My Thoughts
Stop Calling It 'Pivot' - Why Real Adaptability Isn't What You Think
The meeting room fell silent when Sarah, our Head of Operations, announced we'd be "pivoting our strategy" for the third time that quarter. I watched as twenty-something consultants nodded enthusiastically while the veterans exchanged knowing glances. After twenty-two years in business consulting across Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, I can tell you this: most people confuse reactive scrambling with genuine adaptability.
Real adaptability isn't about chasing every shiny new trend or throwing your strategy out the window every six months. It's something far more sophisticated, and frankly, far more boring than what LinkedIn influencers would have you believe.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Change
Here's what I've learned from working with over 400 Australian businesses: adaptability starts with accepting that you'll be wrong about most things. Not some things. Most things.
I spent the first decade of my career convinced that five-year strategic plans were gospel. Then the GFC hit, and I watched supposedly bulletproof companies crumble while others – who'd barely finished their morning coffee – suddenly found themselves market leaders. The difference wasn't in their planning; it was in their relationship with uncertainty.
The companies that thrived treated change like weather – inevitable, unpredictable, but manageable with the right gear.
Those that struggled? They treated change like a personal insult from the universe.
Why Your Adaptability Training Is Backwards
Most workplace training programmes focus on resilience and bouncing back. That's reactive thinking dressed up in positive psychology jargon. True adaptability happens before the crisis hits.
It's like fitness. You don't start training for a marathon the day before the race. You build adaptive capacity systematically, deliberately, often in ways that look completely unrelated to your current challenges.
Take my client James, who runs a construction company in Perth. Three years ago, I convinced him to invest in digital project management tools when everything was going perfectly with paper-based systems. He thought I was mad. When COVID hit and remote coordination became essential, his business barely skipped a beat while competitors spent months catching up.
The secret? James had developed what I call "adaptive muscles" – small, regular practices that prepare you for unknowable future challenges.
The Three Types of Adaptability (And Why You Need All Three)
After analysing hundreds of business transitions, I've identified three distinct types of adaptability:
Tactical Adaptability is what most people think of when they hear the word. It's problem-solving under pressure, making quick decisions with incomplete information. Think restaurant owners switching to takeaway during lockdowns.
Strategic Adaptability is deeper. It's changing your core approach while maintaining your fundamental purpose. Like Netflix evolving from DVD-by-mail to streaming to content creation. Same mission, completely different methods.
Cultural Adaptability is the hardest and most valuable. It's building an organisation that expects and welcomes change as part of its DNA. These companies don't just survive disruption; they create it.
Most businesses get stuck at the tactical level. They're excellent firefighters but terrible fire prevention specialists.
The Small Signals Everyone Ignores
Here's where I disagree with most change management experts: the biggest threats rarely announce themselves with dramatic fanfare. They whisper first.
I remember sitting with the CEO of a major retail chain in 2019, pointing out that their customer service scores had dropped 0.3% over six months. "Within the margin of error," he said. Twelve months later, their main competitor launched a customer-first initiative that captured 15% of their market share.
Adaptive leaders develop what I call "weak signal radar." They pay attention to:
- Customer complaints that don't fit existing categories
- Employee suggestions that seem impractical but keep recurring
- Competitor moves that appear to make no strategic sense
- Technology adoption rates in adjacent industries
- Regulatory discussions that haven't reached the headlines yet
Most people wait for strong signals because they're easier to recognise and justify. By then, you're not adapting; you're reacting.
Why Perfect Plans Are the Enemy of Adaptability
This might sound contradictory coming from a business consultant, but comprehensive planning can kill your adaptive capacity. Not because planning is bad, but because perfect plans create the illusion of control.
I worked with a tech startup that spent eight months developing a bulletproof go-to-market strategy. Every contingency covered, every risk assessed, every assumption validated. Beautiful work. Completely useless.
The market shifted three months after launch. Not dramatically – just enough to make their perfect plan perfectly wrong. They spent another six months trying to force reality to match their projections instead of adapting to what was actually happening.
The most adaptive companies I know plan extensively but hold their plans lightly. They use planning as a thinking exercise, not a prediction engine.
Building Your Adaptive Operating System
Adaptability isn't a skill you can learn in a weekend workshop. It's an operating system that requires constant maintenance and upgrades.
Start with information diversity. If all your inputs come from the same sources – same industry publications, same conference speakers, same network of contacts – you're creating an echo chamber. I read at least one publication weekly from an industry completely unrelated to business consulting. It's amazing how often solutions from healthcare or agriculture apply to organisational challenges.
Develop decision-making speed without sacrificing quality. Most leaders get this backwards. They either agonise over decisions until the opportunity passes, or they make snap judgments without adequate information. Adaptive leaders get comfortable making reversible decisions quickly and irreversible decisions slowly.
Practice small experiments constantly. Test new approaches when the stakes are low. Try different meeting formats, communication tools, and feedback mechanisms. Build a habit of experimentation so that when big changes are required, the process feels familiar.
Cultivate strategic patience with tactical urgency. This is probably the hardest balance to strike. Move fast on execution while maintaining long-term perspective on direction.
The Melbourne Paradox
Here's something I've noticed working primarily in Melbourne's business community: we're simultaneously over-conservative and over-reactive. We'll stick with outdated systems for years, then panic and change everything at once when pressure builds.
I call it the Melbourne Paradox – our cultural preference for stability creates exactly the conditions that require dramatic adaptation later.
The solution isn't to abandon planning or embrace chaos. It's to build systematic practices that make continuous adaptation feel normal rather than threatening.
What Adaptability Actually Looks Like
Forget the Hollywood version of adaptability – the dramatic pivots and overnight transformations. Real adaptability is methodical, almost boring.
It looks like the retail manager who quietly tests new inventory systems during slow periods. The restaurant owner who experiments with different menu items based on seasonal feedback patterns. The consultancy that regularly surveys clients about services they don't currently offer.
It's thousands of small adjustments that collectively prevent the need for major disruptions.
The Cost of Not Adapting
I've seen the alternative. Businesses that pride themselves on consistency and reliability, right up until they become irrelevant. Industries that dismiss new technologies as fads until those fads become the entire market.
The tragedy isn't just business failure – it's human potential wasted. Talented people who could have thrived in an adaptive environment instead find themselves defending obsolete positions or, worse, believing their skills are no longer valuable.
Getting Started (Without Breaking Everything)
If you're convinced that greater adaptability is necessary but worried about destabilising current operations, start small:
Choose one non-critical process and experiment with alternatives monthly. Set aside 10% of your time for activities completely outside your normal scope. Ask "what would have to be true for this assumption to be wrong?" about your three most fundamental business beliefs.
Most importantly, reframe adaptability from a threat response to a growth strategy. The goal isn't to prepare for everything that might go wrong; it's to position yourself to capitalise on opportunities others miss.
The businesses that emerge stronger from the next inevitable disruption won't be the ones with the best crisis plans. They'll be the ones that were already comfortable with change before change became urgent.
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