Adaptability Is More Than Reacting Well - It’s About Anticipating Possibilities

What do magicians and Toyota have in common?

As a magician, I get a lot of questions when I perform:

“How did you do that?”

“Where did you learn?”

“Can you make my spouse disappear?”

But this week, I got one I don’t hear as often, but it’s a fun one to answer:

“Do you ever mess up? What happens if a trick doesn’t go according to plan?”

In my earliest shows, I messed up a lot. In fact, in my very first show, everything that could fail did fail.

But every mistake made me a better performer in a few ways.

First, I improved my technique and skill level so that I make far fewer mistakes.

But second - and maybe most importantly - I learned to expect mistakes. I stopped fearing them and started appreciating them.

That shift in mindset changed everything.

Why Adaptability Is More Than Reacting Well

I used to think being adaptable meant reacting well when things went wrong. So I trained myself to roll with mistakes - making jokes, improvising, and making errors feel like part of the show.

But through studying great magicians, I realized that adaptability isn’t about reacting - it’s about anticipating possibilities.

The best magicians don’t just “handle” mistakes. They expect them. They prepare backup plans so they can adapt seamlessly to whatever happens, without the audience ever knowing.

For example, a magician might ask you to choose a card and return it to the deck. But they don’t rely on just one method to locate it - they have three or four different ways to reveal the card. If one fails, they pivot effortlessly to another.

That’s why the best performers seem so present - because they are. They aren’t worried about things going wrong. They’ve built in flexibility, which allows them to stay in flow and enjoy the moment.

And this doesn’t just apply to magic.

How Businesses Can Build Adaptability Like a Magician

Most businesses struggle with change because they treat it like a break in the system:

Something unexpected happens, and everyone scrambles to fix it.

But the most adaptable companies treat change as a given.

Take Toyota’s approach to supply chain disruptions as an example:

During the pandemic, supply chain failures crippled entire industries. General Motors, Ford, and other automakers struggled to source critical parts, halting production.

Toyota, however, continued to thrive.

Years earlier, they had proactively mapped out their entire supply chain, ensuring they had multiple suppliers for key components. If one supplier failed, they had backups.

Because of this, Toyota was able to continue production with far fewer delays than their competitors - and in 2021, they surpassed General Motors to become the top-selling automaker in North America for the first time.

This is the difference between companies that thrive in uncertainty and those that are left scrambling.

So how do you stop being reactive and start building adaptability before you need it?

Three Ways to Build Proactive Adaptability in Your Business

1. Admit that you don’t have the full picture - and never will.

No matter how much experience you have, your perspective is incomplete. Reality is always more complex than we can see, and what works today won’t necessarily work tomorrow.

The first step to adaptability is letting go of the illusion that you’ve got it all figured out.

2. Enlist the perspectives of your people.

The biggest threats to adaptability? Tunnel vision and overconfidence.

The best way to break out of that? Seek perspectives from those who see things differently.

Encourage diverse viewpoints, challenge assumptions, and create a culture where questioning the status quo is welcomed.

3. Give yourself time to play with possibilities.

If you don’t schedule time to predict, imagine, and experiment, you’ll always be reacting. And reacting keeps you stuck.

The people who shape the future - the innovators, the leaders, the change-makers - build forecasting time into their calendars. They play with the ways they might fail, and they develop strategies for dealing with them.

Those who skip this step end up falling further behind.

The Leadership Challenge: Are You Stuck in Reaction Mode?

Take a look at your leadership or business strategy right now.

Are you constantly reacting to problems, or are you anticipating what’s next?

Here’s a challenge:

Schedule 30 minutes this week to explore possibilities before they become problems.

Ask yourself:

• What shifts in my industry am I not preparing for?

• Where am I too confident that things will stay the same?

• What are three possible futures for my business, and how can I build adaptability into each one?

  
  

The more you do this, the more you shift from constantly putting out fires to confidently navigating change.

And that’s where real confidence comes from - not in knowing exactly how things will go, but in trusting that whatever happens, you’ll be ready.