In my Tai Chi classes we start off with standing meditation and then do some quite serious stretching to develop greater flexibility. It works – whilst I can’t quite emulate the man in the picture (yet), I can now touch my toes for the first time in years! In July of this year I wrote a blog Time Management and Beyond where I proposed that working life is not just about organising the time given to us in the home or work office, but rather what we pay attention to in our busy days. I have been thinking more about this as I balance the various aspects of my working and leisure life and am coming to the conclusion that in addition to focusing on the right things, the modern professional and business leader needs to be truly flexible in dealing with the inevitable flow of events coming at you from all directions during an average working day.
Gone many many aeons ago are the times when you commuted to an office building in the City every day, got a coffee, chatted to fellow workers, retreated to your private office to read the newspaper and then the post – called in your secretary (remember those) to dictate some pressing letters, chatted to a few colleagues – then went off to a boozy business lunch. The afternoon involved some telephone calls and a team discussion followed by a partners meeting; then off to Waterloo to take the 18.30 train back to Surrey. I am exaggerating to prove a point, but working life then was more structured and to an extent predictable.
Picture the equivalent scene now. You arrive as the leader of a professional team at the London office clutching your Costa Coffee cappuccino for one of your two or three days a week there. The company policy is bookable hotdesking, but you have not bothered to book one because your team usually find workspaces together. However, now that annoying PA (the last vestige of the secretary but now reserved for senior management) from the US head office has booked out all of your normal desks for the visiting American sales team and is guarding them zealously – even though they will not arrive until after midday. You finally find a vacant space on the other side of the office and have just opened up your laptop when one of your team appears and asks if they can have just 5 minutes of your time on a thorny and urgent contract issue. Your coffee is now getting cold. 30 minutes later you just have time to log in for your monthly department meeting. During that you note your 100 unread emails for the day, 10 Teams meeting invites, and a rather annoying IM from the cost-conscious finance director claiming to have found an AI programme that will replace your team at a fraction of the cost.
What I suggest that this means in our present-day volatile business world is that a key skill set for managers and indeed for employees is flexibility and adaptability. See this interesting McKinsey article Developing a resilient, adaptable workforce for an uncertain future which suggests that “A key task for 21st-century leaders is to develop their own capacity for change while also fostering resilience and adaptability in others across the organization.” This is not easy as “Human beings have a natural affinity for order, predictability, and control. They will do everything they can to avoid chaos, uncertainty, and volatility.” However, leaders and employees need to be resilient and adaptable – “the ability to view change as a challenge or an opportunity to bounce forward.” It then proposes four actions leaders can take “so they and their workforces can successfully weather even the most extreme periods of volatility”.
It concludes we need to be resilient and adaptable to avoid the fate of historical factories. “When electricity was invented and replaced steam machines in factories, it took 30 years before that innovation led to improved efficiency and productivity.”
While this Indeed article proposes How to demonstrate adaptability and flexibility at work explaining how they are two different if related skills. When someone is:
It proposes that there are key skills to be:
For me the key here is not to see yourself in the second example above as overwhelmed or driven by the events which occur. Instead embrace the opportunity for variety, continuous learning and open communication. Cultivate a growth mindset in yourself and your team – see Carol Dweck’s great book Mindset. Foster continuous learning and promote experimentation making yourself available to your team. Imagine in the example if the manager had told their colleague with a problem to go away and come back later while he or she caught up with their emails and drank their coffee.
To some extent being flexible and adaptable is a little bit scary because it inevitably involves some measure of loss of control. See this Harvard Business Review article written just after the pandemic The Secret of Adaptable Organizations Is Trust which postulates “a “less is more” approach to adaptability, where management loosens their hold and gives the organization the freedom it needs to work effectively.” To some extent this mirrors a crisis mode. “With the company in a sink-or-swim situation, the employees pull together and develop the ability to surf.” It proposes that “The problem is, tightening controls often stifles the organization. In fact, what management should do is loosen their hold and give the organization the freedom it needs to work effectively. The idea is that management should stick to defining what they want to achieve and let the organization focus on how to achieve it.”
This relaxation and resulting flexibility would be anathema to the office worker in the more traditional example I first set out above. However nowadays this sort of flexibility and adaptability is I suggest a professional imperative.
“The best leaders don't know just one style of leadership - they're skilled at several, and have the flexibility to switch between styles as the circumstance dictates.” Daniel Goleman the American psychologist and author.
“To maintain balance while constantly shifting body weight is an art few ever acquire.” Bruce Lee.
