Release Date:
February 21, 2025
Release Date: Feb 13
Building Adaptable Organizations: The Key to Surviving Rapid Change
Is your organization struggling to keep up with the accelerating pace of change?
Consider this: The average lifespan of a company has shrunk from 75 years to just 6. Without constant reinvention, your business might not exist in three years.
In this episode of “The Learn-It-All Podcast,” change leadership expert Debora McLaughlin explores how organizations can build the critical capability of “changeability” – the mindset, energy, and capacity to not only lead change but to imagine opportunities within obstacles. Drawing from her extensive experience in corporate technology, psychology, and executive coaching, McLaughlin shares practical insights on how leaders can assess and develop adaptability at the individual, team, and organizational levels.
What You’ll Learn:
In This Episode:
About Our Guest:
Debora McLaughlin is the CEO of The Renegade Leader Coaching and Consulting Group and author of multiple books including the recently released Changeability. With over two decades of experience spanning Fortune 100 technology implementation, licensed psychology practice, and executive coaching, McLaughlin brings a unique combination of business acumen and behavioral expertise to organizational change. Her work focuses on measuring and building adaptability in leaders and teams, with documented success in improving customer satisfaction, employee retention, and digital transformation initiatives. A pioneer in quantifying organizational adaptability, McLaughlin’s approach has delivered measurable ROI for clients, including a 162% return on investment in one strategic partnership project. Her insights have been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal.
Resources Referenced:
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Transcript
Introduction to Debora McLaughlin – Damon introduces Debora,highlighting her expertise in leadership, adaptability, and coaching.
0:00
if you have an environment where there's not psychologicalsafety where people don't you know don't feel that that
0:05
they're supported by the company you know or they don't feelsupported by the team and there's High work stress it's
0:10
being aware of those environmental factors that mightinfluence how fast your people are going to move or not or
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what resistance you might be met with is your company builtto last here's the brutal reality business life fans has
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shrunk from 75 years to just six only those who adapt WillSurvive today's
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guest has spent over two decades navigating organizationalchange and her groundbreaking work shows how companies
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can measure and build adaptability across 15 key Dimensionswelcome to the learn at all podcast the show for
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today's leaders who want to get ahead and stay ahead becausewe believe that great leaders aren't born or made they
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are constantly in the making I'm Damon lmy and co-hostingwith me today is Darren Bridget and we're both from
0:55
learnning a live learning platform that's helped upskillover 2 million people over the past three decades
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joining us in a moment is Deborah mcgoffin and she's here toshare how leaders can develop change ability the
1:07
essential skill to not just manage change but to thrivethrough it we'll be asking Deborah to share her insights on
1:13
assessing team Readiness for change how unlearning fuelsuccess and why psychological safety is a secret to
What Is Changeability? – Debora explains the concept ofchangeability and how it empowers leaders to create their future.
