Adaptive Energy

Change Up the Rhythm

by Steven Snyder on October 31, 2013

Red Sox RhythmShort of lives depending on you, it’s hard to imagine more pressure than being on the mound in the final inning of a pivotal World Series game. You’re aware that millions are watching, you’re playing in a packed stadium where the energy and tension are palpable, and your teammates’ fate depends largely on your performance. Even for an experienced player like Red Sox pitcher Koji Uehara, it’s a lot to face.

In their last inning at bat in Game 4 Sunday night, the Cardinals were trying to close up a two-run Red Sox lead. With two outs, they had a speedy runner, Kolten Wong, on first and a great batter, Carlos Beltran—potentially the tying run—at the plate with a ball and a strike already gone.

Uehara needed one more out for the win. Focused on the batter in front of him, waiting for the sign, he made a blindingly fast pivot and fired off a throw to first base, picking off Wong for the game-ending out.

Pickoffs aren’t something Uehara is known for, and it wasn’t what he had in mind when he made the throw, he explained later. “I was just trying to change the rhythm, and it just happened,” he said. “I was just trying to change the rhythm of my pitching.

It was an example of adaptive energy at its best. Uehara was focused on the most likely path to his goal, the textbook solution of a strikeout, but he kept his thinking open enough to take a step off the path. He knew that doing so would help control the tension and expectations—his own and the batter’s.

But he also knew to carry out even a rhythm-changing diversion with all the accuracy, speed, and skill he had spent years building. He made the routine throw to first as if the game depended on it—which, as it turned out, it did.

Even if most of us have no prospects in professional sports outside of being spectators, we can learn by watching the way these athletes face the work before them. Remember Uehara the next time you’re facing a crisis or a tense situation: find a way to change up the rhythm.

Take a step off the path that leads to the straightforward solution, but without losing your focus and commitment. Trust the instincts that are grounded in experience, and you’ll give your team every chance to win.

 

photo credit: Keith Allison

Will You Be the Ripple or the Stone?

by Steven Snyder on October 17, 2013

Are You the Stone or the Ripple?The next time you’re standing by a pond, toss a pebble in, and then watch the ripples. Now think of yourself as the stone, and start to imagine the ripples that you could make in the pond of life. Want people in your office to think positive? Watch what happens when you start to model the behavior.

Your habits, and the way you develop them, can directly impact those around you. What if, by one action or reaction, you could modify the outcome of a meeting, finding a solution instead of deferring a problem? What might happen if you channel your energy adaptively, encouraging others to think outside the box when life throws curve balls?

In the early 20th century, George Washington Carver experienced one of those life issues that required adaptive thinking. After encouraging local farmers to plant peanuts, the farmers returned to Carver with a big dilemma: What were they supposed to do with all those peanuts?

At that point, the college professor had two choices: tell the farmers it was their problem, or find a solution. In the end, Carver came up with over 300 uses for the peanut, including instant coffee, linoleum, and shoe polish, all derived from peanuts and their byproducts.

When faced with a crisis or an issue that doesn’t directly involve you, do you avoid the mess or do you help people adapt to the situation at hand, encouraging “outside-the-box” thinking? It would have been easier for Carver to tell the farmers, “tough luck!” and go on about his business, but instead, he shut himself up in his laboratory and found 20 uses for the peanut in just a few days.

It’s entirely possible for your growth and reactions to have the same effect in your company. While it might seem like the ripple you create is tiny, the effect upon the surface of your team has the ability to change the tone of a tense meeting, or the outcome of a difficult project.

George Washington Carver faced discrimination and hardships throughout the course of his life, but he never let it deter him. He spent the majority of his 79 years adapting to new situations and overcoming difficulties, never taking “no” for an answer. The next time you feel like life is handing you an awful lot of peanuts, remember these lessons from Professor Carver:

  • Don’t allow a difficult start deter you from a successful ending
  • Never stop trying new things
  • When you’re faced with a large problem, think outside the box

And most importantly: never underestimate the ripple effect that one person can make on the pond of life.

photo credit: Sean Rogers1

Face the Unexpected by Cultivating the Power of Adaptive Energy

October 10, 2013

“Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Jack Swigert, Astronaut, Apollo 13 On April 14, 1970, the lives of three American astronauts hung in the balance when an explosion took place aboard their spacecraft, 200,000 miles from Earth. As Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert scrambled to stop a massive oxygen leak, the team at Mission […]

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