When a sudden, unexpected health issue arises, most people follow one of the following paths:
a) Ignore it and hope it goes away.
b) Rush to the ER, local walk-in clinic, or call an ambulance.
c) Call their PCP and make an informed plan.
Obviously, outcomes vary depending on the severity of the issue and the baseline health of the patient, but most would agree that the people who maintain healthy lifestyles, eat well, exercise consistently, and see their doctors regularly (not just for emergencies), are statistically likely to have the best outcomes when they are unfortunately faced with a medical crisis. Taking preventative action, and having regular checkups to identify and treat hidden issues before they become too big to cope with, just makes good medical sense—it also makes good business sense.
What about your organization? When sudden, unexpected change affects your business, are you simply able to pivot with a measured, intentional approach because you’ve taken care of your “health,” you’re resilient and have practiced for change scenarios?
Or do you chronically panic and scramble to respond, launching ad hoc initiatives, hastily forming task forces and moving forward by “best guesses”, diagnosing on the fly like it’s a trauma case in the emergency room, with no patient history? Whether it’s an internal initiative like a new software roll out or something external like a competitor launching a breakthrough new product, too many organizations fall into the pattern of always taking the same reactive, acute-care approach.
An alarming 90% of organizations (Source: Business Wire) fall into this category, struggling to adapt quickly to market changes. As a result, they fail to meet roughly one-third of their strategic objectives, missing the mark on some of their most important priorities.
“The problem is this reactionary approach is not sustainable because uncertainty and ambiguity are not acute problems,” said Competitive Edge CEO Krista Sheets. “They’re chronic conditions that you can’t ignore and hope they go away.”
In fact, they’re not going away anytime soon, and much like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, by the time you take action, the damage may have already begun.
Just as there’s no magic pill to cure a chronic disease, Adaptability Intelligence also isn’t something you can quickly inject when things go sideways. It’s something you have to build and maintain, just like your health.
That’s why leaders need to start thinking of Adaptability as a vital sign for organizational health , and that means shifting from an acute care mentality to one of wellness and preventative care.
Change is a Chronic Condition
Most organizations still treat change like a project. There’s a start and end date, a checklist, and (hopefully) a communications plan. This approach might work to some degree when your organization is the one driving the change—a new software installation or a business merger, for example.
But change isn’t episodic anymore and it rarely exists in a bubble. Instead, it’s continuous, overlapping, and compounding. And the pace of disruption—from AI tools to geopolitical shifts to market volatility—is accelerating.
Waiting until a new challenge arises to gain Adaptability Intelligence is like waiting until you’re in cardiac arrest to start jogging and cut back on the carbs. The hardest time to start building resilience is in the middle of a meltdown. That being said, an Adaptability Assessment in the middle of a crisis would reveal useful insights about how people react in the heat of the moment, although it is far better to have done one in advance. As the adage goes, the best time to plant an apple tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time is still today.
Adaptability Requires a Primary Care Mindset
The AQai Adaptability Assessment is not a reactionary tool or a treatment plan. It’s a baseline health check for your organization. It helps you assess not just individual readiness for change, but your team’s capacity to evolve over time. Like a preventative screening or wellness exam, it provides early insights and identifies risks you and your team can address before they become performance-threatening issues.
“The assessment gives you clues to take corrective action before subtle symptoms become acute problems,” Sheets says. “You shouldn’t wait for a team member to burn out before checking in on their workload. Why wait for a change initiative to fail before understanding how your team handles ambiguity, overcomes challenges, or persists through setbacks? Of course, it’s better to know that up front so you can mitigate any issues.”
Reactive Organizations Get Sideswiped. Adaptable Ones Get Ahead.
When companies operate in reaction mode, they tend to rely on heroics. They overburden high performers, push through resistance, and “power through” disruption without understanding the root cause of friction. It’s as risky as putting a cast on a runner’s broken leg and then putting her right back in the race, expecting her to win. Or relying on the heart surgeon to save your life after years of poor health choices. At some point, there’s only so much they can do.
By contrast, adaptable organizations build what we call “Adaptability Muscle.” They know their baseline. They invest in development and maintaining the health and wellbeing of their team. They normalize reflection to understand how they can do better, and they course-correct early, before things fall completely apart.
As we’ve covered before, Adaptability isn’t just about how you react to what’s next; it’s also about how well you learn from what just happened. And that doesn’t mean just hoping lessons learned from this situation will fit the next one because often the context, details and conditions are going to change. It means learning how you and your team react, process, regroup and adapt–not just training to apply the same rote tactics to new circumstances. Ideally, you’re not just learning from fallout after fallout. You’re building capacity to absorb, assess, and act nimbly before the next shock.
You Can’t Afford to Wing It
With job skills shifting at unprecedented rates, “winging it” is no longer a viable strategy. You need to understand how your people handle stress, what motivates them, what environment they need to perform their best, their capacity to unlearn assumptions and how they collaborate under pressure.
These core AQai Adaptability sub-dimensions aren’t fixed. They’re capacities you can grow with the right intervention—just like a healthier heart, more capable lungs and stronger muscle—to prevent your organization from becoming frail and vulnerable.
The earlier you identify your team’s strengths and vulnerabilities with the AQai Assessment, the more tailored and intentional your development strategies can be.
Preventative Care is a Competitive Edge
The AQai Adaptability Assessment is like a fitness tracker for your organization. It helps to monitor your progress, aid in diagnosis, and optimize performance across every role and function.
When you build Adaptability Intelligence into your culture before the next disruption, you don’t just react better. You move faster, innovate sooner, and lead smarter. That’s not a “soft skill” in this environment—it’s a competitive edge.
And just as keeping up with your cardio workouts is an important investment in your health–and way less risky and costly than open heart surgery–the investment you make in the Adaptability Assessment is minimal compared to the cost of failed change, lost productivity, or burned-out talent.
Don’t Wait for the Next Emergency
If you’ve been treating change like a one-time event—something you “gut through” and then go back to normal—it’s time to reframe. There is no “normal” to go back to. There’s only what’s next, and that will keep demanding more Adaptability Intelligence, not less.
If you’re ready to move from an acute care model to a preventative one, the AQai Adaptability Assessment is the perfect place to begin. It’s like a diagnostic tool for the health of your organization. Start by getting a baseline, then build your Adaptability Muscle so you can stay ready. Not just for the next change, but for the ones that inevitably come after that.
Contact us today to get started.