How do you decide what to do next? Most of us find it quite tempting to continue whatever we have done, up until now. When we continue, we don’t need much adaptability or resilience. But what do you do when Something Happens? That something might be wonderful, such as a lifecycle event, or when you […]
How Can You See Your Adaptability and Resilience as You Make Decisions? Read More »
This is Johanna Rothman’s March 2026 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this newsletter. I’ve been drinking green tea in the morning since 1998, when a fellow workshop participant introduced me to it. It’s now part of my delightful morning tradition. Before then, I drank coffee or black
How Can You Create a New Perspective on a Problem? Read More »
This is Johanna Rothman’s February 2026 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Steve, a long-time colleague, described how he feels about his career: “I feel as if I’m balanced on a small ball and it won’t take much to push me off. One bad management decision—poof!
Three Ways to Reduce Your Uncertainty by Reinforcing Your Human Value Read More »
It’s the “dark” time of year here in the Northern hemisphere. Especially for those of us in the eastern parts of our time zones, the sun is low in the sky much of the day. Sunset is quite early. It feels dark. (Worse, if you pay attention to the news, life seems quite dark.) We
How Can You Bring a Little Light Into Your World? Read More »
Most of my communities feel as if the world is in disarray. The agile community wants to “go back” to when Scrum ruled the world. Too many politicians want to “go back” to a supposedly simpler time. When I hear, “go back,” I am pretty sure we are in a time of cultural change. While
How Can You Solve Problems When the Real Problems Are Cultural Changes? (Part 1) Read More »
This is Johanna Rothman’s September 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Do you like uncertainty? I don’t, and I’m not alone. That’s because uncertainty feels as if it’s an unmanageable risk. We even have sayings such as, “Don’t rock the boat,” to explain why we
How Would You Act if You Optimized for Uncertainty to Gain More Resilience? Read More »
This is Johanna Rothman’s August 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Leaders often struggle with their actions. How hands-off should they be? When should they walk around and listen? Can they trust people to do their jobs? Can they support the people they lead and
How Can We Tell the Difference Between Real Leadership and Leadership Theater? Read More »
This week, two things occurred that made me wonder about resilience and how that can help us be more effective. The first was a conversation with academics about the state of the 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds in college. Because of the pandemic, they spent a couple of formative years isolated at home. The academics claim
How Can We See Where More Resilience Can Help Us Be More Effective? Read More »
I recently learned about three kinds of fun on a scale: Type 1 Fun, where the thing you do, this current experience, is fun right now. Type 2 Fun, where you thought this thing would be fun, but you get frustrated and possibly miserable as you go through it. Only in retrospect, when you see
How Can More Type 2 Fun Offer You More Resilience? Read More »
We’ve all heard that freedom isn’t free. We have to work and fight for it. But too often, we hear the “fight” part and not the “work” part. That means we start to choose just one of two alternatives (yours vs mine) instead of looking for more options. Worse, we might think that freedom is
Which Freedoms Will You Work and Fight For? Read More »