ACT on Adaptability

A = Adaptability
C = Consistency
T = Teamwork 

Applying Adaptability, Consistency, and Teamwork is important when it comes to delivering a successful project. 

Being able to Adapt is the first and major part of successfully delivering a high quality, valuable product within a realistic time frame that still meets the customers' needs.

Changes come at all times during a project:

• Requirements change due to the market's demands. 
• Resources leave or get transferred.
• Organizations go through mergers or acquisitions.
• Tools get introduced mid-project.
• Schedules change. Scope changes.  Budget changes.

Adapting means that we have to be able and willing to open our minds to thinking outside the box, to allow ourselves to take that step down a road we are not yet accustomed to.

How we adapt at work can be seen by how we adapt in our everyday lives.

• Driving to work, there is an accident on my normal route, I adapt and choose a different route, knowing either way I'll be late, but the new route will make me less late.
• In our careers, we have to adapt to what the demand is in the field.
• At home, I realize I ran out of eggs, I adapt by looking at what I have in the kitchen and creating something new, but with the same outcome of a tasty meal within the same time frame.

Adapt does not mean we conform or accept whatever it is that is handed down to us.  It means that we examine the problem, look at the consequences of different options, and work toward achieving our goal in a different way.

We adapt by responding differently than we are used to, by learning from our past experience and improving upon our current experience. 

As we lose team members, a team has to learn how to adapt.  As budgets are cut, we adapt to new restrictions on training and travel.  As technology changes, we adapt to the newest way of doing something. As methodologies evolve, we adapt to new techniques (look at PMI adapting to Agile).


What do you think? In what ways do you adapt in your life or at work?