Adapt
and Adopt
A Simple Way to Solve The Most Complex Problems
The rat race has gone hypersonic. Most people respond by pushing harder with the tools they already know — and falling further behind. This book is the other option: step back, borrow what already works, and let leverage do what effort can't.
Ordering 20+ copies? Contact Wiley rep Katie Helm — reference Adapt and Adopt, ISBN 9781394467808.
Chapter 12 · Bridge to the Impossible
“As a freshman, I was undersized and barely made the high school soccer team. Even ‘barely made it,’ my father still lovingly reminds me, holding his thumb and finger so close together that they’re almost touching, was generous.
So I faced the choice adversity usually provides. Complain about the system. Quit. Or change what was within my control.
I changed. Not the rules, my teammates, the game. Just myself, my actions. By senior year I was captain. The same circumstances that had buried me on the bench were the ones that made me better.”
— Chapter 2, The Adapter's AdvantageAdapting is the entry fee. Adoption is how you win.
This is a book about winning by bringing in the tools, talent, and technology that already exist — instead of grinding to invent your own from scratch.
But adoption has a prerequisite: adaptation. If you can't change, you can't adopt. And if you can't adopt, you're running the same race in last year's shoes while the rest of the field has moved to carbon plates.
Adapt and Adopt gives that instinct a framework: six simple machines, borrowed from the oldest engineering there is, retooled for the fastest-moving problems in business, government, and technology. No theory for its own sake — just leverage, applied.
Twelve chapters. Six machines.
Footracing Against Hypersonics
Why organizations that choose working harder over increasing leverage increasingly lose.
The Adapter's Advantage
Staying agile in a world that constantly asks for a five-year roadmap.
The Adopter's Advantage
The golden age of borrowing brilliance.
The Inclined Plane
Turning innovation conversion into downhill running.
Investment horizonsThe Lever
Move the needle with less force.
Outcome metricsThe Wheel
Why fast, bad, and wrong beats perfect.
Disruptive pilotingThe Screw
Going deeper by turning outward.
Structured challengesThe Wedge
The past is spending your future.
Structured divestmentsThe Pulley
One motion, less friction, more lift.
Strategy through executionSolving Integration
Combining tools for portfolios of excellence.
Retooling the Workforce
From a culture of activity to a culture of outcomes.
Bridge to the Impossible
Making the impossible routine at world scale.
A gallery of options.
Pick the one you'd grab off a shelf. Votes go straight to Justin — there's no public tally here, so vote your honest first instinct rather than the crowd's.
Your leverage story could be next
Every chapter in this book started as somebody's Tuesday. If a tool from Adapt and Adopt changed how your team ships, hires, migrates, or maneuvers past status quo — tell us. Early stories may be featured in future editions and on this page.
Be one of the first to share what worked.
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