1:19
agility in your book you say the future isn't scary if we'rethe ones creating
1:25
it what do you mean by that well absolutely I think thatsometimes we feel like we don't have control you know
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especially with technology changes you political CHeverything that's happening in our world is AD missed with so many
1:37
change and it's easy enough to say well things are happeningto us but no I actually believe that the future is not
1:43
scary if you're the one creating it if you're setting yourpath and seeing what your role is in it well this is the the
1:50
topic of your most recent book changeability that we'redefinitely going to get into today and for our listeners this is really a umgoing to
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be a terrific opportunity to focus on what does it mean tobe adaptable and changeable um moving forwards because
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this is demanded of us in this AI world that we're going toget into um and you bring a ton of expertise to this this is
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not your first book not your first rodeo you might say so uhwith that theme can you give our list there as a little bit
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of a your your story your background how did you come tothis to this moment of helping people around adaptability and
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change yes well you know i' I've also you know had a had acorporate career
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and you know bringing Technology Solutions that myorganizations that I I brought them to might have not not even
2:35
heard of so having seen the organizations that quicklyadopted you know changes in technology and were
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willing to give up you know their treasured semiconductorrooms sizes of
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computers to their desktop you know I've seen how theyevolved and so seeing who
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didn't make it and who did you know really started me onthis liking ability
2:59
of change disruption if we think of that and then I've alsoum when because I'm
3:05
adaptable when my commute from New Hampshire to Boston gotyou know sidetracked by a very long Bridge
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construction I never knew when I was going to get home to mynanny watching my kids I decided to dust off my
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psychology license and go into practice and lo and beholdthe people who took up
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space on my couch or what have you were professionalsworking in the organizations facing change and were
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very stressed out with their teams and that's and realizingagain like this
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essence of you know you can change or you can't change oryou can adapt or you choose not to and now you have you know
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the repercussions of that and then when I heard that therewas a career called coaching in 2003 I jumped right into it
3:51
and you know really have been in it ever since so workingwith leaders and teams and organizations you know facing change
3:57
and destruction as well as personal change why isadaptability such an important thing to focus on right now
4:04
and then I and then I think we'll start to get into yourbook changeability I think that there are several reasons that why it's soimportant so let's take
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them kind of looking at a organization or a team or apersonal level and from an organization perspective there the
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lifespan of an organization used to be like 75 years so theywould kind of
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reinvent their product or their process maybe at year 45 andthen it went to 15
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and most recently it's down to six which means if you're notReinventing as an
4:34
organization and reimagining new possibilities for yourselfby year two or three or an ongoing basis your
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business might not exist and so what's happening with teamsin organizations
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and and struggling leaders trying to get teams to be moreadaptive is that they're faced with you know if they want
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to be relevant they also have to step up to the change butas a personal level I
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mean it is AAP scary thing and people are frightened rightnow because they're afraid you know is AI going to take over
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my job am I going to have to learn a new skill set when I'vebeen really successful at what I do and even you
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know what's what's going to happen with my on my way to workI was listening to the radio today and they were talking about you knowgovernment people
5:18
returning back to work well that's lifechanging for manypeople after many years right and so it's really relevant
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in all three of those levels you know asking the question ofhow do we react mentally you know to change and are we
The Three-Legged Stool – Debora introduces her framework:change leadership, adaptability, and agility, and how they supportorganizational success.
5:34
really equipped with a skill set to adapt in your book it'scalled changeability how do you defined CH
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changeability yes well it's really about having and I throwthe energy in there because I think energy is really
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important it's the it's the mindset and the energy and thecapacity to be able to not only lead a change that you have
5:54
been given perhaps but also to be able to imagineopportunities within obstacle
6:00
to see what possibilities there might be for yourself or anorganization or a
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team or a new or a customer you really focus on athree-legged stool can you share with us what those uh three legs
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are and how they support each other yes and and you know Ilike that you use it terminology because I find it's a
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success a good metaphor so yes in in the book I um I useboth storytelling of you
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know some of my clients might wonder is this me and maybeit's a composite of you that is in the in the book but
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really Three core you know three-legged stools which isabout change leadership understanding you know that
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there's different what what self-awareness of my ability tolead like if I a Visionary leader as a senior
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leader that's quite different than a person in the trenchesthat's an Executor or get it done or could be
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different than somebody who's really a heart-c centeredleader so self-awareness of my leadership style and how to adap apt to otherstyles so
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that you bring people along and then adaptability which forthe first time we can actually measure you know 15 degrees
7:09
of adaptability of different dimensions as well as changeReadiness and res skillability at the individual team and
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organization level and then agility I mean speed is ofessence right we have a
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A desperate need for speed and I'm not talking about agilein regards to
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systems or processes I'm not talking about change in regardsto whether you losing a counter method or a proy or
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whatever I'm talking about the people aspect or change withthose three-legged stools can you give us like some
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examples of um how you do that especially if you're maybenot a Visionary leader as you said you're more
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of a people leader like how do how will how should differentleaders approach this yes well I'll give you a a favor
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tip is is that you know people tend to kind of fall into twocategories is not
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stereotyping anybody but there it's either head heart orhand so head is
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what is the goal what's the vision you know heart is how isthis going to be related to people my team my customers
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and hands are how are we going to get it done maybe anoperational side and so if
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you understand if you can listen well enough to someone thatyou're speaking to and say oh that's a head harder hands
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style of person and you start to communicate at that levelthen you can
8:31
have a better more effective conversation so for instance ifsomebody is a high Visionary they're not going to
8:37
want to tune into all the details of the road map of how toget there from an Executor type of person you know or
8:44
somebody's heart centered and you're not talking aboutpeople they're going to feel like you know your change that
8:49
you're proposing is a little cold and they're not going tobuy into it because they're worried about people so that
8:55
just very simply um understand yeah you ahead heart handsperson and what are
Understanding Leadership Styles – Debora shares how knowingwhether you lead with your head, heart, or hands can transform communicationand collaboration.
