Challenges
Adaptability means different options can co-exist, variations can happen, as can last minute changes. So adaptability is more demanding than wanting everything "acording to plan".
Encouraging teams to explore is not easy, equally difficult it's changing traditional frames of mind to fire creativity and innovation. Barriers must be overcome.
Adaptability demands a dynamic approach, the context/environment should be open, flexible, it should support bending - i.e.: shaping the idea onto another direction should be possible at any time as it should be abandoning them - and this is difficult to achieve sometimes.
Humans oppose change by nature however the opportunity to change needs to be embraced by the people involved. An open mind is needed as otherwise good opportunities can fly away.
In relation to costs, adaptability can be costly under situations where the materials to be used are expensive and where numeric models (virtual representations, statistical models, etc.) cannot be used to create simulations, prototyping can be an option in some of those cases though.
To be effective, the effort demanded by adaptability should help beat the competency otherwise its costs could not be justified.
Opportunities
The exploratory approach (envision-explore) allows broader freedom to create and innovate than traditional models (plan-do-check-act). Creativity and innovation can only exist in a dynamic environment that allows adaptability and testing different options to select the right one.
Adaptation is more powerful when providing value than optimization as optimization can only improve something that exists while adaptation re-shapes existing products or create new things.
[250 words]
Note: This reflection and words are my own but it was written after reading Highsmith, J., (2009). Agile project management: creating innovative products. Pearson Education. pp. 63-76.
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