get your butts out of the way. Yes, and to what's happening. Take a breath, take that pause. Something's changed. What's possible now? Yeah. What do we need to do? Yeah. And I I will just emphasize again and again, and you know, I really hold this dear to my heart. It's very dear to my personal life as well. Is that we we really can do this and we can do it very well. We are good at it. You know, if you look back over your life and you think about what you thought your life was going to be and how happy you thought you were gonna be based on that plan and what's changed and how you adapted to it and what you've created for your life. I mean, it's impossible, surely, that there's anybody who has got exactly the same life in both of those scenarios. Like things change, we adapt, we are remarkable as human beings, and we're so much better at looking back at how we've adapted than looking forward. So we need to make it a practice for looking forward into adaptability, knowing how well we've done it in the past. Yeah, absolutely. And there's plenty of opportunity with the world as it is. Exactly, exactly. It's coming at you thick and fast. So own that, own that quality. I'm someone who is really adaptable. Tell yourself that, build that neural pathway, go adapt. Brilliant. Shall we adapt to the rest of the afternoon? Definitely get adapt. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the 40 Human Being Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Do take on board some of the insights, tools, and tips because every time that you try something new to get back to choice, you are making a vote for the you that you want to become. And I I love that phrase, Pen. I do too. And please do share this episode with somebody that you know would really benefit from the lessons and learnings we've been chatting about today. And of course, if you're interested in more from 4D Human Being, do get in touch. We run workshops, trainings online, in person, conference events and keynotes. We've got the 4D on-demand platform for your whole organization, and we do have a free essentials membership where anybody can sign up for absolutely free to access some of our insights, tools, and tips. So do get in touch with us if you'd like to hear more. We cannot wait to hear from you and to carry on the conversation.