My working life has moved through very different environments.
I joined the British Army at 16 and served for ten years, including involvement in a number of operational deployments. I later moved into business and technology, started a consultancy in 1996, worked across complex enterprise environments, built and operated businesses, studied law and eventually developed my work in mentoring, coaching and speaking.
Those transitions required adaptability.
But adaptability, as I have experienced it, is not about constantly reinventing yourself to fit whatever is happening around you.
It is about knowing what should stay stable and what needs to change.
Adaptability starts with reality
You cannot adapt effectively to the situation you wish you had.
You have to respond to the situation that actually exists.
That means noticing when assumptions are no longer true.
A market changes. A role changes. Technology changes. A customer expectation changes. A business reaches a size where the way the owner has always worked is no longer enough.
Adaptability begins with being willing to see that change clearly.
Keep principles, change methods
Some things should remain relatively stable.
Your values. Your standards. The way you want to treat people. The outcomes you are trying to create.
The method, however, may need to change.
A process that worked when the business had three people may fail with thirty. A technical skill that was valuable ten years ago may need updating. A leadership approach that worked with one team may not work with another.
Being adaptable does not mean you have no principles.
It means you do not confuse the principle with one particular way of applying it.
Transfer what is useful
Moving between environments taught me to look for capabilities that travel.
Preparation, communication, problem solving, responsibility, teamwork and decision-making have been useful in very different parts of my career.
The context changes, but the underlying capability can still be valuable.
This matters because change becomes less threatening when you recognise that you are not starting again from zero.
Learn enough to become useful again
Adaptability is not pretending that experience in one field automatically makes you competent in another.
When the context changes, there is usually something new to learn.
Technology has reinforced that lesson repeatedly. Platforms, tools and architectures change. The ability to learn becomes as important as what you already know.
The same is true in leadership, business and professional development.
If the environment changes, be willing to become a learner again.
Do not wait until change is forced on you
Some change is sudden. Much of it is visible long before action becomes unavoidable.
The warning signs may be falling margins, repeated capacity problems, a role that no longer fits, new technology, changing customer behaviour or an owner who is becoming increasingly exhausted.
Adaptability is stronger when you respond while you still have choices.
Waiting until every alternative has disappeared usually makes change harder.
Small experiments reduce the risk of change
Adaptation does not always require a dramatic leap.
You can test.
Try a different process with one team. Explore a new market with a small offer. Learn a new capability before leaving your existing role. Delegate one responsibility before redesigning the whole organisation.
Small experiments create information.
They allow you to learn without pretending you already know the answer.
Identity can become a barrier
One of the hardest parts of change is sometimes the sentence, “But this is what I do.”
Job titles, professional identities and the way other people see us can become comfortable.
They can also become restrictive.
I have been a soldier, technologist, business owner, architect, mentor, coach, speaker and author. None of those labels alone describes the whole picture.
When the environment changes, it can help to define yourself by the capabilities and values underneath the role rather than by the role itself.
Adaptability needs reflection, not constant movement
Changing direction every time something becomes difficult is not adaptability.
Sometimes the correct response is persistence.
The challenge is deciding whether the current approach needs more time or whether the evidence is telling you to change it.
That is where reflection matters.
What is working? What is not? What has changed? What have you learned? What are you holding onto simply because it is familiar?
Questions to test your adaptability
- Which assumptions about my work or business may no longer be true?
- What must remain non-negotiable?
- Which method could change without compromising the outcome?
- What capability from my past could help in the new situation?
- What do I genuinely need to learn?
- What small experiment could give me better information?
Conclusion
Adaptability is not about becoming a different person every time circumstances change.
It is about applying what you already know, learning what you do not and changing the method when the evidence says the old one is no longer enough.
Practical takeaway: Identify one area where you are still using an old method in a changed environment and test one better alternative.
If you are navigating a professional transition, organisational change or a significant decision, see Career & Professional Development or Executive Coaching.
Archive note: This Insight draws on my experience moving through military service, technology, entrepreneurship and professional mentoring, and has been edited and expanded for the current website.