Develop your adaptive mindset plan

- In time and with practice, your adaptive mindset will become second nature. It will feel instinctive to tap into your tools, search for an opportunity, cast a plan, and act with intention. Until then, however, you might need a cheat sheet. Throughout this course, we've discussed how an adaptive mindset helps you navigate new situations by causing you to pause, evaluate the data, assess the environment, and imagine how a new scenario on the other side of impending change might look. Until these steps become automatic, here's a simple framework you can use anytime you encounter an unexpected change. Think, "When I sense X, I will Y, which will allow me to Z." Adaptability is a conscious skill, and this framework will help you consciously think about how to use your adaptive mindset when faced with unfamiliar and challenging situations. When you notice yourself feeling fear or avoidance in response to the thought of change or the unknown, you can use that emotion as a signal to consciously reach for the following skills to support you through that change. Your growth mindset, your self-awareness and self-regulation, grit and persistence, intentionality, and ease with uncertainty. Let's walk through some examples. When I sense, for example, anxiety about an emerging or trending technology, that's the X in the formula, I will learn about this technology and talk to my peers to learn how the technology might impact their work, that's the Y in the formula, so that I can propose a new skill training program that will upskill our team to better leverage this new capability, the Z in the formula. These three simple steps allow you to take a moment to assess a situation, determine what new and additional information is necessary and useful to understand the context, and then finally formulate a proposal to meet the opportunity. These three simple steps are at the core of the adaptive mindset. So take a moment to jot these three simple steps on a card or a Post-it note, and place it somewhere where you can see it day in and day out. It will remind you to meet change and disruption with a clear process to evaluate, learn, and act, the hallmarks of the adaptive mindset. Maybe you're feeling ill at ease with a pending change right now. Take a moment to think about that situation and use the formula to create a plan to address your uncertainty. You are taking the first steps to making this approach to change a habit. Soon enough, you won't need your Post-its. These actions will come naturally and you'll be able to face any new challenge with measured confidence and clear agency.