ADAPTION INSTITUTE
Research Driven Solutions

A few years ago, I was sitting across from a senior executive at a Fortune 100 company. Smart, respected, clearly successful. In the middle of the conversation, they leaned back, rubbed their temples, and said something that stopped me in my tracks: “I’ve never had better tools… and I’ve never been worse at thinking.” That sentence has stayed with me, because it captures what so many people are quietly feeling at work right now. We were told technology would make everything e

I have recently become aware of something important. A surprising number of people and systems think I am not very bright. A few times a day, a voice pretending to be someone named Jennifer rings my cell, and in a petulant, entitled voice, insists she’s calling me about a loan I never applied for. I have been preapproved, and they are only waiting for my response to send me money. I’ve never interacted with them. I block each number, but the calls keep coming.  Then there is

Most people do not procrastinate because they are lazy or unmotivated. They procrastinate because something inside them hesitates. There is a quiet pause between intention and action where discomfort lives. Anxiety. Uncertainty. Boredom. Self doubt. And instead of recognizing that moment for what it is, we tend to judge it. We tell ourselves we should be better by now. More disciplined. More focused. That judgment only deepens the stall. Procrastination is rarely about time m

Image by Chat GPT Many leaders I work with tell me some version of the same story. They like their people. They care about culture. They invest in engagement surveys, development plans, and purpose statements. And yet, something still feels flat. People show up. They perform. But the energy is missing. Marcus Buckingham challenged why this occurs in his Harvard Business Review article (June-July 2022).  He assumes that people disengage because they do not believe in the missi

Image By Freepik As the year comes to a close, many people feel a strange mix of things at once. Relief that it is ending. Pressure to make 2026 better. And a quiet sense that something needs to change, even if they cannot fully name what it is. For some, the year was objectively hard. For others, it looked fine on the outside but felt heavier than expected. Effort did not translate into progress. Connection did not come as easily. And despite doing many things right, somethi

Image created by Chat GPT As we approach the New Year, most people turn their attention to goals. What they want to accomplish. What they want to fix. But before you design your goals for 2026, there is a more important question to ask. What kind of brain do you want to live with in 2026. Whether you plan it or not, your brain is already being shaped every day by your pace, your stress, your attention, and how often you feel rushed versus settled. The real question is not whe

Recently, I watched a leader walk into a tense team meeting. The executive team was experiencing significant change and had some tough decisions to make. Emotions were running high, and everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to speak first. Instead of pointing fingers or jumping into solutions, the leader opened with a simple line that instantly changed the room: "Together we can do this" You could feel the energy shift. Shoulders relaxed. People leaned in. The atmosp

There are seasons in life when the world tilts, almost imperceptibly at first, and suddenly the familiar landscape looks different. You wake up in the same bed, eat your same morning breakfast, wave to the same neighbors across the cul de sac, yet something inside you has shifted. These past weeks have been that kind of season for me. It began with my neighbors, Todd and Heidi, and their two young children. They are the sort of neighbors you hope for but rarely get. The kind

The holiday season rarely arrives quietly. It brings memories that are sweet and heavy all at once. It carries the smell of childhood, the ache of people we miss, the comfort of familiar songs, and the pressure to make everything feel magical. The brain remembers all of it. The holidays are never just days on a calendar. They are patterns learned over a lifetime, filled with belonging, comfort, happiness, and hope. The quiet truth is that the same circuits that make this seas