Practice Management
Adaptability Quotient Offers Solutions to Veterinary Profession in Crisis
The business strategy known as the Adaptability Quotient could provide solutions to the problems facing the equine veterinary profession, according to Eleanor M. Green, DVM, DACVIM, DABVP.
Equine veterinary medicine has been described as a profession in crisis, Dr. Green said at the 2023 AAEP Annual Convention, in San Diego. According to the AAEP, There is a shortage of veterinarians who are entering the practice of equine medicine, and about 50% of those who become equine veterinarians leave within five years, said Dr. Green, Dean Lyon College School of Veterinary Medicine, and a senior advisor and consultant with the Animal Policy Group. There are several factors causing this crisis, most notably burnout, she said.
Adaptability Quotient, which measures the ability to successfully deal with change, holds the potential to provide the competitive advantage needed to tackle the crisis in the equine veterinarian profession by addressing burnout caused by anxiety and stress, she said.
For years IQ was viewed as a significant measure of success. IQ gave way to EQ–emotional quotient–as more important for success. Adaptability Quotient as an indication of success is about 15 years old. A 2011 article in the Harvard Business Review described the ability to adapt to change as the new competitive advantage for both individuals and businesses.
“The cold hard facts are that we live in a world of change,” Dr. Green said. “Some we want, some we don’t want, and they are just imposed on us. How do we deal with a lot of those changes that we face? Well, the only constant in life is change. Now, even change is changing, and it’s becoming exponential rather than linear.”
Dr. Green noted that change has long been a significant factor in equine veterinary medicine with a major shift occurring when people began to rely less on animals for farming and horses in particular for travel.
“Go way back to the day the horse lost its job,” she said. “Veterinary medicine was predicted to follow the horse and not even exist anymore. Imagine if we hadn’t adapted. What would this profession look like if we hadn’t adapted? But we did.”
Change has continued. “Look at today,” she said. “It wasn’t that long ago that we had paper medical records, and now we’ve got digital.” Now veterinarians are dealing with which practice information management software (PIMS) system to use and how to integrate it into their practice.
“One day we’ll look back and say, ‘I can’t believe we ever worried about that.’” Other major changes occurring are telemedicine, robotics and artificial intelligence like ChatGBT, Dr. Green said.
“These are all changes that are imposed on us. How do we leverage them? And how do we make them fit into our practices and into our personal lives?” she said.
“We are now becoming aware that the AQ trumps EQ and IQ,” Dr. Green said. “So, what is AQ? It’s the capacity to adapt, learn, and thrive in a changing environment in which we live in. It’s a measure of how effectively we can adjust our mindset and behaviors and actions in response to new situations and challenges and unexpected changes.”
“AQ is a metric that actually measures the ability to adapt and to prepare for the unknown.” Measuring the ability–or inability–to adapt is an educational process that guides one to success. “AQ is coachable,” she said, adding there are several sources from which veterinarians can learn more. She cites some of them in the “for more information” section at the bottom of this article.
AQ can help a veterinary practice deal with the issue of employee retention. She said she didn’t want to hire veterinary school graduates who are only career ready. “I want to hire future ready veterinarians because if they’re just career ready the day they graduate, they’re already out of date very soon after graduation.”
Graduates who measure high on the AQ scale are more capable of handling the multiple changes and challenges confronting them and so are better able to handle the stress and pressure of the job and are less likely to experience burnout.
Employees with higher AQs have been shown to have higher job performance, higher job satisfaction, and higher life satisfaction, she said. “People with higher AQ are more likely to go above and beyond their basic job requirements and do it with fun,” Dr. Green said. “They experience less burnout even though they’re going above their job requirements. They engage in less counterproductive work behaviors. They view stressors as a challenge rather than a threat. And they report a very positive state of wellbeing afterwards.”
One indication of a higher AQ score is allowing yourself to fail. “That’s the thing we all seem to fear: failing. Other important characteristics are remaining calm under pressure, learning new skills quickly, a willingness to embrace new ideas, maintaining curiosity, and remaining resilient in the face of adversity”, she said.
AQ is not just resilience, but an openness to new experiences. Key to AQ is also an openness to unlearn what worked in the past but may no longer be applicable because of change, she said.
“Once you have a rigid way of thinking in your head, sometimes you cannot change that, even if you want to. You must unlearn and that’s what makes it hard. People who have been around longer have learned more and might have more to unlearn. It can be challenging so we do need to be understanding of those who are trying to unlearn.”
Veterinary practices today must confront all the changes occurring across multiple generations, Dr. Green said. “We have five generations in the workforce for the first time ever. Five generations. How do we leverage that?”
She said it wasn’t by criticizing the other generations, but by understanding them.
“Some people are just naturally more adaptive than others, but adaptability can be learned,” Dr. Green said. “To be successfully cultivated, AQ needs to be in a supportive workplace that nurtures and values adaptability. You can provide AQ training in your practice and for yourself. You can set that culture as you prepare for a more successful future. Proactively stop saying no and start saying yes. Create a culture of change and adaptability – and fun – and greater job performance and greater job satisfaction will likely result.” MeV
For more information
Reeves M, Deimler M. Adaptability: The New Competitive Advantage. Harvard Business Review. 2011; July-August. https://hbr.org/2011/07/adaptability-the-new-competitive-advantage
Dr. Green said there are an increasing number of business books and online videos that teach illustrates AQ. She cited the TED Talk by Natalie Fratto
There is also an Adaptability University that offers formal courses and services that can be found at adaptability.org and the movie “Moneyball” starring Brad Pitt, based on the book by Michael Lewis called Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.