Deliberate Calm: How to Learn and Lead in a Volatile World

by Jacqueline Brassey

This unfamiliar context is what we call the Adaptive Zone. In order to succeed in this zone, we must adapt, break free of our established patterns and habits, open our minds, learn new things, and even find new ways of learning and collaborating. In the Adaptive Zone, there is a tremendous opportunity for creativity, growth, innovation, and true transformation, but there is also risk of failure and stagnation if we fail to learn and change. It all depends on how well we navigate this zone and if we can avoid the natural tendencies that are likely to keep us stuck.

This book is written for people who want to enhance their capacity to face challenging situations with an open mind, to adapt as individuals, and to have a positive impact on our increasingly volatile world so they can lead in a sustainable way. Practicing Deliberate Calm can help anyone navigate challenges with courage, creativity, purpose, authenticity, and adaptability, precisely at a time when it is most difficult to do so. Based on our decades of work supporting executives facing everyday stressors, their biggest, most complex challenges, and full-blown crisis situations, we have developed a unique approach to observing our external and internal worlds and to opening our minds and learning despite the chaos around us. We have found that this creates an extraordinary multiplier effect for both our inner growth and our ability to lead in the midst of volatility and complexity.

high-stakes Familiar Zone, we can get into a state of flow, which requires deep, single-minded concentration. According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a flow state has the following characteristics: we have clear goals, time speeds up or slows down, the experience is intrinsically rewarding, we experience effortlessness and ease, there is a balance between our challenge