In this post, we will talk about flexibility in business, and how this virtue can be favorable in times of adversity.

1. Flexibility in business is maybe what you
need to deal with adversity
By David KigerImage courtesy of liss_mcbovzla at Flickr.com

2. If you do a thorough analysis of what happens to thousands of
companies and their managers whenever external
circumstances change, you would realize that a lot of
organizations and individuals have flexibility issues. They do
have plans, maybe they have good advisers or the best
training, but their great problem is simply that they do not
know how to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances of the
world.
Bruce Lee's quote 'be like water' is almost a motto for good
organizational leaders. It is very important to be able to
recalculate the destination, as a GPS system, every time that
chance plays a trick to your business. In this post, we will talk
about flexibility in business, and how this virtue can be
favorable in times of adversity.

3. The essence of flexibility lies in the agility with which you learn
and unlearn things. We say that someone is flexible when
he/she recognizes that the applied knowledge to solve certain
problems or to make right executive decisions, maybe was
successful in the past, but may be useless in the present
circumstances. An inflexible person, on the other hand, always
expects to achieve different results by applying the same old
methods.
An example of flexibility in organizations is found in companies
such as Nintendo (currently a major player in the video game
industry worldwide.) Digging into the history of this company,
we can realize that, back in the end of the 19th century, in the
midst of the Meiji revolution, this company began selling
hand-painted card games. When market circumstances

4. changed (and they did a lot, given the trends of entertainment
throughout the twentieth century,) what this Japanese giant
did was to direct the course of their industry by a simple idea:
‘let’s produce funny games instead of just beautiful card sets.’
That allowed them to move to the first consoles and now to
the revolutionary Xbox. Something similar happened with
Yamaha, a company that manufactures quads, motorcycles,
snowmobiles, watercraft and vehicle engines, but, at the same
time, it also produces musical instruments.
Now, when it comes to individuals, it is of utmost importance
to consider the fact that our minds are plastic: they can
change their configuration and their ways of solving problems
through the proper training. But above all, a basic requirement
for neuroplasticity is to become self-aware about the premise
that you can always learn, no matter how old you are.

5. Read also: How Nice Leaders Can Learn To Handle Conflict
Assertively?, by David Kiger
There is a belief that, as we grow older, we are increasingly
prone to learning difficulties. However, there are thousands of
studies that prove the opposite (take a look at this article and
this one, if you disagree.) The brain has the ability to learn and
unlearn, as long as you trust that it can do it and,
subsequently, you give it the right instructions. There are 70
years old people speaking more languages ​​than millions of
teenagers. This is popularly known as cognitive flexibility, but
this concept can be analyzed in other areas of our daily lives.

6. What can you do to make your organization more flexible?
More than merely updating the operational processes (yes,
this is important, but it’s not the only aspect to constantly
improve,) you can start by focusing all your business efforts on
aligning your interests with those of the external agents to the
company (the customers and the community with which your
company interacts.) Also, it is important to establish an
internal alignment in your company: everybody should move
in the same direction and be attentive to the changes
generated by the management department. On the other
hand, the flexibility of a company depends on the promotion
of the capacity for change, as well as the development of
talent and human potential from the leaders of the
organization itself.

7. Companies must create incentives for change, from their own
mission and vision. If an organization does not consider
change as a constant of the world with which it interacts
(although it sounds paradoxical somehow), it will hardly
succeed in ‘being like water’ when society, technological
advances or supply and demand change drastically in the
market.
What about you? How can you be more flexible? Well, start by
asking yourself a question: How willing are you not to be right?
The more ability you have to listen to those around you, and,
at the same time, to be able to see things from their
perspectives, the fewer problems of mental flexibility you will
have, for sure.

8. Remember that things that do not bend will break. When we
think of force and power, it is very easy to believe that these
two qualities (which many consider ends in themselves)
depend on the solidity and rigidity of ideas. But water and its
wonderful strength show us the opposite.
Be strong. Be like water!
Image courtesy
of Andy Morffew
at Flickr.com