Veena Keni, Education Administrator, Mumbai, Maharashtra, describes how the adaptability quotient, or AQ, measures a person’s ability to adjust to change quickly and effectively. In an ever-changing world, being adaptable is crucial for achieving success and maintaining well-being. Understanding your AQ provides insight into how you manage uncertainty and challenges. Developing adaptability can improve decision-making, creativity, and overall performance.
Adaptability quotient is defined as a measure of the ability of an individual or organisation to adapt to changes, learn from failures, and exist in certain situations. Simply put, an adaptability quotient is an individual’s ability to respond to changes. Our lives over the past few years have undergone drastic changes, especially since COVID and the advent of Artificial Intelligence and its progression in recent times.
We, the educators, work with various types of children in different classrooms and in a variety of schools. We have adapted to the changes in the education scenario numerous times, haven’t we? In my opinion, teachers and parents have the highest adaptability quotient, though they may not be very much conscious of it. We, teachers, have a higher adaptability quotient as we can easily accept new situations, challenges, and understand students’ ever-changing needs. We can learn technologies, understand curricula, and teach according to varied learning styles.
There are some key components of the adaptability quotient for us, educators. We are self-aware, emotionally intelligent, resilient, open to change, good communicators and evolve with changing times. We learn with each new batch of students, the requirements of the curriculum and our Schools. We also learn to manage time effectively to suit our needs as well as those of everyone around us. We, educators, are also good at problem-solving as we are lifelong learners.
There is a story about eagles which goes to say that these birds undergo a total change after a certain age. When they become old, the feathers start falling off, and their talons, as well as their beak, grow too weak to hunt for prey. They pluck their own feathers, break their own talons and beak, although it is a very painful process, but it is a necessary change. They patiently wait for the feathers, talons and beak to regrow. Though people say it is a myth, there is every possibility that it is all true, as the eagles do have the ability to regrow their talons and beaks. They do not wait for old age to take over; they adapt and welcome the transformation. Similarly, we can undergo profound transformations to emerge stronger and more resilient.
Technically speaking, ‘Adaptability’ may be considered as one of the core competencies of ‘Emotional Intelligence’. The ability to succeed and achieve goals under various circumstances certainly is a skill, and sometimes a question arises as to ‘Whether Adaptability is a soft skill or a technical skill.
It is a soft skill as it is a non-technical skill and a personal skill developed through interactions and experiences. We have all adapted to going to school, then college when we were young and from there we went on to become professionals and went to offices and industries. While some are fast, some are slow, and yet we all adapt. If we think we can adapt to situations, we will. No one can teach us to develop adaptability. It is based on how one interacts with others and manages to handle various situations. It is a powerful skill. We learn from our day-to-day lives. We can think of the future, assess opportunities lying ahead of us, and experiment with situations and people to stay afloat with changing circumstances. We can talk positively and thus motivate ourselves. If we are adaptable people, we will stay strong, never grumble, and will not chase fame. We are willing to give credit wherever needed, and we have strong personal values to keep us going in our lives. The crux is that Adaptability rather than being a specific technical skill, reflects how someone interacts with others and handles situations.
Adaptability, a power skill
Fun fact: We can see adaptability all around us, and there are movies for kids which show adaptability. To name a few, watch Zootopia, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and Toy Story. We, teachers, teach our children and students how adaptability will work for them in situations. Teaching is an emotional practice with all emotions that are found in the teaching learning process. So, we should have all the confidence, adaptiveness, and resilience to face the future. This is not only for teachers, but for everyone out there. If we, teachers and parents, are confident and strong enough, we can face the future easily and successfully.
Openness fuels progress
Many are already adaptable enough but may not be aware that they are capable of facing various situations. We try and like to face different situations, doing things differently, and we can achieve all these by thinking positively. We should never think low of ourselves or underestimate ourselves. We should start looking at things positively. We should try to experiment with various things or situations, and in situations where we feel we are stuck or getting confused, we should never give up or get scared. We need to be open to changes and try new things. I would have never grown to the position of an Emcee if I had not tried. I have done on-the-spot compering in various functions, public shows, and schools. I tried to learn school administration to know how a school functions, and then I became the Head of a Preschool, which was my forte. Each batch of children taught me something different about the students’ requirements. In today’s world, everyone should experiment to adapt to the changing scenario, such as AI. Confidence is the most important thing needed in this world now to be open to the changes happening around us. We also should have a growth mindset to be a winner.
