Livestream: Adaptability quotient, a measure of entrepreneurial prowess

In her Ted Talk centred on the idea of one’s Adaptability Quotient (AQ), Fratto tells her audiences, “On the last page of Gandhi’s autobiography, he wrote, ‘I must reduce myself to zero.’ At many points in his very full life, he was still seeking to return to a beginner’s mindset, to zero. To unlearn. In this way, I think it’s safe to say Gandhi had a high AQ score.”

Fratto’s argument gives precedence to AQ, over emotional quotient as well, as she believes a person’s aptitude for risk taking and thinking on one’s feet would be more evident, when placed in a ‘what if’ situation. She says, “To interview for adaptability, I like to ask “what if” questions. What if your main revenue stream were to dry up overnight? What if a heat wave prevented every single customer from being able to visit your store? Asking “what if,” instead of asking about the past, forces the brain to simulate. To picture multiple possible versions of the future. The strength of that vision, and how many distinct scenarios someone can conjure, tells me a lot.”

She also invokes the example of Blockbuster and Netflix, two firms with two very different destinies. And she quotes an example to illustrate how our brains are not exactly hard-wired, but malleable and adaptable to change.

She refers to the case of the Backwards Brain Bike, a contraption devised by Destin Sandlin, who programmed his bicycle to turn left when he steered it right and vice versa. The experiment took Sandlin eight months to perfect – as he was able to ride this bike normally only after such a long time. It just goes to show how one can unlearn a decades old habit and adapt to a new routine through practice.

SOURCE: bit.ly/2Xwuf8u

SYNOPSIS: When venture investor Natalie Fratto is determining which start-up founder to support, she doesn’t just look for intelligence or charisma; she looks for adaptability. In this insightful talk, Fratto shares three ways to measure your “adaptability quotient” and shows why your ability to respond to change really matters.

NOTEWORTHY: Fratto invests in underestimated start-up founders and writes about how tech shapes the world around us. A Y-Combinator alum and former IBM Watson strategist, Fratto most recently led expansion at Silicon Valley Bank. She’s written for Fortune, Fast Company and Motherboard. She’s building Launch With GS, a $500 mn initiative to invest in women-led businesses and investment managers, at Goldman Sachs in NYC.