A framework · how I think about change

Adopt. Adapt. Innovate.

A sequence for turning a new technology into new value. Each stage makes the next possible, and skipping one is why most change stalls.

The rule You cannot Adapt what you have not Adopted, or Innovate what you have not Adapted.
1 Adopt
Acknowledge it exists, and accept the cost.

See how a new technology changes what is possible, what it does to your strategy and to what you care about. Then accept the cost of buying it, learning it, and using it.

The entry cost
Nothing moves until you pay it.
2 Adapt
Reshape your thinking around it.

Fold the change into how you see the work. Redesign your intentions: what the technology means for what you care about, and for your plans of action.

The redesign
New intentions, not just new tools.
3 Innovate
Turn it into new value.

Use what you have adopted and adapted to produce new work. This is where growth comes from, and where most of the payoff lives.

The payoff
Disrupt, then build what did not exist before.
What Innovate produces
Products you can sell
Offers

New things you sell, or old things made new.

Systems that run without you
Practices

New ways of working that stick.

Stories that attract clients
Narratives

New stories about what you are and do.

A direction that holds
Strategies

New directions the change makes possible.