9:01
the people around you and are you speaking their samelanguage but then I would also imagine if you're more of a
9:07
Visionary you might be more comfortable with changechangeability but if you're more of the heart or the hands person
9:13
you might have a hard time with it as well um what do yousay to those leaders who need to also Embrace change oh yes
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and I and as you can imagine you know my top scores ofchange leadership are both
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Visionary a high coach and Visionary secondary and and myhands I have to
9:31
have hire hire people around me right to do that Excelspreadsheet or other things or build the road map of our
9:37
schedule of delivery and things so the answer is we can't beall three proficiently so you have to ask you know
9:44
how can I utilize someone on my team that's making up for myyou know missing area or how can I you know if you're a
9:51
business owner hire for somebody or is it a skill that youyou know can somewhat um develop but also know if
9:59
it's something that's painful for you maybe you only do it15 minutes at a time for your business accounting if
10:04
that's just not your thing and one of the keys to all thisis adaptability so
10:10
can you share why Deborah we believe that adaptability couldbe the most important skill for the future in
10:16
general yes and I you know I certainly could cite a numberof different you know research that has come out but
10:22
anybody can find those on their own of the statistics is towhy is adaptability one of the top competencies
10:29
um for individuals to have and why is it that you knowExecutives CEOs and hiring
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people are looking for people that are adaptable thisbecause they know the environment is in a state of constant
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change so they need people who can keep up and soadaptability measures you know
10:47
how do I adapt you know as an individual but also whatenvironment you know do we
10:54
need to be able to thrive and adapt so for instance ifthere's a lot of stress in your office environment or in your in
11:02
your team or if there's you know low mental health or youfeel like you're not supported by your team members all
11:08
of those things erode the viability of adaptability in anindividual team or
11:14
organization do you ever find that people are adaptable on apersonal level but
11:21
struggle with it at work or vice versa Oh yes totally andand that's interesting and some of the feedback
11:27
that I've received on on book is you know what people tendto resonate is this one gentleman's story and Raj in
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the book you know because Raj is a Visionary works for ahighly successful Cloud you know company and but he sees
11:42
opportunities you know where the company should be goinghe's looking around you know the corners already but in that
11:50
mental state of struggle of like how do I get you know theresources to buy in from senior level people who want to
11:57
focus on that what's work working successfully that Legacyproduct you know our Legacy customer how you know
12:04
how do I run down the hall with my excitement and Shout outmy idea and so it's a it's a personal struggle because
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you can't just land a big giant idea you have to kind ofGloom it along you know
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so other people can get to it and and even with um thatchange leadership assessment I remember a a CEO saying to
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me oh my gosh now I get why the ideas I get in the showerthat I totally know going to work just laying dead on my
12:32
conference room table with my executive teeth do you havesome tips for people around how to enroll people in your
Adaptability as a Superpower – Debora emphasizes whyadaptability is the most sought-after skill and how it impacts individuals,teams, and organizations.
