Adaptive capacity is the ability to keep learning, making sound choices and responding effectively as conditions change—without losing connection to purpose or exhausting the people, relationships and systems on which the future depends.
It is more than reacting quickly or surviving disruption. Adaptive capacity allows people and organisations to revise assumptions, develop new responses and remain capable of acting as circumstances continue to unfold.
Within Adapt, Survive & Flourish, adaptive capacity rests on four connected foundations:
- Shared vision and principles provide direction and boundaries for action.
- Relationships and networks enable trust, cooperation and access to help.
- Knowledge management makes experience and reliable knowledge available for use.
- Thinking skills and tools support enquiry, judgement and responsible action.
Weakness in any one foundation limits the whole. Knowledge achieves little without relationships, relationships drift without shared purpose, and neither produces adaptation without the ability to think and act well.
Related glossary items
- đź“ť Social Capital & Human Capital
- đź“ť PurposeÂ
- đź“ť Adaptive Enquiry
- đź“ť Mindsets
- đź“ť Knowledge Operating System
- đź“ť Design Thinking and Strategic Thinking
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Read the Book — Adapt, Survive & Flourish