Two people hiking up a mountain trail under a cloudy sky, symbolizing growth and collaboration. Text on the image reads “Adapt Together – Resilience is practiced in community.” The Collective Agency logo appears in the lower left corner, with colorful geometric shapes in the upper right.
Hi Friends,
Here’s the thing: adaptability and collaboration aren’t just business skills, they’re survival skills. The ground keeps shifting with AI, the economy, and customer habits all changing at once. The entrepreneurs who thrive are the ones who stay curious, connected, and willing to evolve. At Collective Agency, we help small business owners do exactly that — turning uncertainty into opportunity, aligning values with strategy, and growing stronger together.
If you are feeling wobbly these days, you aren’t alone. But wobble doesn’t have to mean wipeout, sometimes it means an opportunity to adapt, and that’s where adaptability in business really becomes your superpower.
Back when we were at the WBC, we noticed something that happened a lot, to a lot of organizations: events sometimes didn’t have the turnout or impact people hoped for. Not because people weren't giving it their all, but because teams weren’t always aligned on a single goal or a clear path to get there.
We didn’t just learn from that, we adapted it into opportunity. The lessons we carried forward about communication, alignment, and strategy became the foundation for our Strategic Visioning Lab service at Collective Agency.
Why Adaptability Matters
In other words: we turned a problem into a product. That’s adaptability in action - soft skills like listening, alignment, and values-driven collaboration translating into hard results.
It wasn’t just a hiccup in planning, it was proof that adaptability turns setbacks into stepping stones.
And let’s talk about collaboration. Self-awareness, empathy, communication skills, and a genuine desire to amplify others’ strengths alongside your own - those aren’t just nice-to-haves, they’re essential. Sure, you can survive going it alone, but thriving? That happens together, especially right now. We need each other.
This kind of connection is a form of human-centered leadership: one that values shared growth, empathy, and the understanding that no one builds anything meaningful completely alone.
Collaboration in business isn’t just about teamwork; it’s how shared goals turn into shared wins. When people bring their whole selves into the work, trust grows—and that’s when creativity and progress really take off.
We saw this firsthand back at the WBC when The World Affairs Council of New Hampshire invited us to put together a half-day workshop for an international delegation of small business owners and champions. We could have done the whole thing ourselves, but we knew it would be more impactful (and honestly, way more fun) if we brought more incredible people in. So we invited a powerhouse business coach to lead part of it, and pulled together a whole panel of folks representing different NH resources to share their insights, too.
Each of us took turns stepping into the limelight and then stepping back to cheer on the others. The delegation walked away with so much more than if they’d just listened to us talk for four hours. That’s adaptability through collaboration: creating something bigger, richer, and more lasting than any of us could alone.
Now, about AI and Entrepreneurship. We’ve seen three kinds of people: those frozen by the noise, those who dove in too fast and got burned, and those who slowed down enough to be intentional. Guess who’s doing okay? The last group. They tuned out the hype, leaned on trusted voices, and chose tools that actually fit.
Entrepreneur adaptability here looks like slowing down to speed up: learning the tech that matters, staying curious, and turning your lived experience into new opportunities. A good example of this - if you’re a virtual assistant losing contracts to AI, you’re sitting on gold - you already know which tasks are repeatable and which absolutely need a human touch. That experience makes you a natural to help pick, train, and manage those AI systems and own the human connection piece that your current bandwidth is making harder and harder.
Collaboration and adaptability (paired with slowing down and moving with informed intention) are the best entrepreneurial skills you could possibly cultivate right now.
So what can you do to grow your adaptability superpower?
At Collective Agency, we focus on:
Sharpening the human skills - critical thinking, strategic thinking, emotional intelligence in business, empathy, and communication. No AI agent or algorithm replaces human presence, compassion, intuition, and lived experience.
Upskilling without breaking the bank - If you decide you want to add a little knowledge to your toolkit, check out free MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), sites like Udemy, community college classes, even state-funded certificates - options are pretty plentiful.
Playing on purpose - The ability to imagine "what if" doesn't just belong to kids - actually, it's a great amplifier of adaptability (and innovation). So reconnect with and nurture your imagination through things like improv, literally playing with kids, taking a walk without a destination in mind, or learning a new language or hobby. If you like to read, check out books like Free Play by Nachmanovich - they are a great resources to help learn how to handle the unexpected and build flexibility.
This isn’t chasing hype and shiny things, and it's not staying stuck in overwhelm and anxiety. It’s being selective and intentional - learning what actually moves the needle and making that your edge.
A few questions to get your wheels turning:
What skill do people always thank you for? (That might be your secret sauce.)
What’s one thing you’d try if failing felt less catastrophic? (Curiosity needs reps - and can start small.)
Who's someone you'd love to collaborate with, and what's one thing you could do to plant that seed?
What’s one free or low-cost way you could learn something new this month? Try it and tell us.
Actually, we want to hear your ponderings and insights on each of these!
Bottom line: Adaptability isn’t perfection - it’s willingness. You’ve adapted before. Let’s keep turning what trips us up into what sets us apart - and let's do it together.
Every entrepreneur needs a few business resilience strategies they can rely on: simple, repeatable ways to stay grounded when the unexpected happens. Things like slowing down, asking better questions, and leaning on community are powerful tools for long-term sustainability.
In Partnership,
Tricia + Chandra
Collective Agency
P.S. Know a business owner or resource partner who’d love this kind of support and community?
Feel free to forward this email or invite them to sign up—we’d love to welcome them in.
