Build for Tomorrow: Widening Your Bands to Adapt to Change with Jason Feifer

Change always happens, and we cannot always anticipate tomorrow’s needs. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t take control of our future. When you build for tomorrow, you can embrace change, grow from it, and walk your way toward success on your own terms. This is a compounding process, a skill you gain throughout life.

In this episode, Rosie speaks with Jason Feifer about his new book Build for Tomorrow. Jason identifies the one quality that makes successful people different: their adaptability to change. He lays down ways on how we can widen our bands to navigate the four phases of change. Jason calls us to become our own superforecaster by building on what we have. He also shares case studies and examples that will inspire you to build for tomorrow now.

If you want to know how to become more adaptable to change and reach success, this episode is for you!

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

Discover the four phases of change.
Learn the lesson behind the Gandhi test.
Find out sustainable ways to widen your bands and become more adaptable to change.

Resources

Connect with and learn more about Jason Feifer: Website | Instagram | Newsletter
Entrepreneur Magazine
Build for Tomorrow by Jason Feifer
Good Judgment
You Are Radically Loved by Rosie Acosta
Radically Loved is now part of the iHeartMedia Podcasts
Email us your topic at info@radicallyloved.com.
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Episode Highlights

[01:30] The Inspiration Behind Build for Tomorrow

[01:50] Jason: "If you listen to the questions that people ask you, what you realize is that people are actually telling you what they think your value is to them." - Click Here To Tweet This

As the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, people often ask Jason about the qualities of the most successful individuals.
The answer he came up with was adaptability. The most successful people are adaptable to change.
The book’s mission is to understand how people move through the four phases of panic, adaptation, new normal, and “wouldn’t go back” faster.

[02:46] Jason: "The great thing about knowing what your value is to people is that all you have to do is fulfill it. If you want to be valuable to people, and you know what they want from you, then go make sure that you've got a way to deliver that value." - Click Here To Tweet This

[04:48] Navigating the Four Phases of Change

Jason came up with different pathways to navigate the four phases of change by extracting lessons from people and marrying that with innovation.
Tune in to the full episode to hear Jason’s story about how a wig shop owner adapted to the pandemic!
Sometimes, you have to reconsider the impossible and just go for it.
We have a knowing problem—we think we know too much—that limits our options.

[09:23] Gandhi Test

Good Judgment is a forecasting company. Superforecasters are people who forecast the future through a long series of tests and data analysis.
Superforecasters are good pattern matchers with no biases and overconfidence.
The Gandhi test is the test for overconfidence. Do you know what year Gandhi was born? If not, what do you think was the earliest and latest year he was born?
The problem lies in the narrow range of guesses, which shows the attitude of not being respectful of what you don’t know.
The narrower the range of your guess is, the more overconfident you are.

[14:52] The Answer to the Gandhi Test

Widen your bands. We often approach problems with our bands too narrow.
If we don’t consider the information we don’t know, we’re more likely to make decisions on incorrect probabilities.
A narrow band makes us believe we know more than we do, even when we acknowledge we don’t.
If you don’t know enough, be willing to consider more information you otherwise wouldn’t have.

[15:02] Jason: “The problem is that we often approach problems with our bands too narrow. We do not consider the information that we don't know, and therefore, we make decisions based on probabilities that are incorrect." - Click Here To Tweet This

[17:46] How to Evaluate the Changes You Should Make

Write a pro-con list about it. Write the list, put it away, and make another list a week later.
Compare the lists to filter out noise. Find the patterns of what you value over time.
One of the best methods of improving is simply copy-pasting other people’s processes and identifying what works.
A great challenge we give ourselves is thinking of everything in terms of permanence. Instead, treat everything like an experiment.

[21:29] Why You Should Widen Your Bands

Giving yourself previews into what it would be like to make changes gives you more knowledge when deciding.
Wild problems are problems without one specific answer.
The best we can do is to be open that the best answers are perhaps ones we have left outside our original formula.

[22:45] Sustainable Ways to Widen Your Bands

Start now before you’re faced with a moment of change.
Think of yourself as constantly absorbing and exploring new options. You will feel more confident when you eventually face change or new opportunities and not use skills inappropriately.
The philosophy of working your next job is to explore other opportunities outside your present job.

[25:56] Jason: “This is the thing that we need to be creating for ourselves—these opportunities where we are learning and we're just opening doors that we didn't even know, we don't even know where the doors lead to.” - Click Here To Tweet This

When you’re open to opportunities, you expand how you think and open doors you didn’t know are possible. Tune in to the episode to hear an inspiring example!
The more doors you create, the more you have at your disposal to become stronger despite major changes.

[26:07] Jason: "The more doors that you can create, the more doors that you can fling open. And that is what enables you to then feel like when these major changes come, that you just have more available to you and that you have more at your disposal so that you can manage it and come out stronger." - Click Here To Tweet This

[26:44] Jason’s Favorite Out of the Four Phases of Change

Jason’s favorite phase is “panic” because it’s fascinating and funny to see it in yourself.
People panic because they equate change with loss. You don’t see gains right away the way you see losses.
Become your own superforecaster and build on what you have.
Listen to the full podcast to hear the story of change with the introduction of phonographs!
Amid the panic, we must widen our bands and consider things we don’t know.

About Jason

Jason Feifer is the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine. He hosts Entrepreneur’s podcast Problem Solvers, a show featuring entrepreneurs’ stories about coming out stronger from crippling business problems. Jason also hosts his own podcast Build For Tomorrow, exploring the smartest solutions to our most misunderstood problems. He wrote a book of the same title that serves as an action plan for adapting to and embracing change.

Jason is also a keynote speaker and startup advisor. As a nonstop optimism machine, he helps people become more resilient and adaptable in a world of constant change.

If you want to connect with Jason, visit his website and Instagram or subscribe to his newsletter.