THE
ADAPTATION
ADVANTAGE

Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work.

Technology is changing work as we know it. So much change, so quickly, is challenging our ability to adapt. But what if we could open the floodgates of human potential by changing the way we think about work and leadership and our ability to adapt?

The Adaptation Advantage (Wiley, 2020) is a deeply researched and practical guide for individuals and organizations navigating the complex and ambiguous future of work.

NAMED A
TOP 30
BUSINESS
BOOK
FOR 2021

Keep pace with the
unimaginable speed of change

Technology is reshaping more than our workplaces—it's transforming how we must lead.

Tomorrow's success depends on building cultures where adaptability and collaboration thrive.

Through more than 75 distinctive visual frameworks, The Adaptation Advantage offers a practical roadmap for organizations and individuals ready to transform how they work and lead.

THE
BOOK IS
SEPARATED
INTO THREE
PARTS,

each one building on the last.

Part 1:

Understanding the dynamics and impact of technology and social change

Part 2:

Understanding what this change means for you and how you see yourself

Part 3:

Understanding how to lead through change by seizing the Adaptation Advantage

DRAWING ON INSIGHTS FROM HUNDREDS OF EXECUTIVE INTERVIEWS,

The Adaptation Advantage reveals the profound changes shaping work today and offers a bold solution: detaching our identity from job titles and anchoring it instead in purpose.

The Adaptation Advantage is a masterclass in how individuals and organizations can and must develop the capacity to change fast and learn faster.

Whether you were born digital or analog, this book is your indispensable resource for thriving in a world that is transforming as you read this."

—JIM KOUZES,

Coauthor of the International Bestseller, The Leadership Challenge

Microchips cannot and will not replace relationships. Your next job starts where the robots stop. Learn to embrace that handoff. The best way to do that, Heather and Chris argue, for both individuals and organizations, is through rapid learning, unlearning, and adaptation. Heather and Chris’ book is an indispensable guide to how to navigate this new era in the workplace.”

—THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN,

Foreign Affairs Columnist, New York Times

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 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

In The Adaptation Advantage, McGowan and Shipley deliver a powerful message for corporate leaders about success in the future of work. Learning and identity are not only intertwined but fundamental to any organization’s ability to adapt and create value. How exciting to read a book built on the core premise that learning unleashes our human potential while also driving competitive advantage.”

—SEAN GALLAGHER, PHD.,

Executive Director, Centre for the New Workforce, Swinburne University

The Adaptation 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

Heather E. McGowan and Chris Shipley have crystallized what the future of work looks like, and it is good news for us humans, providing we embrace change, get comfortable with the unknown, and keep adapting and learning. That last bit bodes well for the business events industry, which is the ideal vehicle for professionals to develop and maintain an agile learning mindset, to retool and retrain, and to hone the uniquely human skills—like creativity, empathy, and communication—that will ensure our future success, individually in our careers and collectively as a species.”

—SHERRIF KARAMAT,

President and CEO, Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA)

The Adaptation 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

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

The Adaptation Advantage tackles head-on the most critical challenge facing all of us in the near future: Where do we find purpose and prosperity in a world that increasingly feels beyond anyone’s control? The extent to which we adapt to a radically shifted concept of “work” will inevitably be determined by our ability to rethink learning – away from a fixed-term preparation for employment, to a continuous way of living. Accordingly, this vital book offers a road map to the oldest question of all: How, then, should we live? Among a growing cadre of dystopians, it’s refreshing to hear a much-needed optimistic analysis from McGowen and Shipley.”

—DAVID PRICE, OBE,

Bestselling author of Open: How We Will Work, Learn, and Live in the Future

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

Speed is the only constant in today’s world. That much is clear to all of us. We read tomes upon tomes deploring it or analyzing it, but most of it is opinion and editorial whereas Heather and Chris break it down into clear, actionable concepts and better yet, anchor them with science and examples so plentiful that this book will become your absolute go-to when you mean to school others in the potential perils and opportunities of VUCA.”

—DUENA BLOMSTROM,

Author, co-founder, and CEO, PeopleNotTech Ltd.

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

This book is an essential guide for anyone who seeks to understand what it means to be human in the age of intelligent machines. The sources of advantage in the future of work have shifted to our uniquely human capabilities. Heather and Chris urge us to go on an inward journey to uncover who we are and consider how we manifest our passion, character and collaborative spirit as our most enduring and sustainable means of making positive progress as people, leaders, and institutions.”

—DOV SEIDMAN,

Author of HOW and founder and chairman of LRN and The HOW Institute for Society

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

This book will change the way you see yourself within the future of work, give you very practical ideas for leading in that new but unknown world, and leave you genuinely inspired about what the future holds.”

—PETER SHEAHAN,

CEO, Karrikans Group

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.”

—VIVIENNE MING, PHD.,

Theoretical neuroscientist, founder, Socos Labs

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

In a world of exponential change, we all need strategies to help us continually adapt. With The Adaptation Advantage, Shipley and McGowan have given us the user manual.”

—GARY A. BOLLES,

Chair for the Future of Work, Singularity University

The digital revolution is overturning careers as well as companies. This book will be an essential guide to the future of work for both individuals and organizations.”

—MARK BONCHEK,

Chief Epiphany Officer, Shift Thinking

—RUSSELL L. MOORE, PHD.,

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Colorado, Boulder

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THE
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