12:39
vision for change yes um certainly because I mean you knowcommunication is a key component of of anything right and
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so again it's starting with that what's in it for them youlike understanding you know if that person is a a numbers
12:55
person right you know if they head head all about you knowprofitability or numers start you know how your idea is
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going to fit in with the numbers if they're a people personthen start with how it's going to be you know great for
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our customers or or whomever in the people side or the handsreally tie it
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in especially with the hands you know tie it into how theycould possibly do it operationally because people are
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already overwhelmed with the number of projects they alreadyhave going on you said there there was 15 Dimensions to
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adaptability that's that's more than I would have haveexpected uh I guess I this is a silly question but what are
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your favorites my favorite dimensions are the ones that areparticular to the individual which is you know how do I
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rate in regards to adaptability and you know just to back itup for a moment I mean the good news
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is even though there's that many dimensions there's commonlythree that are correlated to the top you know like
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business issues like if you're looking you know to improveretention there's really three you know that are
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associated with this so there's correl but to get back to mytop ones which you
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know for adaptability is mindset is one of the ones which iswhat is your view
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of any change you know do you immediately go into thathiding space of the dark cave or do you just sit back
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and think you know is there opportunity of this and thenmental flexibility which is you know kind of holding even
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contrarian thoughts together and or even thinking um like Imight have a
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perspective but also holding the thought like how might mycustomer think about this you know or somebody else right two
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different things and then there then what's often talkedabout is resilience you know my ability to bounce back from
14:43
something but I think adaptability is more about leapingforward um than bouncing back and and grit which
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surprisingly people might think oh it's great to have grit Ican just push on through but sometimes an overuse of grit
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means that you're you know you're overwhelmed you're burningyourself out so I you know it's
15:03
not always a good thing and then probably one of my otherfavorites but
15:08
under thought of is unlearn which is you know how do youstep away from learning
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something you know we all had flip phones at one time rightyou know now we have technology on our wrist you know
15:22
learning something that you knew well or was even successfulat and suddenly having new learning to take on and I I
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think that's what a lot of you know people are hit with nowwith changes in at their workplaces new learning and
15:35
feeling like that kindergartener at the first day of schoolAdent my question is
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how can being or creating a learning culture learningenvironment help build
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adaptability Oh yes totally I mean it really I would sayit's an integral part because in a learning environment if
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it's also meshed with psychological safety meaning thatpeople can ask questions
15:59
that there's nothing you know foolish about it that they canbe unsure and
16:05
seen as students you know that are learning meaning thatthere's not an expectation that you should know this
16:11
already it that that that that Fosters adaptability becauseit starts the mindset of that mental flexibility and
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and and you know a learning opportunity and seeing newpossibilities because as people are learning new tools they're
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starting to think well how might I use them right how youknow how about whether it's personally or professionally how can this tool beused
16:32
so Deborah the Third Leg of the stool is agility what is thedifference between
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organizational agility and individual uh adaptability yeswell if we think about
16:44
it and again removing you know the process mindset we're nottalking about waterfall or any of those processes but
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at the speed of decision making and you know everything hasspeed speed it up
16:57
otherwise we're going to missed the mark you know onsomething so individual agility means that we don't have the
Building Psychological Safety – Debora discusses theimportance of creating environments where teams feel safe to learn, fail, andinnovate.
