Adaptability under change
For: Anyone leading or working through change — restructure, new strategy, new market, new tooling
Change is usually faster than the people leading through it. A 10-question check on how you read shifts, update your thinking, and bring others with you.
- 10 questions
- 3 dimensions
- ~3-4 min
- Self · Peer · Both
Adaptability is one of those qualities that almost everyone claims and almost nobody can verify in themselves. The actual signal lives in three places: whether you read change accurately when it shows up, whether you're willing to change your own mind when the evidence says you should, and whether the people downstream of your decisions feel guided through the change or steamrolled by it. This template surfaces all three. 10 questions across three dimensions, calibrated for the receiving side — because the cost of slow adaptation lands on others before it lands on the leader.
How it works
Run it on yourself first — point to a specific recent change. Then send it to the people who watched you respond: peers, your manager, direct reports, cross-functional partners. The most useful gap is between 'I adjusted quickly' (your view) and 'you held the old plan three months too long' (theirs).
What's inside — 10 questions across 3 dimensions
Reading change
whether you sense what's shifting before it's obvious
Updating beliefs
whether you change your mind when evidence says you should
Bringing others through it
how change feels for the people downstream of your decisions
The questions, in full
Every question is included below. You answer them yourself first, then send the same set to the people who've seen you work.
Reading change
- Q1Rating (1-5)
This person notices when something has changed in our context — internally or externally — before everyone else does.
- Q2Rating (1-5)
When the situation shifts, this person reads it accurately — they don't fit it into a mental model from last year.
- Q3Open answer
What's a recent change that this person spotted (or missed) earlier than the rest of the team? What did they see — or not see?
Updating beliefs
- Q4Rating (1-5)
When new information conflicts with this person's view, they actually update — they don't just defend.
- Q5Rating (1-5)
This person admits when they were wrong about something — and you can tell they mean it.
- Q6Rating (1-5)
This person doesn't anchor to old playbooks when the situation no longer fits them.
- Q7Multiple choice
When the plan needs to change, this person typically...
- — Adjusts quickly and openly — the team moves with them
- — Adjusts but takes a while to come around
- — Adjusts in private but defends the old plan in public
- — Pushes through with the old plan longer than is useful
- — Gets stuck — others have to drag them through it
Bringing others through it
- Q8Rating (1-5)
When change is happening, this person communicates the why — not just the what — so the team can follow the logic.
- Q9Rating (1-5)
This person makes space for others' worry or pushback during change — they don't just steamroll past it.
- Q10Open answer
During the last big change here, how did this person help (or hinder) people getting through it? What stood out?
The research behind these questions
Drawn from Adam Grant's Think Again on the psychology of rethinking (Wharton), Heifetz and Linsky's adaptive leadership work at Harvard Kennedy School (Leadership on the Line) on diagnosing the system before acting, Tasha Eurich's research on self-awareness as the foundation for accurate updating (Insight), Linda Hill's research on becoming a manager (Harvard Business School), and McKinsey's change-management practice. Each question targets an observable behavior — not vague 'agile' or 'open-minded' rating.
References
- — Adam Grant — Think Again (Wharton)
- — Ronald Heifetz & Marty Linsky — Leadership on the Line (Harvard Kennedy School)
- — Tasha Eurich — Insight
- — Linda Hill — Becoming a Manager (Harvard Business School)
- — McKinsey & Company — change-management research
Ready to run this round on yourself?
Sign up, pick this template, answer it about yourself, and send the same questions to the people who've been in the room with you. The gap between your view and theirs is where the actual learning lives.