What is Adaptive Capacity?
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Adaptive capacity refers to the ability of any system to respond to change and return to a state of balance. I first heard of this concept in relation to the nonprofit sector in the United States. However, it can be applied to ecological systems, any type of organization, and even individuals.
An example of adaptive capacity in an ecological system would be of a river valley experiencing heavy rainfall. For a time the water level in the river will be much higher than normal. Most of the time the river basin will absorb the water fairly quickly and the water level will return to normal within a day or two. However, if the volume of rain exceeds the river basin’s capacity, the river will flood.
Change Fatigue
When an organization or an individual has an excessive amount of change in a short period of time, something has to give. To build on my previous analogy, the system will “flood” or break down in some way. For an organization the “flood” may take the form of communication breakdowns, high turnover, and low productivity. For an individual it could be extreme stress, relationship problems, or even physical and mental health issues.
These symptoms of change fatigue occur because the system isn’t strong and flexible enough to adapt.
Building Adaptive Capacity
It is possible to build adaptive capacity in and organization in much the same way as it is possible to build muscles in a human body - through regular, sustained exercise. When an organization is proactively engaged in steady, small changes, it will be much better positioned to handle external changes when they come up.
Here is just a small sampling of exercises that can build adaptive capacity.
- Scenario Planning. An in-depth look at scenario planning requires its own post. For the time being it is enough to know that the process involves a team envisioning possible futures and detailing plans for those futures. The idea is to have possible actions for many situations, so that the organization is prepared for as many outcomes as possible.
- Cross Training. Many organizations are running so lean now that they don’t have adequate “bench strength” in the case of a team member absence. Cross training is definitely helpful during times like flu season. However, it’s also an advantage to have cross-trained members so that the organization has multiple perspectives to adapt and improve processes. One person performing the same job for years can become inflexible or run out of ideas for making changes. Multiple perspectives of the same job can build the capacity for adaptation and continuous improvements.
- “State of the Industry” Meetings. Many fields, such as real estate, have annual, local forecast meetings. These meetings allow members of that profession to get together and discuss expert projections and their own hunches of the coming year. If you don’t work in one of these fields, you can still have your own information exchange sessions with other members of your organization. Assign everyone a sub-topic to research and discuss the findings among your team or the whole organization. In rapidly changing fields, a quarterly meeting might be even better.
Change is Easier When You Know What’s Coming
In many ways, building adaptive capacity is a lot like building your crystal ball gazing skills. It’s pretty hard to adapt to circumstances that you just couldn’t see coming. In fact, we usually call those events “crises” or sometimes “acts of terrorism!” The good news is that most change follows fairly predictable patterns. Through careful study and information exchange, most organizations in most fields will be able to get the big things right.
These are ideas that I’ve picked up through my studies and experiences within a few types of organizations. If you’ve had different experiences, or tips for building adaptive capacity, please share those in the comments below.
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- How to Do Scenario Planning
- New ChangeThis Manifestos
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- The Moment of Choice
- The Intersection of Project Management and Change Management: An Interview With Bas de Baar of Project Shrink
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Join the Chorus... to “What is Adaptive Capacity?”
Posted: Jan 11th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
This is a great post at the right time.
I see big changes coming on the horizon, even bigger than the ones from the start to the end of the 20th century. The biggest changes will likely come in the social order, U.S. system of government, medical breakthroughs, and education system. At least I hope the signs are those leading to change that will benefit the world instead of harm it.
“Global economy” is already real. How our economy and all its related systems adapt will determine whether the U.S. will remain a world leader or become a follower. How do war and a global economy work together? It looks like we’ll get to find that one out in real time.
Posted: Jan 11th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Fantastic post. I’ve been reading the Tipping Point lately, and one of the things it talks about is how humans can only absorb/adapt to so much, so fast. Understanding how actions can affect different things is so important–these days more than ever!
Posted: Jan 11th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
@Sherri - Obviously, from the theme of this blog, you can tell that I believe that change is one of the most important realities of our time. To me it feels like a time of boundless opportunity, but challenges are the price we pay for that.
@Deb - The Tipping Point is a really interesting book, and I agree that we can only adapt so quickly. However, by building our adaptive capacity we have a better chance of being able to keep up.
