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Introduction Some organizations see the change coming and still cannot move. I have watched it happen more than once. Consider a composite, built to show a pattern rather than to describe one company. A large enterprise is at its market-value peak. Its balance sheet is strong, its operations are efficient, and analysts praise its discipline. Then supply lines shift, and a regulatory change makes its core delivery model obsolete within months. The warning was not missed. The c

By Hubert Saint-Onge Adaptability is often treated as a matter of speed: faster decisions, shorter planning cycles, more agile structures, and quicker deployment of technology. These capabilities matter, but they do not reach the deepest source of either adaptation or resistance. An organization does not respond to events directly. It responds to what its members collectively believe those events mean. Between a changing environment and an organizational response lies its tac

The third article in the series: Adaptability from the inside out.

This paper sets out five organizational capabilities — sensemaking, organizational resilience, organizational learning, vertical and horizontal integration, and building emergent strategy — and five individual leadership capabilities — learning agility, strategic thinking, foresight, courage and calmness, and engaging people in adaptability — that together determine an organization’s capacity to adapt.

A guide to adaptability as a core strategy: your entry ticket into competing in a world of complex and rapid change.