17:03
time and the space to have you know numerous conversationsabout something and what I find that speeds individual
17:12
um agility and decision making and movement forward is ifindividuals in
17:17
their workplace are really clear about what the goal isright it's been clearly said but also if they Al understand the
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decision filters um that senior leaders might use so thathow they decide about something
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because like you brought up the three-legged stool earlierso to give you an example u i I've worked with one
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client had that has a three-legged stool um in his in hisbusiness and that every
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employee has to talk about anything that they're bringingforward in the terms of how is this good for our company our
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employees and our customers and so every conversation bringscomes forward with
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those three decision filters um and it doesn't matter whatlevel within the
18:03
organization so people can be more agile to change if theyunderstand the reasons
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behind it and the decision filters of their senior leadersadaptability isn't like it's just a freeer all the time you
18:16
need to like what should you adapt to and what should younot adapt to and how do you uh have some consistency within
18:22
this process feel like that's a tension for people sometimeswhen it comes to understanding uh what what should I be
18:28
changing and what should I not be changing yes well one ofthe a couple of the dimensions that kind of fall into
18:34
that into that context is the there's both um thinking stylelike am I a big
18:40
picture thinker or a detail printer but but also motivationstyle which is am I
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motivated to play to protect or am I motivated to play towin and so and and
18:52
actually one of my um one of my client organizations wasrecently written about
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I didn't write the article but in a Harvard Business articleabout that complexity of the mindset when you have
19:04
people who are play to protect and you have people that areplay to win and the truth is you need the balance because
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like with Raj and his organization we need the play toprotect people with the Legacy products that have made the
19:17
company so successful but we also need the play to win tolook around what's coming around the corers and so it's
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understanding your team like if you're trying to do a playto win thing and you're speaking to someone who is
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playing to protect you have to convert that language intowhy it fits into what
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they already know and have safeguarded whereas if you'retalking to
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a clay to to win person they're going to get all excited andriled up about you know where where you're
19:49
going so it's making sure that you understand you know whodo who do you have who are these people right how do
19:56
you talk to them differently but to understand as anorganization we need both to survive to sustain for today but
20:03
also to grow for tomorrow how do you approach helping peopleand then we'll see if we can tease out some things that
20:09
our listeners could do just for themselves and I I think youstart with assessments yes yes I do start with
20:15
assessments because really for two reasons one is speed youknow we could SP have spent many coaching sessions
20:21
together and not discovered you know what an assessmentmight reveal and so I
20:27
do always start with you know a number of differentdifferent types of Assessments whatever is relevant and so
20:33
with with the adaptability assessment at the individuallevel it's understanding you know what might be those bothersome
20:40
things for me you know at work but understanding why theymight exist and then actually um the assessment comes
20:48
with a dashboard so that if I wanted to improve my grit orresilience for example you know there is you know a
20:55
dashboard of TED Talks articles you know book all differentthings that you can improve your your grit or any of those
21:02
types of things so at the individual level like if some I'mworking with a client now that um there also isn't bold
21:11
when it comes to conflict which a lot of people we're eithertoo bold or we not bold enough right so to be able to do an
21:19
a conflict style and to understand you know am I am I highlycompetitive when
21:25
it comes to conflict or am I an avoider or am I tooaccommodating I mean the
Turning Resistance into Opportunity – Debora sharesstrategies for helping teams and individuals overcome resistance to change.
