Change fitness

When we talk about change fitness, we’re thinking of two related, though different, ideas. Let’s call these ideas Capacity and Selection.

For most people, the idea of fitness is most associated with physical fitness – perhaps going to the gym, working out, or playing sports. Change fitness is very different to physical fitness, but they both share the idea of Capacity.

People who are physically fit are capable of doing things that less-fit people cannot do. Because they have more endurance, strength, flexibility, and resilience than unfit people, they can engage in a wider range of activities.

Change-fit people also have more endurance, strength, flexibility, and resilience than less change-fit people. They have the ability to succeed at tasks that others would find overwhelming. Change fitness enabless people to shape the environment so they more easily achieve their wants and needs.  

Another place we encounter the idea of fitness is in the expression ‘survival of the fittest’. This use of the word doesn’t highlight the concept of capacity, but it does highlight the idea of Selection. 

We associate ‘survival of the fittest’ with natural selection. The idea is that a species capable of adapting to a changing environment is more likely to survive – more likely to be a better fit for the environment and more likely to be ‘selected’ for survival.

Change fitness also has this sense of selection and adaptation. People who are change-fit are able to quickly adapt to changes in their environment, responding with great flexibility and adapting to what the context needs and wants.

Capacity and selection

Change fitness build people’s performance capacity and helps them adapt so they are a better fit to changing environments. We compare capacity and selection in the table below.

Capacity

  • how well people perform on tasks
  • helps people shape the environment to more easily meet their needs
  • relates to tactics – how to perform when you have the power to choose
  • change-fit people have more capacity to perform well, especially when things are changing

Selection

  • how well people adapt to changing environments
  • helps people change themselves so they are a better fit for the environment
  • relates to strategy – how to be selected when others have the power to choose
  • change-fit people are more likely to meet the needs of changing environments because they can easily adapt

Why change fitness works

You might wonder why change fitness builds performance capacity and helps people become more adaptable and responsive to changing contexts. The reason why it works relates to the nature of change fitness. Change fitness is a psychological power. People who have lots of change fitness are strong on 7 resources – motivation, agency, trust, balance, insight, vision, and empowering beliefs.

Because they have developed these resources that work together powerfully, people have the capacity to perform well and to adapt well. Would you like your people to possess strengths like that?

Ok, so we have established that change fitness helps people succeed at tasks and adapt to changing environments. But how does that actually drive business growth and success?

Solving problems, seizing opportunities

Business growth and success depends on how well people solve problems and leverage opportunities. As we get better at solving problems and seizing opportunities we create flow, and that’s exactly what we want more of.  Problems block flow – we get stuck and we can’t make good progress until we solve them. Opportunities create flow and take us closer to our goals.

To make progress, people must get good at solving problems and grasping opportunities. But this brings its own set of challenges. Why? Because many of the problems we face are caused by how we see reality and how we think about it. In other words, the root of the problem is often inside our head, not out there in the environment. This is why Einstein said that we cannot solve a problem with the same thinking we used to create it.

And it’s often the case that people fail to see good opportunities right there in front of them. Or, if they do see them, they are too afraid to make any moves on them.

Change fitness helps build people’s ability to solve problems and seize opportunities. That’s why it is so powerful. Check out the benefits of change fitness and change readiness. By the way, change fitness is a component of change readiness, in case you were wondering.

Want to learn more?

Learn more about change fitness and how it can help you. The best place to start is with our free masterclass. Come meet with us to learn more.

Join our FREE Masterclass