Adaptation As Innovation
By Les Mottosky
What used to be sane is becoming squirrelly. That which was comfortable will soon create hardship.
What once was, is no longer.
Exponential change will take no prisoners and may leave a bunch of wounded survivors.
The positive thinking movement that took-off in the 1950's is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and being replaced by empowered thinking. To distinguish between them, this means believing and acting from thoughts that create a state I call energy forward. It's not the thoughts, but the belief and subsequent actions that make the difference.
This take on antiquated standards isn't an attempt to be controversial or to create fear, but to stimulate discernment, consideration and action...one step at a time.
With systems under existential pressures, intensified societal siloing, political friction, and the wick of expanding wars flirting with flame, conventional thinking has to come under scrutiny.
The good news? No matter what we perceive, the reality is that things are getting worse and better at the same time. Life feels increasingly off-kilter, but balance is an unshakeable Universal Law. This balance is evident in our work, where for the most part, all of us –no matter what industry– are in service to our fellow humans. It's rewarding to understand we're contributing to the collective.
Only through the lens of media and momentary flashes in our day, are we reminded of the less palatable end of the scale.
There are other signals of balance:
Despite being the flavour du jour, many organizations that went all-in on AI 18 months ago (at the expense of jobs), are beginning to experience regret. (A report from Orgvue earlier this year suggests this is true for 55% of those early adopters.)
No matter the nature or extent of the disruption around us, it's becoming clear the greatest risk we face is avoiding it.
And why would we avoid risk?
Because conventional thinking recommends it. And conventional thinking is often conflated with knowledge.
Stephen Hawking famously dropped this zinger: "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."
This is why conventional thinking no longer cuts the cake; it's becoming delusional.
For some this realization is confusing and frightening. For others, an opportunity.
Universal Law reminds us it's both.
The key to embracing this unusual opportunity presented to us? Our focus. Not on what we look at (as convention urges), but on what we see. One of the gifts of being human is we get to choose. To observe something different than confusion and fear, we push beyond that persuasive first impression to adapt our perspective.
We consider more deeply, find connections where they might be obscured, imagine with greater freedom and then –most importantly– have the courage to create from what we discover.
To do so is not conventional.
But it is what's next.
TAGS: #Adaptation As Innovation #Leadership Wisdom #Irreverent Strategies #Creativity At Work #Courage Is Our Nature
Les Mottosky
Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.
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