The 10 Levels of the ‘ChangeAbility’ Progression Spectrum (Part 2)

Change and adaptation are indispensable cognitive and strategic capabilities if we are to grow in self-leadership. My goal for you and I is to gain skills to increase our ‘ChangeAbility’ or Adaptive Intelligence. Adaptive Intelligence combines the concept of intelligence – the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills – with the specific focus on adaptation:

INTELLIGENCE (i.e. the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills) x ADAPTATION = ChangeAbility

We are exploring the ChangeAbility Progression Spectrum or CAPS, a continuum showing people’s resistance levels to change. In the last post we saw the two most resistant levels:

Antagonism and
Aversion.

Today we will address the next two levels:

Avoidance and
Apathy.

3. Avoidance: While less intense than aversion, avoidance still represents a significant barrier to change. Here, individuals or groups acknowledge the possibility of change but actively try to circumvent it, hoping it will simply go away or that someone else will deal with it. Behavior may include:

procrastination
deflection
a passive resistance that prevents any meaningful engagement with the need for transformation.

This category may voice some degree of buy-in buy their actions don’t move the needle of progress towards change. A person who tends to be tardy may say, “It’s terrible how those tractors on the highway keep making me late.”

4. Apathy: Some individuals or groups might exhibit complete indifference or apathy towards the idea of change. They don’t care enough to resist or engage. This passivity is a subtle but distinct form of non-engagement that can be just as detrimental as active resistance. It’s not dislike; it’s a lack of interest or perceived relevance. There is no inclination to initiate, adopt, or try new patterns or to adapt oneself to change.

Apathetic people don’t bother to create options, or to weigh costs and benefits for decision-making. Cognitively, their capacity to learn from outcomes gets in the way of change. All this results in a passive acceptance of the status quo, even when they know change would be beneficial.

CTA: