The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people.

–Steve Biko

Natural circumstances that seem to defy expectations can teach critical lessons for organizational and personal success. Did you know that lizards in the Bahamas were able to physically adapt to their hostile environments more than 2,000 times faster than evolutionary biologists predicted?

That discovery was an unexpected finding from an experiment to study extinction. The lizards were placed on islands where they were supposed to rapidly die out because the environments were too hostile for them to survive. But instead, the lizards had thrived in their new homes in various ways on 14 different islands with unique environments by changing physically and learning new behaviors that perfectly fit each island.

Why could they adapt so much? Evolutionary biologists didn't realize until recently than there are many untapped genes that aren't triggered until environmental circumstances change. It's like a hidden insurance policy in our DNA.

That example is important because people should be even more adaptable than lizards by drawing on resources such as ideas from others, helping each other, and using various kinds of work and thinking tools.

For organizations, there's no more important quality than being flexible and able to thrive in any environment. Who can do that? Well, do you know about the amazing survival abilities of cellular slime molds?

Cellular slime molds (a type of amoeba) live individually on the forest floor. The available food supply limits their growth and prosperity, as it does for all amoebas. When the food is gone, stationary amoebas die out.

But unlike stationary amoebas, cellular slime molds act in a most unusual way when food is scarce: The cellular slime mold amoebas clump themselves into a community that oozes along as slime until it reaches a spot where more food is present.

They have another trick for finding new homes as well. Clumps of the amoebas will undergo additional physical changes, creating a multicelled stalk holding a sac filled with dormant spores. When animals or people brush against the sacs, the spores attach themselves and are carried to new locations beyond the range that the clump could move on its own.

As a result of these physical adaptations, it doesn't matter where the amoebas start out because they are designed to move themselves and their descendants to a better place. In essence, cellular slime molds are designed for adjusting to rapidly varying conditions . . . much as early humans did by roving in hunting bands to where the game was.

How can your organization learn to adapt in the same ways?

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through and receive tips by e-mail through registering for free at

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