Reflection: Judgement and Adaptability — meet every problem with those two traits.

I’m doing a course at Munster Technological University at the moment. It’s called Leading Transformational Change. I’ve also signed up for a daily leadership reading challenge from Ryan Holiday where he shares insights on leadership through the lens of stoic philosophy.

I’ve been reading about leaders need to possess good judgement and be adaptable to different situations. In fact, Marcus Aurelius said we should face every problem with two important traits — Judgment and Adaptability:

“Judgment can look the event in the eye and say, ‘This is what you are, regardless of what you may look like.’ While Adaptability adds, ‘You’re just what I was looking for.’”

In other words, with objectivity and flexibility, we can see problems clearly and then respond to them with discipline.

This guidance reminds me of the video by Jocko Willink where he responds with the word “good” to every problem that faces him. He has trained himself to see the opportunity in every problem. This requires judgement to see problems for what they are and of course, adaptability to choose a response that will profit him in some way.

Judgement, in my view, involves the use of logic to see a problem for what it is. This may require what Steven Covey, the author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” called a “paradigm shift”.

What is a paradigm?
A paradigm is a framework containing the basic assumptions and ways of seeing a situation or the world, not in terms of our visual sight, but in terms of perceiving, understanding, and interpreting. A paradigm shift describes a change in an individual’s view of a situation. It occurs when there is a major change in what constitutes one’s worldview. For example, moving from a Ptolemaic worldview where the Earth is at the centre of the universe to a Copernican one where the Earth orbits the Sun wasa paradigm shift at a societal level.

Covey argues that in order to change ourselves effectively, we first have to change our perceptions. This, I think aligns with Marcus Aurelius’s concept of “judgement”. If we want to change our behaviour and habits, we must start by changing our underlying paradigms. This reminds me of two other concepts: mindset and the gap between stimulus and response.

Mindset

Carol Dweck has researched the topic of mindset. Mindset. Mindset, according to the Cambridge Dictionary describes a person’s way of thinking & the beliefs and attitudes that they hold. Oxford Dictionary describes it as the established set of attitudes held by somebody. Our mindset, like our view of the world, can arise out of our experiences and most importantly, from our responses to experiences. Some of what might prevent us from fulfilling our potential might be due to our mindset because we see the world through its filter. In this sense, it can cause blind spots depending upon our beliefs about our world & our role in it. It can deceive us because we have a human tendency for confirmation bias or searching for info that reconfirms beliefs.

The good news is that once we start to become aware of our mindset, then we can start to develop it & transcend those personal beliefs & attitudes that don’t serve us. Is this where judgement comes in? With judgement, we can start to exercise objectivity to see problems clearly? And then we can use adaptability to respond to those problems with discipline?

The gap between stimulus and response

Both Ryan Holiday and Steven Covey had written about Victor E. Frankl, the holocaust survivor, psychiatrist and author of the book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”. In the book, Frankl wrote about the last human freedom which is the ability to choose how we think:

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

This idea is crucial because it emphasises that we are not simply products of our environment or slaves to our instincts. Instead, we have the ability to choose how we respond to any given situation, based on our values, beliefs, and principles. This I believe is what Marcus Aurelius was referring to when he discussed judgement and adaptability.

Of course, the ability to judge a situation objectively and to choose our response requires a high degree of self-awareness and self-control. It involves being aware of our thoughts and emotions, and taking a moment to pause and choose a response that aligns with our values and goals, rather than reacting automatically or impulsively.

By cultivating this gap between stimulus and response, we can develop greater emotional intelligence, make better decisions, build stronger relationships, and lead more fulfilling lives. I’m a work in progress. This is an ability that requires constant work in the form of pausing before responding, breathing, journalling, starting with assumptions that people mean well and of course, meditation.

Epictetus wrote that it’s not things that upset us. It’s our judgement about things. Exercise good judgement rather than impulsivity. Einstein wrote that “the measure of intelligence is the ability to change”. Adapt and overcome.

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” — Ryan Holiday