Leveraging Adversity

Want Success? Learn To Adapt (In Three Steps) Posted: 17 Feb 2015 02:56 PM PST Photo by Latente 囧 www.latente.it  Success is a touchy subject. Everybody has a different idea of just what it means and what it takes to get there. For some, success is wrapped in externals, delivered in tantalizing doses of status, praise, wealth, power, and fame. For others, it’s the simple life, measured in ROI — the ability to live more fully, while needing less. And we can all argue about what it takes to get there. Some purport it’s a self esteem problem. Too little and we lose grit. Too much and we lose desire. Others consider a hefty dose of optimism essential, while others warn too much positive thinking lands us in an illusion flower field where we fail to notice the thorns — until we run smack into them. But when we talk about success, there is something that we can all point to. And that is history. Interestingly, by comparing biological evolutionary patterns with those of successful corporations, Tim Harford, who many know as the “undercover economist”, as well as the author of Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure, found this: there is no pattern. Neither successful species nor successful corporations followed any sort of predictable pattern on their way to success. Harford cites the work of economist Paul Omerod who compared fossil records that revealed extinction patterns to the “extinction patterns” of corporations. As Harford relates, “Ormerod discovered something disturbing: it was possible to build a model that mimicked the real extinction signature of firms, and it was possible to build a model that represented firms as modestly successful planners; but it was not possible to build a model that did both. The patterns of corporate life and death are totally different from reality in the ‘planning is possible’ model, but uncannily close to reality in the ‘planning is impossible’ model. If companies really could plan successfully – as most of us naturally assume that they can — then the extinction signature of companies would look totally different to that of the species” (p. 19). What the work of Omerod and Harford uncover is something many of us know instinctively: Life cannot be planned for. There are no orange warning lights, caution signs, or instructions on the road of change. And instead of trying to predict what will or will not be different tomorrow, success depends on the ability to adapt to change when it does happen. So just what does it mean to adapt? According to Harford, there are three key components: We must be willing to take and risk, and yes, willing to fail. Harford points to many examples of corporate randomization experiments that are all designed around the same concept: When things are not working, do something different. And like biological variation, what we do matters less than our willingness to try — even things that seem bazaar, odd, or unlikely. Because sometimes random efforts result in big gains. We must make failures survivable. When things stop working, adapting requires you to make a change, but it doesn’t require that you risk the farm. Instead, unhinge your risks from your foundation in a way that allows you to venture only what you can lose. For Google, this is what as known as “twenty percent time”. Google, apparently can survive on eighty percent of it’s employees efforts, and the twenty percent, is up to the employees to try different things, experiment, and quite often, fail. But venture anyway, because, like Google, sometimes Gmail, Google Translate, Google News — all innovations created in twenty percent time — will be the result. We must learn from our mistakes. As Harford relates, “Any evolutionary biologist knows how success emerges from failure in nature: ceaselessly generate random mutations in delicate organisms, toss out the vast majority that make those organisms worse, and preserve the tiny few that make them better. Do this enough, and apparent miracles emerge” (p. 258). But first, we must be able to detect what doesn’t work. And to do this, we have to create an environment where failures are instructive. The formula looks like this: receive harsh criticism for mistakes, and you will stop risking, avoid failures at all all cost, and most importantly, bring learning — and adapting — to an evolutionary face plant. Yet receive feedback — here is what is going well, and here is what is not going so well — that is objective without criticism or condemnation, and you will keep trying, and keep risking. Do this enough, and you will stumble upon the right answers. For more information on adapting, leveraging setbacks and surprising risks on the road to success, visitwww.leverageadversity.net or find leveraging adversity on Facebook. References: Harford, Tim (2011-05-10). Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (p. 249-262)