This one thing that will determine your success during and post Covid-19

Written by Don McKenzie, Managing Director, Adizes Institute Australia

What I would like to share is not new, and it is not something specifically related to the current pandemic grinding the world to a halt. Some businesses, organizations, even family units, and countries sadly won’t survive. Some, however, will not only survive, but will thrive. What's the difference between the two?

The answer, as usual, is clear as day in nature and summarised best by Charles Darwin “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change”.‍

This pandemic brings rapid change. Change in what we can and can’t do. Change in demands from customers. Change in our incomes. Change. As Dr. Ichak Adizes says, change then creates problems and opportunities that need to be managed. It is a ‘change loop’ ongoing and forever.

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The ‘thrivers’ will be those that adapt to these changes by managing all the problems and opportunities that come from these changes. Managing is deciding what to do about a problem and opportunity, and implementing that decision. Easy in words, hard in real life.

Find me a successful organization, family unit, country- whatever. At the core is this adaptation to problems and opportunities. Find me an organization that has disappeared, they didn't adapt fast enough.

Yes, you need ideas, products, resources, people, etc but the biggest asset you can have is the ability to traverse and adapt to this change loop. This ‘one thing’ will disproportionately determine your success.

Mr. Darwin provides amazing hope, “it is not the strongest nor the most intelligent”. This is extremely good news especially for me. Don’t worry about strength and intelligence, worry about what is required to actually adapt. If it was easy, everyone would do it. But it is easier if you know the ingredients to concentrate on, and most importantly, the right sequence of those ingredients based on your current lifecycle location.

Adapting and changing your organization is not one size fits all. What works for one will cause failure for another. Let's talk about where you are in your lifecycle (note: this lifecycle model does not measure age, revenue, staff, etc), and what the prescription is in terms of ingredients, and the sequence of those ingredients to get you adapting to your change loop faster than the world can change.