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MindLines Terence Brake TMA World │ Head of Learning and Innovation The ADAPT Cycle
MindLines Terence Brake
TMA World │ Head of Learning and Innovation
The
ADAPT
Cycle
The ADAPT Cycle
The ADAPT Cycle is a change process aimed at helping you analyze and modify your behaviours when working across cultures.
Increasingly, we are interacting with people from different cultural groups – both globally and domestically.
These interactions can be difficult because our different cultural influences shape how we each understand the world around us.
We develop different expectations about how to best relate to others, how to communicate effectively, how to manage time and power and how to think about problems.
The ADAPT Cycle
The ADAPT Cycle is a change process aimed at helping you analyze and modify your behaviours when working across cultures.
Such differences can challenge our sense of reality.
What we have taken-for-granted about how the world does – or should – work can be thrown into turmoil.
When our expectations about what is right or wrong or normal are challenged, we can become frustrated and impatient, even angry.
Such dysfunctional behaviours undermine our ability to develop productive cross-cultural relationships.
The ADAPT Cycle
Each step
in the
ADAPT Cycle
has a
goal
and a relevant
set of
personal
attributes
Being adaptive is a critical skill for our complex world. Being adaptive doesn’t mean changing your personality or your cultural identity, it means making small changes in behaviour to increase interpersonal effectiveness.
The ADAPT Cycle consists of five steps:
The ADAPT Cycle
Step Goals Personal Attributes
Analyze Reach an initial understanding of the situation
Curiosity
Perceptiveness
Decide Determine a reasonable adaptation(s) based on your initial understanding
Self-Awareness
Tolerance for Ambiguity
Apply Make adaptation(s) Confidence
Risk-Taking
Process Assess effectiveness of the adaptation(s)
Mindfulness
Restraint
Tune Make a further adaptation(s) as needed
Flexibility
Resilience
The ADAPT Cycle
The final element in the
ADAPT Cycle are sets of
Personal Indicators that relate
to each of the Attributes.
The Indicators are behaviours
that individuals tend to
demonstrate when possessing an
Attribute to a high degree.
TIME TO ADAPT
The ADAPT Cycle
Curiosity:
A desire to learn
People who are curious tend to demonstrate:
● A wide range of interests
● A questioning mind
● A desire to look beyond the ‘obvious’
● An enthusiasm for exploring and trying different things
● A high level of satisfaction in learning something new
Analyze
The ADAPT Cycle
Perceptiveness:
An ability to recognize differences and their potential implications
People who are perceptive tend to demonstrate:
● An open mind
● An ability to observe, listen and make accurate interpretations
● A sensitivity to different contexts
● An ability to penetrate below the surface
● An ability to demonstrate farsightedness
Analyze
The ADAPT Cycle
Confidence:
A strong belief that things will work out
People who are confident tend to demonstrate:
● A clear sense of self, requiring little validation from others
● A trust in their abilities to succeed in unfamiliar environments
● A willingness to put themselves in challenging situations
● A willingness to admit mistakes, apologize and move on
● An ease with giving credit where credit is due
Apply
The ADAPT Cycle
Risk-Taking:
Ability to act in the face of unpredictability
People who are risk takers tend to demonstrate:
● An independent spirit
● An excitement about stepping into the unknown
● A readiness to take the initiative, experiment and test assumptions
● An ability to reframe potential challenges as opportunities
● An ability to manage fear and anxiety
Apply
The ADAPT Cycle
Mindfulness:
Ability to focus attention on the here and now
People who are mindful tend to demonstrate:
● An ability to avoid distraction
● A sensitivity to verbal and non-verbal communication signals
● An ability to sense changes in self and others
● An ability to not force new information into old mental models
● An ability to be empathic
Process
The ADAPT Cycle
Restraint:
Ability to slow down reactions
People who show restraint tend to demonstrate:
● A respect for the feelings of others
● An ability to control emotions
● A high degree of patience
● An ability to suspend judgments
● A willingness to invest time in reflection
Process
The ADAPT Cycle
Flexibility:
Ability to learn continuously and change approach
People who are flexible tend to demonstrate:
● A lack of defensiveness
● An ability to be creative and spontaneous
● A desire for getting results
● An inner sense of security
● An ability to transform feedback into practical lessons
Tune
The ADAPT Cycle
Resilience:
Ability to recover quickly and keep going
People who show resilience tend to demonstrate:
● An optimistic view of the future
● A passion for achieving goals
● An ability to cope with stress
● An ability to manage self-defeating thoughts and feelings
● A high level of resourcefulness in coping with difficulties
Tune
The ADAPT Cycle
The ADAPT Cycle can be useful before, during, or after a cross-cultural interaction:
Before
• Anticipate cultural differences by using a tool such as the TMA World Country Navigator.
• When you have identified likely cultural differences between yourself and your counterpart(s):
Analyze possible challenges
Identify possible adaptations you can make to increase the probability of a productive interaction
The ADAPT Cycle
The ADAPT Cycle can be useful before, during, or after a cross-cultural interaction:
During
• Pay attention to what is happening in real-time – are the challenges the ones you expected?
• If not, slow down and return to the Analyze step
What unexpected differences are making an impact?
Revisit the Decide step as well to identify more appropriate adaptations you could make
The ADAPT Cycle
The ADAPT Cycle can be useful before, during, or after a cross-cultural interaction:
After
(Review the interaction following the steps of the Cycle)
• How well did I analyze the differences most likely to be encountered?
• Did I choose the most appropriate adaptations based on my early analysis?
• Did I apply the adaptations effectively?
• Did I pay attention to how well my adaptations were making for a smooth and productive interaction?
Did I also pay attention to how I was responding?
And, did I self-manage my reactions to keep relations positive?
• Did I make the right modifications when I needed to? What lessons have I learned?
The ADAPT Cycle
By using The ADAPT Cycle, you will be able to:
• Recognize your own strengths and developmental challenges in terms of cultural adaptability
• Increase your productivity through applying greater cultural due diligence
• Act more systematically in preparing for and managing cultural differences
• Act more out of choice than
habit in cross-cultural situations
• Recognize the role your own
cultural orientations play in
cross-cultural interactions
The ADAPT Cycle
By using The ADAPT Cycle, you will be able to:
• Approach cross-cultural relationships with patience - for yourself and others
• Increase your tolerance for dealing with the ambiguity and uncertainty of cross-cultural relations
• Increase your ability to ‘read’ cultural differences in real time rather than rely on stereotypes
• More consciously and effectively
build bridges between cultural
differences.
To learn more about how TMA World can help
your organization, please contact us at
or visit
http://www.tmaworld.com/training-solutions/
