Now more than ever, schools must be able to rapidly adapt to change. Adaptability Quotient (AQ) is the capacity to adjust one’s thoughts and behaviors in order to effectively respond to uncertainty, new information, or changed circumstances (1). AQ is not fixed: organizations and individuals can be intentional about growing their AQ. Not only do schools need to be able to continuously adapt to change, they also need to be developing AQ in their students and faculty so they can thrive in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world.

EXPLO Elevate can assist schools in growing the AQ of leadership, faculty, and students. We quickly gauge the school’s AQ, and then identify a number of interventions that will grow it. These include looking at hiring and performance management processes, assessing the degree to which staff feel the psychological safety necessary to experiment and take risks, and simple things like how meetings are run. We can coach school leaders on how their actions and leadership style can foster AQ growth and identify professional learning opportunities for faculty. Elevate can also help schools develop the capability to measure their AQ over time.

 

1. J. Martin, Andrew; Nejad, Harry; H. Colmar, Susan; Arief D. Liem, Gregory (August 2013). “Adaptability: How Students’ Responses to Uncertainty and Novelty Predict Their Academic and Non-Academic Outcomes”. Journal of Educational Psychology