When the world turned upside down in mid-March, I flipped right along with it. I’m guessing you did, too. I was on vacation in Cancun; we were keeping an eye on things because the pandemic was top-of-mind, and I was looking forward to the best year ever, both personally and professionally. On March 13, my relaxing vacation was abruptly cut short, and we quickly returned to Canada.
All of a sudden we all had to learn to work from home, be full-time teachers and caregivers, and live lives that none of us had ever envisioned. I wasn’t able to be at the birth of my first grandchild, and I couldn’t hold him until the provincial government allowed us to travel and be with others (which was six weeks after his birth). I saw my income all but disappear, bookings disappear from my calendar, and began to worry about not just my business but my health and that of the vulnerable people in my life.
Everyone has similar a story. Yours may be much worse than mine, depending on your circumstances, or perhaps the pandemic didn’t affect you as much. In any case, we have all had to learn to adapt, both personally and professionally.
[ctt template=”3″ link=”elaJT” via=”yes” ]We all need to learn to adapt, both personally and professionally[/ctt]
We will continue to need to be adaptable as we learn to deal with a pandemic without a vaccine. We need to learn how to learn.
Are you adaptable, or are you more stuck in your ways? The need to be adaptable has never been greater than it is now. People, companies, teams, brands, and products need to stay relevant and avoid obsolescence or, even better, create new opportunities for themselves.
Vodkow is a distillery near me that makes vodka from milk sugar. When the pandemic hit and there was a massive need for hand sanitizer, they quickly pivoted, creating a sanitizing hand rub using the products and processes they had been using to make vodka. They adapted, to create a solution out of a problem.
Many people are afraid to adapt. Some come up with justifications for why they shouldn’t change. We are seeing the signs of people and businesses refusing to adapt (not wearing masks or socially distancing), and I’m worried for their future. I hope that isn’t you. Whether you were previously adaptable or not, we have no choice now but to make changes, large and small, to accommodate our new reality.
Here is a list of what adaptable people do. Think about yourself as you read through this list to see how adaptable you are.
- Adaptable people look for opportunities to improve things. Are you the type of person who is always looking to make improvements, or are you usually content with the way things are? The expression, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” does not apply to adaptable people. They believe there are always ways to improve things, and that just about anything can be made better. They think, “if it isn’t broken—break it (and then improve it).” Once it became clear in mid-March that many people would have to work from home, many adaptable admins realized that communication would become more difficult and so the way we communicate would have to change. I’m willing to bet that many admins—maybe you—created new systems to improve communication, and got everyone on board with them. Adaptable admins found a way to make communication better, and shared it with others. Maybe it was through the use of tech tools such as Slack or Trello, or perhaps it was through email groups or even by creating new timetables for regular communication. These “new” systems may have improved communication so much that they may become the norm going forward. Adaptable people find ways to improve things, whether they’re broken or not.
- Adaptable people are willing to experiment. They are open to change and are willing to be wrong (or potentially fail) as they are experimenting. Think about the first online meeting you had with your team after you started working from home. You were probably nervous, worried about complications, and unsure whether it was all going to work out. Now, you can set up a Zoom or Teams meeting in your sleep. You were willing to experiment and you learned from your mistakes. You adapted.
- Adaptable people are resourceful. You can take away an adaptable person’s resources, but you can’t take away their resourcefulness. Most of us have lost at least some of the resources we had before the pandemic. Adaptable people always have a Plan B. For many admins, this is a good time to learn what you don’t know. There is an abundance of learning available through online conferences and workshops (and not to blow my own horn, but check out AdminsRock.com for a great example of an opportunity for admins to learn new skills—presented by yours truly, along with a roster of great speakers). While you may not have the time to attend a full-day online session, you might be able to multi-task and listen to a webinar or workshop while you are working. If you were in an office space with others, that would likely be more difficult since it might interrupt your colleagues or vice-versa. The fact that you are taking the time to read this article means you are learning and probably also means that you are an adaptable person. If you don’t know how to do something, you likely know who does or where you can get the information.
[ctt template=”3″ link=”VTFP6″ via=”yes” ]No one knows what our future looks like, but I can practically guarantee we will need to adapt to excel in it.[/ctt]
No one knows what our future looks like, but I can practically guarantee that we will need to adapt to excel in it. Practice the skill of adaptation now, and your future will feel more like natural growth than a series of difficult challenges to overcome.
