Research Thread · HBR / Egon Zehnder, February 2026
Resilience Won't Save Your Organization. Adaptability Will
What the research says
A useful provocation: traditional resilience assumes some kind of return to baseline. But when disruption is continuous, there may be no stable “before” to return to. Leaders need the capacity to continually rethink teams, assumptions, hiring, and how they themselves lead. A global CEO survey cited in the piece found 92% believed they needed to cultivate adaptability beyond anything previously imagined.
Why it matters for adaptivity · Institute interpretation
Don't just become better at recovering. Become better at evolving.
A question worth sitting with
What if the goal isn't to bounce back, but to become capable of what comes next?
Editorial note: this is HBR sponsored content from Egon Zehnder, rather than HBR research.
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A short note when a new thread is published: what the research says, why it matters for adaptivity, and a question worth sitting with.