Tech investor, Natalir Fratto chooses to invest in startup founders based not on their IQ or EQ but what she calls, the AQ. The Adaptability Quotient tells her how adaptable a founder is to the fast changing business landscape. She goes further to call adaptability a type of intelligence and many people would agree with her.
Adaptability is today not really a skill which you may or may not have, It’s not a choice, it’s a necessity.
She’s quick to point out in her Ted Talks, 3 Ways to Measure Your Adaptability – And How To Improve It that AQ isn’t important just for start-up founders but for every single person who is part of this very dynamic global business ecosystem.
So, here are 4 ways to embrace adaptability:
- Make Up Your Mind: Having a mindset that’s willing to adapt is half the battle won. Once you do that the following steps are easy. You identify basic problems or challenges professional or personal and embrace that challenge. Only an adaptable mind is optimistic about challenges, as he/she embraces the change in the offing in order to solve the problem.
- Create a Course of Action: Once you make up your mind to adapt, You’ll need a go-to plan that will direct your course to adaptation, for eg: if you have a local business and are struggling with online marketing, which today decides the fate of any small or local business, you’ll plan towards building a better online presence. You may educate yourself about digital marketing or hire an agency to help you with the same. So basically your COA lists out all the tasks you need to do to bring about a necessary change.
- Look Out for Inspiration: Your competition and your audience can teach you a lot. They are adapting all the time to technology, relationships, markets etc and if you observe them keenly you’ll get insights about what they did to adapt. Is your brand satisfying your customer’s growing dependence on technology? Are you able to target the right customers with the right marketing messages like your competitors? Look out for these questions which will direct you to making the change you want to see.
- Start Small: Once you identify your course of action, start your journey of adaptability by first focussing on the smaller goals. Change however small or big has an impact and by starting small, it won’t be overwhelming and will in fact motivate you to eventually go for the big fish.
When you make room for adaptability you make room for new ideas, new expectations and new experiences, you make room for growth.
