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Is there anything in your work or personal life that has changed recently? Are you having trouble letting go of the “way things used to be?” Can you find anything positive about the new situation? If so, keep reading and I’ll teach you how to move forward more quickly and with fewer negative emotions than you have right now.

Paradigm: A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them …

Human beings have to create shortcuts to process all the information that comes at us every day. If we didn’t our brains would quickly become overwhelmed and we couldn’t function. Individually and as a society, we are constantly creating paradigms, which are essentially shortcut ways of understanding something. Problems arise when external conditions change, but our internal understanding stays the same.

This is a pretty abstract concept. Why is it important? Because clinging to old paradigms is a source of:

• Resistance to change
• Getting “stuck” in your work or personal life
• A lot of unhappy longing for the past

Here is an example to help you understand.

There are two main routes to get to my gym. Route 1 goes through town, has a few traffic lights, and generally moves along at the speed limit or a bit faster. Route 2 is along a secondary highway, has one or two traffic lights, and has a higher speed limit on average. You would think Route 2 would be reliably faster, and a couple of years ago you would be correct, but now conditions have changed.

Two summers ago, Route 2 was repaved. It used to be a 4 lane road, with 2 lanes traveling in each direction. During the repaving, the lanes were changed. Now there is 1 lane in each direction, a turning lane the whole length of the road, and bicycle lanes on both sides. This is great for bicyclists. Unfortunately, it seems that many of my communities more… let’s just call them town elders… live along that road. They tend to drive huge dinosaur burners and travel VERY SLOWLY, as in 35 MPH on a 50 MPH road. With the new lane configuration, there is no opportunity to pass these drivers.

It’s aggravating.

I stopped driving Route 2 a long time ago, unless I’ve got time to spare. My SO has not, and he inevitably gets stuck behind a slow moving vehicle and gets frustrated. Swearing ensues.

I finally realized that SO is clinging to an old paradigm. He keeps saying things like, “People used to drive 60 MPH on this road.” This is true, but it isn’t true anymore. The sooner he gets over this, the happier he’ll be!

How could he go about this?

[Read more →]

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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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. “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.

Photo courtesy of mwookie.

Have you ever been to a conference, convention or training event? Do you remember how excited you were to learn new things and meet new people? Did you walk away with about 800 new ideas? How long did that last and how many ideas did you actually implement?

If you’re anything like me, chances are you came back to office with a ton of handouts and great ideas, put them in a pile… and promptly forgot about everything you learned!

After doing this too many times, I’ve developed a few key steps for keeping the momentum going after an event.

1. Book a spot at the conference next year. If you feel energized by attending the event this year, chances are you’ll get the same motivational boost next year. Sign up as soon as you can so you have something to work toward.
2. Subscribe to the newsletter or email list. Most organizations that hold conferences have a mailing list of some sort. Keep connected to the group and the source of new ideas by subscribing.
3. Read all those handouts. Do it ASAP - on the plane ride home, if possible. Take lots of notes and pull out any action items that you would like to pursue.
4. Follow up with contacts ASAP. If you read this before you go to a conference - remember to make notes on business cards! Write down something to remind you of who the person is and what you talked about. Back at the office, send an email follow-up. Include any information you promised to exchange and give them at least one action item for their own follow-up.
5. Choose one thing to work on. I often feel overwhelmed with the amount of ideas I can generate over a 2 or 3 day conference. The key to moving forward is to find one project you can take concrete action on. It can be as simple as doing some follow-up reading or as complex as changing your career! Just pick the thing you most want to work on.
6. Share with others. The best way to learn is to teach, so find a way to share your learnings with your co-workers or supervisor. I’ve done short presentations at staff meetings and found that it helped me sort through all my material and get it straight in my head.
7. Slow and steady wins the race. Just because you learned a lot in a short period of time doesn’t mean that you have to act on it all at the same time. Try to plan out the changes that you can implement over a reasonable time period, then stick to your project plan. I aim to implement one small idea per week.

Conferences and conventions can be a great motivator over the short term. Keeping the buzz going takes some planning and work, but it’s a great way to keep your career moving forward.

If you have other suggestions for taking the next step after a conference, please tell us all about it in the comments.

It’s always a happy time for me when the new ChangeThis Manifestos are released. As a blogger interested in change, I’ve really started to look forward to seeing what authors they attract and the wisdom they have to share. This month’s releases include two manifestos that I really enjoyed.

Patricia Martin’s RenGen Manifesto makes some provocative assertions about our times. According to Martin, the world is on the cusp of a new type of Renaissance. The original Renaissance came at a time of great political turmoil and a questioning of society’s fundamental values. (Sound familiar?) It gave us the Protestant Reformation, great art and the birth of the modern university. I wonder what the next century has in store?

On a more prosaic level, Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod bring us Change the Way You Change the World, which is a topic near and dear to my heart. Crutchfield and McLeod challenge nonprofits and NGOs to move beyond building mere programs, to creating movements. They argue that real social change comes through fundamental shifts in society - something that can’t happen just by giving out a meal or building a house. I couldn’t agree more.