21:32
data gives us insight to be able to quickly move into thecoaching that's appropriate for the individual do you
21:38
find after people do the assessment that they're surprisedwith their level of adaptability well sometimes and and I
21:45
think it's with all assessments I mean I've I've done somany there's always the question like I didn't know about
21:51
that question or you know they always question theassessment validity first
21:56
right but but yes they did there are surprises you knowcertainly and um
22:02
having and and also like I'm currently working with anorganization to improve customer satisfaction scores and they've
22:10
all taken the adaptability assessment but also surprised tosee
22:15
that and I work with them that if a lot of people it's it'sa very highly compliant organization so there much
22:23
more about play to protect so what I know from thatinformation is hearing
22:28
from customers and what the customers needs that we have totake small incremental steps to improve customer
22:35
satisfaction scores we can't do something radical becausethis a team of people are not going to move towards radical as quickly but thatmight be
22:42
totally different you know and another organization whatmakes for a good assessment like what should somebody if
22:49
I'm trying to look at the landscape of like I need to assessmy team what goes into a good assessment about qualitative
22:55
things like this yes well I think it's certainly making sureit's relative to what you're trying to achieve and really
23:01
asking yourself like even finding that out about conflictmanagement styles you
23:06
know is it because you have conflict that exist do you wantto improve it in that or the adap the adaptability is
23:13
relevant to a number of different things if you're if you'refacing change if you want to proove the you know the agility
23:20
you know of your people if you have retention you knowconcerns or if you have a big digital transformation you're
23:26
rolling out in your organization and you want to see whoearly adopters are versus your leers so that you can spend
23:31
more training time with the leers um you know you can dothat as well so it's the relevancy but then also looking at um
23:40
what types of Assessments might your people enjoy doingbecause I think people are over assessed especially within
23:46
organizations and and also more importantly how is theinformation going
23:52
to be used so for instance in this team that I'm currentlyworking with I'm not reporting any individual ual
23:59
adaptability scores to the organization they've got them ontheir own they understand how to interpret them and
24:04
they understand how to improve upon them if they wish butinstead we're looking at how is the overall adaptability
24:11
scores related to customer satisfaction and delivering thatwhat are some key indicators of a team's Readiness for
24:19
change yes well a couple different things is as one you knowin that case since it's an organ organization wide
24:27
the the the adaptability assessment also gives you a changeReadiness score you
24:32
know of your organization and and and of the teams becauseit might be different teams that are more highly adaptable
24:40
than than others but it also looks at your environment andbecause again if
24:45
you have an environment where there's not psychologicalsafety where people don't you know don't feel that that
24:51
they're supported by the company you know or they don't feelsupported by the team or there's High work stress or a
24:56
lot of you know organizations that talking about Wellness inthe organization I mean it's being aware of
25:02
those environmental factors that might influence you knowhow how fast your people are going to move or not or what
25:09
resistance you might be met with and then to address thosethings at the same time as you're doing your change
25:15
implementation you know as a consultant to an organizationor or a coach I'm really kind of just the bridge builder
25:21
of interpreting the data you know and and understanding thegoals right the vision of the organization or the goals
25:28
and then only you know providing what's relevant in thatbuilding of the bridge can you give us some examples of
25:34
companies that you worked with you know not necessarilynaming names but examples of where this has been done
25:40
well and maybe even some examples when it hasn't been doneso well yes thinking of you know what may be relevant to a
25:46
number of different organizations is that you know no nodepartment works by itself they have to partner with other
25:53
other departments right so so one is how especially ifyou're supporting other department how do you move from being
25:59
viewed as a transactional support team and versus astrategic partner so in
26:05
order to develop and see yourself as a strategic partner toother business
26:10
units and internally you know first is and and working witha a team that
26:15
wanted to you know make that shift of developing strategicPartnerships with other departments first we had to work
26:23
on the adaptability piece about the like the mindset likeidentifying what is a strategic partner anyways you know what
26:30
does that mean to me you know how you know does it mean I'ma you know I an
26:36
expert does it mean that I'm you know a colleague a partneryou know really identifying what that means to me but
26:42
then also looking at the mindset because in working withthat particular team
26:47
that had kind of worked very proficiently as a silo um thatthere were some individuals with that team
26:54
that weren't as excited about going out and meeting more ofother departments
26:59
right there might be a little bit more introverted or shybut doing the skill building of as a strategic partner you
27:06
know how do I show up in those meetings knowing that I'm shyor afraid to have them and then some coaching around what
27:12
do I say in those meetings how do I present myself as astrategic partner how do I show that I'm adding value um
27:19
or even how do I make sure that my priority is as importantto this other department that I need support in you
27:25
know to convince them to support me and then and you know tobe able to have that you know resilience and the
27:31
willingness to see the opportunity of who do you become inthis new process of
27:36
becoming a strategic partner and that so that's where theadaptability assessment had some loots but then grew into the
