Happy Friday 👋 !

Monday morning I got my coffee and then sat down at my desk for 90 minutes of "focused work" as recommended by all productivity gurus. About 15 minutes in, I'm deep into a critical presentation when my screen freezes. Not just my screen—the entire platform. Then I realize it's not just me. It's everyone. Financial systems down. Hospital networks stalled. Even those smart beds that adjust so you can get a perfect night sleep? Offline.

This week's AWS outage wasn't just an inconvenience—it was a masterclass in what happens when our invisible infrastructure becomes suddenly, undeniably visible. And here's the thing: in moments like these when reliable systems fail, the most valuable commodity isn't technology. It's reliable people.

The Reliability Paradox

We've built our world on the assumption of reliability. We expect our tools to work, our systems to function, our networks to connect. And 99% of the time, they do. But that remaining 1%? That's where leadership lives.

The paradox is this: the more reliable our systems become, the less prepared we are when they inevitably fail. We outsource our adaptability to technology, and then we're caught flat-footed when it lets us down. The executives who thrive aren't the ones who never face disruption—they're the ones who've built their own internal reliability system that functions independently of external circumstances.

Think about the last major disruption in your organization. Who did people turn to? Not the systems that failed. They turned to the leaders who stayed steady, who communicated clearly, who helped everyone navigate the fog. That's the reliability that matters.

Two Kinds of Reliability

There's system reliability—the kind we pay for and expect—and then there's human reliability, the kind we cultivate and choose.

System reliability is binary. It works or it doesn't. When it breaks, you're stuck.

Human reliability is different. It's not about never failing; it's about having the internal capacity to respond when everything around you does. It's built on three pillars:

Self-trust: Knowing you can handle what comes next, even when you don't know what's coming. This isn't blind confidence—it's earned confidence from repeatedly facing uncertainty and finding your way through.

Adaptive capacity: The ability to pivot without fracturing. To hold your course while adjusting your route. To maintain your purpose while changing your approach.

Grounded presence: Being the calm in the storm not because you have all the answers, but because you trust your ability to find them.

This is where the ACE model becomes your operating system. Your Ability dimensions—like Grit, Mental Flexibility, and Mindset—give you the skills to navigate disruption. Your Character dimensions—including Hope and Emotional Range (are you collected or reactive to the changing circumstances?)—provide the emotional and cognitive foundation that keeps you steady. And your Environment dimensions—such as Team Support, Emotional Health, and Work Environment—create the conditions where reliability becomes collective, not just individual.

When you strengthen these dimensions, you're not just becoming more adaptable. You're becoming dependably adaptable. The person others can count on when nothing else is counting.

Building Your Reliability Muscle

Reliability isn't about having a perfect track record. It's about having a practiced response to imperfection.

🔄 Practice deliberate disruption. Don't wait for change to happen to you. Once a week, intentionally disrupt your routine. Take a different route to work. Use a tool you've never tried. Solve a problem without your go-to solution. Small, controlled disruptions build your adaptability reflexes so you're not starting from scratch when big disruptions hit.

🔮 Run a pre-mortem on what's coming. You already do post-mortems when things go wrong. Flip that script. Look at the changes on your horizon—the reorganization, the new initiative, the market shift—and imagine it's six months from now and things didn't go as planned. What happened? What were the decision points? What resources did you wish you had? By stress-testing the future, you're pre-loading your Mental Flexibility and Grit. You're not predicting the future; you're preparing your adaptive capacity for multiple futures.

💬 Make clear communication your a priority. When systems fail, information becomes currency. Create communication rhythms with your team that don't depend on everything going right. Regular check-ins aren't just about status updates—they're about building the trust infrastructure that holds when everything else wobbles. In uncertainty, your team needs to know: What do we know? What don't we know? What are we doing about both?

Your Reliability Reflection

Here's your challenge this week: Think about a recent moment when you were the reliable one. Not because you had all the answers, but because you stayed present and adaptive while others couldn't.

Write down:

• What was the situation?
• What specific actions made you reliable in that moment?
• Which ACE dimensions did you draw on? (Was it your Mental Flexibility? Your Mindset? Your Emotional Range?)
• What happened? What was the outcome?
• Would you do anything differently if this situation happens again?

Pay attention to the patterns. Your past reliability is the blueprint for your future reliability, but only if you notice what you're already doing.

The Real Question

The AWS outage got fixed. The systems will came back online. But, guess what? The next disruption is already queuing up behind this one.

So the question isn't just if you can rely on your systems. The question is: when those systems fail, can your people rely on you?

Can you rely on yourself?

Can you rely on your team?

That's not a technology problem. That's an adaptability challenge. And unlike system failures, it's one you have complete agency to address.

In a world of constant change, being someone others can count on isn't just valuable—it's essential. Not because you're superhuman, but because you've built the capacity to be consistently human when everything else is inconsistent.

Have a great weekend!

Ann
​www.adaptsuccess.com

Gear Up for Change is your weekly dose of practical ideas for unlocking adaptability and thriving in an AI-accelerated world. Forward this to a colleague who needs to hear this message and they can subscribe here.

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Issue #53, 23 October 2025