Advanced Praise For The Adaptation Advantage
The Adaptation Advantage is the clearest, most compelling, and most original examination of the present and future workplace. Packed with powerful data-driven insights and provocative examples, this book is a masterclass in how individuals and organizations can and must develop the capacity to change fast and learn faster. McGowan and Shipley offer sage advice and wise counsel on every page, and it’s imperative that you take their lessons to heart. But the big surprise in this book is that it’s not about learning to live with more robots, but rather learning to become more human. Whether you were born digital or born analog, The Adaptation Advantage is your indispensable resource for thriving in a world that is transforming as you read this.
—Jim Kouzes,
Coauthor of The Leadership Challenge
Executive Fellow at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University
Heather McGowan and Chris Shipley are prophets of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Their extraordinary insights and tools challenge and empower organizations, leaders, and people across society to thrive in a future marked by exceptional technological and societal change.”
—Major General James Johnson,
U.S. Air Force (ret), former Director of Air Force Integrated Resilience
The Adaptation Advantage brings sense to the sometimes confusing and scary world of change. McGowan and Shipley give us permission to be entrepreneurial by exploring the nature of opportunity and a natural pathway to engagement. Ambiguity is our friend in a world that understands change as a chance to improve lives. The authors beautifully weave macroeconomic phenomenon with a prod for introspection. Their book is a “self-help meets personal empowerment” treatise. Reading this book is a therapy session with motivational power. You’ll want to reread it again and again.
—Stephen Spinelli Jr., PhD.,
President, Babson College, co-founder of Jiffy Lube
The Adaptive Advantage lays out a clear, compelling case to stop defining ourselves by our jobs, to extend formal education into lifelong learning, and to let curiosity lead us through the arc of our working lives. That way we remain resilient no matter how forceful the waves of change become. Most books about the future of work put automation at the center of the story. McGowan and Shipley put humans at the center—as well they should. Many essential capabilities can’t be replaced…creativity, collaboration, judgment, sensemaking, empathy, and other forms of social and emotional intelligence are uniquely human. And while technology will continue to evolve the way we work, we have immense agency to determine and design what we do and why we do it.
—Sandy Speicher,
CEO, IDEO
The Adaptation Advantage is fueled by the power of an elegant idea: our ability to learn and adapt is inseparable from our sense of identity. And as automation driven by machine intelligence remakes our world, the need to continually transform our identities becomes the very foundation of human growth—and how we thrive. McGowan and Shipley have wrapped a vivid and immensely readable narrative around this idea. My advice: read it!”
—Randy Swearer, PhD.,
Vice President of Learning Futures, Autodesk
The Adaptive Advantage needs to be on every educator’s bookshelf, preferably dog-eared with highlighted pages, guiding their efforts to reorient the education system into continuous and future-focused learning. McGowan and Shipley’s advice is both simple and profound—our students’ competitive advantage is their exponential and expansive capacity as humans to adapt, advance, and add value, rather than to compete with artificial intelligence that mimics their genius.
—Tonya Allen,
CEO, Skillman Foundation
An insightful comprehension of the velocity and force of the multi-tiered and numerous elements of change offer leaders the insight and capability to creatively lead transformations. Resilient and adaptive learners will be the change-makers of the future. How thrilling to read the book that potentially allows us to embrace change as a propellant versus a weight.
—Lynne Greene,
Former Group President, Estee Lauder Companies
McGowan and Shipley’s The Adaptation Advantage nails it. Adaptive identity requires letting go– letting go of a job or skill set identity in order to thrive in a world of rapidly changing societal norms and technologies. This is required reading for all students of service science, such as myself.
—Jim Spohrer, PhD.,
IBM Director, Cognitive Open Technologies
Twenty years of research have shown me the importance of bringing humans to the forefront of the future of work. By recognizing the centrality of human potential, The Adaptation Advantage illuminates the value of resilience, adaptability, and the qualities that make us uniquely human in the future of culture, work, and self.
—Vivienne Ming, PhD.,
Theoretical neuroscientist, founder, Socos Labs
The paradigm of pursuing higher education is shifting. For example, American workers are now getting a job to go to college versus going to college to get a job. In this must-read, Heather and Chris effectively describe these and other trends that are playing out across corporate America today. In a world where rapid learning and adaptation are essential to prepare for the future of work, we need leaders across industries, disciplines, and functions to work together to become champions of human potential.
—Rachel Carlson,
CEO and co-founder of Guild Education
In a world where we are drowning in information, and misinformation, clarity is power. Many jump on the fear bandwagon around the future of work, but Chris and Heather have done their homework, the thinking, and crafted a vision for how humans can adapt and thrive, with supreme clarity. They tackle this subject with original thinking and substance.
—Annalie Killian,
Vice President Strategic Partnerships, sparks & honey
The Adaptation Advantage paints a vivid and compelling picture of a future of work in which the most successful and fulfilled participants will be those who continually learn and relearn in order to adapt to accelerating social, economic, and technological change. As a result of these changes, our current system of higher education is being presented with exciting challenges and opportunities to evolve to support that increasingly dynamic societal and work force future.
—Russell L. Moore, PhD.,
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Colorado, Boulder