27:44
building of the Strategic partnership and then we were ableto actually track
27:49
because of some Financial impact 162% return on investmentof that particular
27:54
project you said something in there too that I feel like wealways are working on to try to get better and
28:00
better at is you can tell people what the change is thatneeds to happen but it has so much in how you do it like you
28:07
said it's like specifically how you say it and that's whereI feel like coaching
28:12
can be so valuable because for each person it can be alittle bit different about how this to get from here's what
28:19
you need to do to here's how you personally get there yesand sometimes I find and I'm actually coaching a team
28:25
about this now is it's not as much about um telling is it isasking for example
28:31
and and so for this particular team that's working on thethe customer satisfaction scores what I found after
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interviewing customers is that the team members are excitedto meet their needs they write it down on a piece of paper
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or whatever they run off and they go and do it but theircustomers are saying sometimes I don't get what I'm looking
28:50
for they you know I don't know if they understand what myrequest is so coaching them about asking three clear
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three to five clarifying questions like asking you know whatif you're looking
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for this um you know item in your dashboard of your budgetyou know how might that be helpful for you you know
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what's the impact of not having that information so theyunderstand the frustration level they understand why
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the person wants it and and even you know if if you were toget that what type of form do you wanted it you to be
29:22
able to ask some clarifying questions and it's the same waywhen you're talking about change it's
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being able to ask the people you know do you see how thisfits you know does it do you see where we're going with this
29:35
do you see why this decision was even made you know what youwhat do you see as your role in this how can I support
29:42
you in this buddy so do you have a tip for helping leadersget that across to
29:48
their team if they don't if they don't see the the value inthe in the change well I mean it is about the
29:54
communication of again of by the changes taking place in allof that and but I'll
30:00
you know I'll I'll tell you you know it really is aboutShifting the mindset and you have to bring in the people along
30:06
and and I'll share when I was a my brief stint as apsychotherapist I used to
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specialize in in obsessive compulsive disorder I mean peoplewho were really trapped in their homes and their own
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mindset couldn't you know get out without touching the doorknob 60 times and one like one person was afraid of of
30:26
contamination and dust and I purposely told the janitorialservice not to clean my office so that when she came in you
30:32
know she might have to touch the surfaces so sometimes orsomebody was afraid of getting in the elevator day
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one is like okay there's an elevator outside my hall let'sgo do it together I mean sometimes we do have to get
30:46
thrown into things right because that's just how the worldis but we can bring
30:51
things along by understanding what were those people's youknow fear or hesitancy or what is they're really
30:57
thinking of about it you know I I I knew you know what theunderlying Roots were
31:03
of my psych my psychology clients as to what we need what weneeded to pull out
31:08
as the roots that were keeping them trapped in their homesor they you know overly clean for those people that
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aren't really that don't have that sort of same appetitethat you do yeah I've jumped around I'm a lifelong learner I
31:22
probably learned at a very young you know age to adopt adifferent circumstances so I'm certain cly you
31:28
know probably more on the the adaptable side you know therefor the Renegade leader name right of the company but
31:34
certainly understanding that you know people are feel safein what they know
31:40
right they feel safe in the jobs that they've beensuccessful in and they're also not feeling as safe now being asked
31:47
to change and also being you're seeing these statistics ofyou know jobs might
31:52
be gone you might have to learn a whole different thing adifferent way and so
31:58
to really ask yourself I mean what might I just want to takethat baby step into
32:03
you know and learning and I love your organization because Ithink self-learning really helps to open the
32:10
doorway of the mind I you know I think little hinges open upbig doors so taking one class right could open up a
32:18
whole new Avenue for somebody and you know so sometimes it'sthe willingness to realize you know little hinges open
32:24
up big doors and what is your little step that you couldtake what is one thing that we haven't talked about today
32:31
Deborah that you want to share with uh with us about yourbook well I did enjoy
32:36
writing the stories in the in the book I mean I I really didyou know enjoy that my husband doesn't know that he's
32:43
actually featured in a couple of them but but and one ofthem I you know I
32:48
forget where it is in in the book or whatever I mean it'slike you very simple I came home one day and we had
32:54
like this you know stairwell going up with a big palladianwindow and a grand for year and my husband's up in the
32:59
bedroom trapped in there because a bird isn't in our bedroomand when I arrive
33:05
he asked me he's got it all planned out and my husband's youknow my husband's a
33:11
dentist so everything lines up in his life the tools arewhere they're supposed to be teeth are pretty much
33:16
where they're supposed to be you know whereas I'm all overthe place so so when I go up there at the top of the
The Power of Unlearning – Debora highlights why unlearningoutdated habits is just as important as acquiring new skills.
