Adaptation is a process of change directed toward improving the 'fit' between a system and its environment. Adaptation may be a question of survival, of growth and development or of preference. The process depends on feedback (either positive or negative) to tell which alterations work best in the given environmental conditions. The process may take place in seconds, such as when our eyes adjust to a darkened room, or it may take generations such as in a society which develops the customs and crafts which fit it to its climate, its terrain or its neighbors. It may involve the actions of a single organism or individual or a collection: a biological colony or ecosystem or a human organization. Much of what has been learned about adaptation comes from biology and ecology.
Individual organisms adapt and evolve as they become more complex and as their environment changes. Failure to adapt on the part of a biological organism leads to death or extinction. The failure of an organization to adapt leads to bankruptcy, irrelevance or being voted or booted out of power. Successful adaptation carries with it the risk of overspecialization. A certain amount of margin for error and flexibility is required to detect incipient instability and to adjust to change.
Adaptation cannot take place unless it is possible to recognize the desirable or stable state from which to move. An organism or an organization which is hit by new disturbances before it has had an opportunity to recover from previous ones has no stable state to use as a reference point from which to learn and to change appropriately. Catatonic responses in animals and alienation or cargo culture shifts in human societies are symptomatic of a rate of 'change which generates feelings of loss of control and of the capacity to adapt
# SOURCE Adaptation comes from a Latin word meaning 'to fit'. Further information can be found in: Sommerhoff, G. (1950). Analytical Biology. London: Oxford University Press. DuBos, R. (1965). Man Adapting. New Haven: Yale University Press. Holland, J. (1975). Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems: an Introductory Analysis with Applications to Biology, Control and Artificial Intelligence. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
# EXAMPLES • a retail shop which changes its inventory in response to the demographics of its neighborhood • a soccer team responding to a style of play it has not encountered before from its opposition a salamander able to change color to match its background • an individual who becomes accustomed to working a night shift instead of a day shift # NON-EXAMPLES • a manufacturer who does not alter his product line to keep up with new technology • a charity which does not redefine its mission as needs for non-profit services change • a biological organism which becomes overspedalized and loses its environmental niche in a climactic change • an organization whose environment is changing so rapidly that it cannot recognize the point of stability from which it can institute adaptive processes # PROBABLE ERROR • Believing that the changes observed are accurately perceived and adequately accounted for by new tactics and strategies