Posted: Jan 12th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Adaptive productive capacity is the key to sustainable economic growth:
http://www.intelligenceeastmidlands.org.uk/uploads/documents/89137/RonMartinpaper1.pdf
re: 1
Scenario plans can help to ‘reality check’ statistical forecasts but they do rely on knowledge on behalf of the planners.
re: 2
Companies typically under-train employees in transferable skills because of the risk of poaching
re: 3
Beware: value innovators don’t follow, they lead; industry trends won’t teach you how to adapt to the future.
Posted: Jan 14th, 2008 at 8:53 am
@Robin - these are all good cautionary points. I do disagree a bit with point #3 however. I think having a good grasp of the current trends and past development of an industry is valuable in identifying gaps that can be served by innovation.
Posted: Jan 14th, 2008 at 9:54 am
@Maria - re: 3 - I agree: you’ll need a good grasp of trends and developments to answer the question: which factors typical of our industry should be reduced, raised, eliminated or created?
My point is that value innovators “make their competitors irrelevant” by revolutionising the market - i.e. tracking the state of the industry is necessary but not sufficient for growth
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?articleID=R0407P&ml_action=get-article&print=true
Posted: Jan 15th, 2008 at 4:55 am
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Posted: Jan 16th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
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Posted: Jan 16th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
[...] What Is Adaptive Capacity? was featured in the Carnival of Small Business which was hosted by CA at Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog. Some of the posts I found most useful here are: [...]
Posted: Mar 3rd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
[...] fascinating post from this carnival is What is Adaptive Capacity. The author talks about change and how to prepare your organization for it. Since change is [...]
Posted: May 1st, 2008 at 7:40 am
[...] What is Adaptive Capacity? [...]
This is a great post at the right time.
I see big changes coming on the horizon, even bigger than the ones from the start to the end of the 20th century. The biggest changes will likely come in the social order, U.S. system of government, medical breakthroughs, and education system. At least I hope the signs are those leading to change that will benefit the world instead of harm it.
“Global economy” is already real. How our economy and all its related systems adapt will determine whether the U.S. will remain a world leader or become a follower. How do war and a global economy work together? It looks like we’ll get to find that one out in real time.
Fantastic post. I’ve been reading the Tipping Point lately, and one of the things it talks about is how humans can only absorb/adapt to so much, so fast. Understanding how actions can affect different things is so important–these days more than ever!
@Sherri - Obviously, from the theme of this blog, you can tell that I believe that change is one of the most important realities of our time. To me it feels like a time of boundless opportunity, but challenges are the price we pay for that.
@Deb - The Tipping Point is a really interesting book, and I agree that we can only adapt so quickly. However, by building our adaptive capacity we have a better chance of being able to keep up.
Adaptive productive capacity is the key to sustainable economic growth:
http://www.intelligenceeastmidlands.org.uk/uploads/documents/89137/RonMartinpaper1.pdf
re: 1
Scenario plans can help to ‘reality check’ statistical forecasts but they do rely on knowledge on behalf of the planners.
re: 2
Companies typically under-train employees in transferable skills because of the risk of poaching
re: 3
Beware: value innovators don’t follow, they lead; industry trends won’t teach you how to adapt to the future.
@Robin - these are all good cautionary points. I do disagree a bit with point #3 however. I think having a good grasp of the current trends and past development of an industry is valuable in identifying gaps that can be served by innovation.
@Maria - re: 3 - I agree: you’ll need a good grasp of trends and developments to answer the question: which factors typical of our industry should be reduced, raised, eliminated or created?
My point is that value innovators “make their competitors irrelevant” by revolutionising the market - i.e. tracking the state of the industry is necessary but not sufficient for growth
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?articleID=R0407P&ml_action=get-article&print=true
[...] Gajewski presents What is Adaptive Capacity? posted at Never the Same River Twice, saying, “Adaptive capacity is the ability of a system [...]
[...] it on a similar note of coping with disaster, or at least change, What is Adaptive Capacity? Follow the link and Never the Same River Twice will [...]
[...] What Is Adaptive Capacity? was featured in the Carnival of Small Business which was hosted by CA at Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog. Some of the posts I found most useful here are: [...]
[...] fascinating post from this carnival is What is Adaptive Capacity. The author talks about change and how to prepare your organization for it. Since change is [...]
[...] What is Adaptive Capacity? [...]