“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.” Albert Camus.
Gone many many aeons ago are the times when you commuted to an office building in the City every day, got a coffee, chatted to fellow workers, retreated to your private office to read the newspaper and then the post – called in your secretary (remember those) to dictate some pressing letters, chatted to a few colleagues – then went off to a boozy business lunch. The afternoon involved some telephone calls and a team discussion followed by a partners meeting; then off to Waterloo to take the 18.30 train back to Surrey. I am exaggerating to prove a point, but working life then was more structured and to an extent predictable.
Picture the equivalent scene now. You arrive as the leader of a professional team at the London office clutching your Costa Coffee cappuccino for one of your two or three days a week there. The company policy is bookable hotdesking, but you have not bothered to book one because your team usually find workspaces together. However, now that annoying PA (the last vestige of the secretary but now reserved for senior management) from the US head office has booked out all of your normal desks for the visiting American sales team and is guarding them zealously – even though they will not arrive until after midday. You finally find a vacant space on the other side of the office and have just opened up your laptop when one of your team appears and asks if they can have just 5 minutes of your time on a thorny and urgent contract issue. Your coffee is now getting cold. 30 minutes later you just have time to log in for your monthly department meeting. During that you note your 100 unread emails for the day, 10 Teams meeting invites, and a rather annoying IM from the cost-conscious finance director claiming to have found an AI programme that will replace your team at a fraction of the cost.
What I suggest that this means in our present-day volatile business world is that a key skill set for managers and indeed for employees is flexibility and adaptability. See this interesting McKinsey article Developing a resilient, adaptable workforce for an uncertain future which suggests that “A key task for 21st-century leaders is to develop their own capacity for change while also fostering resilience and adaptability in others across the organization.” This is not easy as “Human beings have a natural affinity for order, predictability, and control. They will do everything they can to avoid chaos, uncertainty, and volatility.” However, leaders and employees need to be resilient and adaptable – “the ability to view change as a challenge or an opportunity to bounce forward.” It then proposes four actions leaders can take “so they and their workforces can successfully weather even the most extreme periods of volatility”.
- Set a compass or North Star to help people move in a common direction.
- Build a psychologically safe community, not just a workforce.
- Ensure that they, themselves, are demonstrating resilience and adaptability and serving as role models for others.
- Encourage employees to learn and build these skills in groups.
It concludes we need to be resilient and adaptable to avoid the fate of historical factories. “When electricity was invented and replaced steam machines in factories, it took 30 years before that innovation led to improved efficiency and productivity.”
While this Indeed article proposes How to demonstrate adaptability and flexibility at work explaining how they are two different if related skills. When someone is:
- adaptable, they have a willingness to change to match different conditions;
- flexible, they can easily adapt to various situations and respond well to new environments
It proposes that there are key skills to be:
- adaptable including communication, problem solving and teamwork;
- flexible including the mentality to embrace change, taking on new responsibilities and working with new people.
For me the key here is not to see yourself in the second example above as overwhelmed or driven by the events which occur. Instead embrace the opportunity for variety, continuous learning and open communication. Cultivate a growth mindset in yourself and your team – see Carol Dweck’s great book Mindset. Foster continuous learning and promote experimentation making yourself available to your team. Imagine in the example if the manager had told their colleague with a problem to go away and come back later while he or she caught up with their emails and drank their coffee.
To some extent being flexible and adaptable is a little bit scary because it inevitably involves some measure of loss of control. See this Harvard Business Review article written just after the pandemic The Secret of Adaptable Organizations Is Trust which postulates “a “less is more” approach to adaptability, where management loosens their hold and gives the organization the freedom it needs to work effectively.” To some extent this mirrors a crisis mode. “With the company in a sink-or-swim situation, the employees pull together and develop the ability to surf.” It proposes that “The problem is, tightening controls often stifles the organization. In fact, what management should do is loosen their hold and give the organization the freedom it needs to work effectively. The idea is that management should stick to defining what they want to achieve and let the organization focus on how to achieve it.”
This relaxation and resulting flexibility would be anathema to the office worker in the more traditional example I first set out above. However nowadays this sort of flexibility and adaptability is I suggest a professional imperative.
“The best leaders don't know just one style of leadership - they're skilled at several, and have the flexibility to switch between styles as the circumstance dictates.” Daniel Goleman the American psychologist and author.
“To maintain balance while constantly shifting body weight is an art few ever acquire.” Bruce Lee.
“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.” Albert Camus.
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