Nurturing childhood adaptation
When tiny tots come to school for the first time, they are scared of the surroundings and the people around them. When such kids are used to having people around them, it will be easy; otherwise, it is difficult for them initially. At the onset, they will cry, but we should gradually make them feel comfortable in the classroom, with the other children and with us. They will slowly feel comfortable and start adapting to the classroom. They will know that the teacher is somebody who will take care of them in case of a problem. So, we need to understand the children’s needs, which is very important. Otherwise, the children will cry more to grab the attention. After some time, the child settles down as he/ she starts trusting us. We should know what makes the little ones comfortable, from the parents, their likes and dislikes, and we need to take care of them to get their trust. We can take up various activities to make the child comfortable, and once he/ she starts enjoying doing the same, their confidence increases, and he/ she starts adapting to various situations easily and quickly.
Adaptive leadership matters
When we talk of organisations, if they are open to changes, we call such organisations adaptable. They are ready to experiment with the people they hire. In many places, though the organisation, such as schools, want to hire people with specific degrees, if they are not experienced, they are not hired. I feel the freshers should be hired, trained to suit the functioning of the organisation, and taught new things. Often, experienced people do not accept changes easily. But when they start accepting such changes, they turn into good professionals. The schools, also, when they hire freshers, are considered to be adaptable in their way of thinking and viewing their employees. If the leaders are not easily adaptable and stick to their views, then there will be difficulty in managing the institution, but when they start listening to their teachers and take care of their development, there will be many ways to develop the institution. They can also come up with many ways to make the schools or organisation adaptable and flourish. The organisations should be strong in their values and principles, try to experiment, and appreciate their employees for their creativity. They should be given free rein to improve their output, and they, in turn, will make the organisations better.
Trust builds leaders
I have also gone through the process of being a trainee, to being a teacher and then an administrator. I started my journey to leadership gradually by learning things along the way. I realised that when I gave free rein to my team to be creative, I could get better results. So, a leader should be open to change. We should learn to appreciate the team and their effort. The leader is made by the team. One cannot be a good leader without the good efforts of the team, and the leader, in turn, should appreciate their good work. As a leader, I should act as the shield between the team and management. If any teacher has made a mistake, I have to protect them. When this is done, the team feels protected,d and they start believing the leader will support them. It is under such situations when we have the trust and confidence of the team, that the leader can be successful.
Adaptability drives growth
There are many skills, but the one that tops the list is adaptability. We should be trained in our profession as leaders. When we have the training, we get lots of experiences and scenarios that make us good leaders, but we need to be adaptable, which is a powerful skill. This cannot be taught as it is personal, only nurtured by us to achieve success. The skill of adaptability is very important. Unless a person is willing to adapt and ready to look at critical situations and change accordingly, they may not do the right thing. We are nothing if we are not adaptable. I always tell my team to keep their eyes open for changes, to progress. I have known a few teachers who have been working in the same class for more than two decades. When asked, they said they are comfortable the way they are and are not happy with changes. They did not progress, did not learn anything new from students or experiences, and worked in institutions to benefit others. They did not do it, and I feel a leader needs to be adaptable and not be stubborn in their views.
It is just that people need some prompt to remind themselves about adaptability in themselves. They should know they have the traits in them to be adaptable. Then they will realise their ability, and it makes a lot of difference. Learning should never stop. Most of the educators have admirably adapted to the latest trends, especially digital resources. I have recently learnt to use Canva for presentations and added one more aspect to my adaptability.
This is a summary of the talk given by the author on schoolreformer.com
Contact details
Veena Keni
Education Administrator
Email: veenakenii0110@gmail.com