33:22
stairs and I open up the door and he's like go close itreally fast and everything because there's a bird in here then he laid out hisvery strategic
33:29
plan he wants me to get a white sheet from the linen closetin the hall then to open up the door and then somehow I'm
33:36
going to hold the sheet while the bird you know goes downthe stairwell and out the front door and it was in the you
33:44
know in the late fall and we take our screens off to put youknow winter reefs and for the holidays on our windows and
33:51
I knew the screen was off and I said or we could just openup the window and sure enough I opened up the window and
33:57
out the bird went and and that's kind of like how we gettrapped into our own
34:02
thinking of even making it bigger and harder than it is andsometimes and you know I think I wrote your know
34:08
changeability is your as your window you know just to youknow find your way out of all this change that that's that's
34:15
happening but and he doesn't know that that story is abouthim I really love this expression little hinges open up
34:22
big doors and if I was to encapsulate some of the thingsthat I'm taking away from this that certainly as we move
34:29
forwards we're talking about adaptability but even step backa little bit your window is actually changeability because it's going to
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include things like that ability to help um lead throughchange to be able to
34:40
develop your own adaptability that would be theinterpersonal and intrapersonal skills and there's a lot of them but but
34:47
there are things that are attainable and then of course thatagility the ability to to uh create some speed and scale you
34:53
talked a lot about things that I just think are so importantlike um the psychological safety um uh leaping
35:02
forward like resilience is really leaping forward that's abetter way to to think about it and be careful of like
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grit and of course that ability to unlearn not just learnthere's there's
35:14
uh a lot here head heart hands what is your style so uhthat's an invitation to
35:20
our listeners to explore some of these ideas and of courseas no Damon's GNA gonna lean into like how people can can
35:26
reach out to you but before we get there I want to give aspecial shout out to be
35:32
chalette for introducing us be was a fantastic guest we'llput her episode in
35:37
the show notes but yes Deborah how can we connect with youyes well certainly have happy to connect with people on
35:43
LinkedIn I I post different Mini case studies there thatmight be know provide this you know some instantly ready ready
35:50
to use um tips I also you know if anybody wants to scheduleyou know how
35:55
would this work for me I it's just simply schedule withDebra d.com you know makes it light and easy
36:03
and you know certainly you know happy to can help you toconnect in any any way I know I'm excited we talked about this
36:09
before we went on air that learned is gonna uh engage withyou and your team on the adaptability assessments so we're
36:17
really looking forward to that and for everybody out thereuh do me a favor
36:22
rate and review uh the learn at all podcast on whateverplatform you're on and if you're a leader out there where
36:28
you know of a leader who wants to uh continue to grow andevolve and change their organization do me a favor and
36:35
send this episode to them because I know they're they'regoing to get value out of it and so I'd like to close it with
36:41
what I always say right Darren is stay curious keep learningand have a great day everybody thank you culture is the
36:48
ultimate competitive advantage of our age and I think youknow you look at you
36:54
know Forbes or fast company or you know Harvard Businessreview and there's a