Leadership Adaptability and Agility aren't the same.

The World Economic Forum 2017 surveyed 350 executives across 9 industries in 15 of the world's biggest economies to generate ‘The Future of Jobs’ and the top 10 skills that will be most desired by employers by 2020 were: cognitive flexibility, negotiation skills, service orientation, judgement and decision making, emotional intelligence, coordinating with others, creativity, critical thinking and complex problem solving.

Plus, the report shows that 36% of all jobs across all industries will require complex problem-solving abilities as a core skill by 2020. Published on December 29, 2017 by Melanie Curtin

Therefore, it's blatantly obvious a new skill-set of capabilities is demanded by business today, so they can cope with the continuous roller coaster of change and you never know what will be around the corner tomorrow. However, although the skills and solutions leaders have used in the past are valuable, they are in and of themselves not enough to manage the turbulent changes organizations are constantly facing today.

Frequently you hear leaders say “our people now need to be more adaptable, agile, flexible and innovative so they can manage the rapidly changing conditions facing the organization”.

Yet, what underpins the qualities of being Adaptable, Agile, Flexible and Innovative? And how do you acquired these capabilities if you don’t already have them?

How are Adaptability and Agility different?

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enigmaFIT’s definition:

Adaptability is the capability and openness to readily change and adapt.

Cognitive Agility is the speed at which an person can change and adapt.

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And, research shows that most leaders are open to change and acquiring the new capabilities of being more Adaptable and Agile, but 90% of leaders say they don’t know how to develop these skills.

So, many leaders facing new and novel situations which they haven’t faced before can often tend to revert to ‘old solutions’ to ‘new challenges’ which unfortunately don’t work anymore.

Plus, these new skils are not taught at school or university, but they can be developed by tapping into the brain’s inherent neuroplasticity. As, neuropsychologist Donald Hebb said, “Neurons that fire together, wire together”. The skills of being more Adaptable and Agile are subscious brain habits which can be specifically developed and reinforced through Discovery Learning Techniques. These techniques are an intergral part of the Fluid Thinking Programs.

At enigmaFIT, we have unravelled the enigma of the brain to harness the power of a leader’s Fluid Thinking which underpin the ten top capabilities identified at DAVOS. Phillip Campbell, Cognitive Scientist and Founder/ CEO of enigmaFIT has based the Fluid Thinking Programs on 50 years of research into Human Cognitive Abilities and works with global organizations in the USA and AsiaPac.