To Adapt and Grow, Learn to Rationally Improvise

The following is adapted from Surfing Rogue Waves.

Have you ever stopped to consider that our world places us at the center of an extremely complex system with constant additions of emerging information? To keep up, we have to react quickly. 

Not only that, but the ever-increasing changes are just going to get more intense over time. There’s no question about it: if we want to survive and thrive in our rapidly shifting world (both individually and as a species), we must be able to adapt to and grow with these changes.

Improvisation—or more accurately, rational improvisation—is the key to doing this. After all, without improvisation, how can we deal with (or better yet, seek out and embrace) the disruptions that are on their way? Because make no mistake, major disruptions are coming.

Look for the Disruption

The first step in rationally improvising is to look for pressures we feel, both perceived and real. Of course, we all face lots of different pressure, so we must be able to filter for the right kind of pressure. 

To do that, ask yourself some simple questions. Is this pressure forcing you to try something new or create a new relationship? Is this pressure because you believe you are right but worry someone might prove you wrong? Are you in a situation where you have no choice but to figure out a solution? This is the pressure we look for, and this is how you know when the disruption is creeping up on you. 

Maybe you changed professions, and you’re in your new job. Your goal isn’t to be the best at your job overnight but to slowly get better over time. As you put in the time, and you apply new ways of doing and thinking about things from your past, you get to the same level as your colleagues. Eventually, you even pass them. 

At this point, you can kick your feet up and get comfortable, or you can start hunting for the pressure again. Where is the next disruption? The more comfortable you get using this approach to everything in your life, the more successful you will be as a disruptor.

Leverage Your Strengths

Part of learning to adapt and grow through rational improvisation is leveraging your strengths. Being in an uncomfortable situation gives you an opportunity to lean into the tension by leveraging your strengths. Your strengths tend to be instinctive; they help you improvise and adapt to the moment. 

To thrive in the face of disruption, we need to identify our strengths and build off of them, and we must be willing to fall back on them when needed. Your strengths are what you do better and more instinctively than anyone else. Find out what they are and own them.

For example, you might find a job posting and push yourself to apply and compete for it if you feel it is worth your investment. Although you might feel this pressure, it is not overly disruptive. Now imagine a second example where you identify a problem at work. You could work to persuade and convince those in a position to create this new job to solve this problem. 

In the first situation, you are challenging yourself; we could call it sustainable innovation. You will only get a posted job if you already have many of the skills, nothing new, but possibly building on your past experience. There is well-established demand for the need. If you don’t get it, someone else will. 

The second option is creating something entirely new. Disruption theory states that those who create truly new market disruptions are six times more likely to succeed. There is no clear competition; there are no predetermined expectations, just uncharted water and waves. 

You Can Disrupt Even When You’re Busy

If you feel your day-to-day is already beyond capacity with obligations in life and work, you are not alone. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t seek out and leverage disruptions. Take it slow: to disrupt ourselves on a macro level, we start by disrupting on a micro level. So, find a way to give yourself a little more time to think differently. 

Maybe you get up ten, fifteen, twenty minutes earlier, skip checking your phone, and use this time to meditate, think, create, or explore something different. Or maybe you give up the one to two hours of Netflix and replace it with something just as relaxing that allows you to think more. 

Maybe you go for a walk; maybe you read a book, perhaps you do anything other than look at your phone. Maybe you play chess. Disruption author Whitney Johnson says that you should “look for opportunities to play where other people aren’t playing, where other people don’t want to play. You will be surprised how many opportunities come to you when you’re willing to play in those unusual places.”

There’s No One-Size-Fits-All Approach

Part of what makes this process successful is that it’s improvised. It does not prescribe or lay out specific sequential steps. It is designed to empower and establish an understanding that lends way to its creations. 

A one-size-fits-all approach would never work when it comes to adapting and growing, because no two moments or situations in life are the same. Everything in your life, your connections, your body, your brain, is unique to you. Having a prescriptive approach to the future simply makes no sense. However, once you master the ability to find the complexities in your life and leverage your strengths to overcome them, you’ll quickly find that you can adapt and thrive no matter what the future brings. 

So now, I challenge you—no matter how busy you are—to start thinking about where your life is ripe for disruption. Where can you find the opportunities to grow and improvise? Once you lean into those, I promise, your life will never be the same.

For more advice on how to leverage disruptions to adapt and grow, you can find Surfing Rogue Waves on Amazon.

Eric Pilon-Bignell is a pragmatic futurist focused on addressing disruption by increasing the creative capacity of individuals, teams, and organizations to ignite change, innovation, and foster continuous growth. Eric has an undergraduate degree in engineering, an MBA in Information Systems, and a Ph.D. in Global Leadership. His doctoral work primarily explored complexity sciences centered on executive cognition and their use of intuitive improvisation, decision-making, artificial intelligence, and data-based decision models. When he is not working with clients, researching, or writing, he can be found in the mountains or on the water. He founded PROJECT7 to raise awareness and money for research on brain-related illnesses. Eric is currently working and living with his wife in Chicago, Illinois. To connect or learn more about this book, Eric, or PROJECT7, please visit www.ericpb.me.