Apprendix: Adaptive Action: Fit for Function
(Large and small groups, one-to-one, community,
hospital, ambulatory care, classroom, laboratory)
www.adaptiveaction.org
Adaptive Action (Eoyang and Holladay 2013) is process that helps us to set the
conditions to perceive, understand and take wise action in our work and day-to-day
lives. It has been around for a long time and share similarities and differences with
other learning processes like strategic planning, Kolb’s Learning Cycle, permanent
education, etc. Adaptive Action is different in that it informs us of a way to take action
at multiple levels, dimensions and complexity that is fit for function. This includes
situations that require are known and involve replication (best practice(s)) and in
situations that are uncertain (complex adaptive systems). Adaptive Action is inquiry
process that is an iterative and recursive. It is particularly useful for intractable problems
and situations in which there is a high level of uncertainty and in which other approaches
are not useful. Three questions form the framework of Adaptive Action; What? So What?
Now What? and they can be applied to teaching, assessing and planning in multiple
settings and at all levels.
Adaptive action is about patterns that
form and inform the meaning we make
and the action we take in and with our
varying contexts. Patterns are
everywhere and they appear over time
and space. They are how we identify and
name categories, make diagnoses and
meaning. They give form and identity to
cultures. “They may be simple and
predictable, as when a recipe becomes a
cake. They may be complex and
predictable, as when a blueprint is
transformed into a skyscraper. They may be simple and unpredictable, as when a group
of children play with a ball. They may be complex and unpredictable, as when those
same children learn to read and write…Human systems dynamics is concerned with all of
these patterns…We define patterns as similarities, differences, and connections that have
meaning across space and time.” (Eoyang and Holladay, 2013. p. 42-43).
© Stewart Mennin, 2015
ESME 2015
1
Patterns are the essence of recognizing and dealing with the social determinants of health
and disease. They form the sciences, the arts, humanities. The health professions are
different because of how they work with and understand patterns.
Recognizing and naming patterns is necessary to identify outcomes, competency,
objectives, goals and abilities. Five questions in the above help us to notice and name
patterns. Patterns and adaptive action are fundamental to the teaching, assessing and
planning we are studying.
How we set the conditions for our
interactions, how we recognize and deal with
differences and the way we communicate and
exchange form a pattern of learning and
agency called generative engagement.