Bend, Don't Break
How to Adapt in the New World of Work
Treating adaptability as an essential self-improvement tool at work and at home, Bend, Don’t Break is an encouraging self-help guide.
Matt A. West’s piquing self-help book Bend, Don’t Break suggests that adaptability is the key to thriving in ever-changing work landscapes.
The book posits that there are four key tenets to honing growth and adaptation in the face of artificial intelligence and other rapid technological advancements, progressing from addressing one’s roots (“your foundation: your purpose, values, and strengths”) to pruning, cultivation, and the growth of one’s “branches” (“how you stretch, grow, and respond to the world around you”). Traits including agility and flexibility are centered in its optimistic philosophy on work, which focuses on resiliency and open-mindedness. Weekly journaling prompts address challenges and possible changes to one’s behaviors, making its perspectives actionable.
As the book maps its Adaptability System, which is internally represented by a tree, its section breakdowns include clear explanations and invitations to participate. For example, when the “Adaptability Resistance Map” is introduced, chapters are devoted to each of the four loops, or patterns, that develop over time. The chapters end with challenges, too, including questions like “What triggers your rigidity?” and the suggestion to implement a perfected project to gain feedback.
Nature metaphors remain pervasive beyond the central tree image: A squirrel is depicted darting into the road rather than reading the movement of cars to support the book’s exploration of agility, for example; personal memories, as of the changing seasons in Colorado, are also used to illustrate otherwise abstract concepts. Complex psychological topics, including cognitive closure and emotional elasticity, are delved into as well, and they are defined in an intelligible manner.
Each subsection ties back to the central argument that adaptability is an essential workplace tool. Intermingled with the general concept of adaptation are arguments for accepting AI and learning how to meet the new technological age. Indeed, discussions of AI are integrated into most of the chapters, made to relate to whichever topic is being discussed. When contrasting agility and AI, focusing on the speed of completion is tossed out in favor of “discernment in motion,” with the book encouraging correction and redirection rather than accepting AI assistance at face value. In the end, though, the book’s self-improvement guidance is disproportionate to its workplace-specific advice. For example, in addressing growth, most of the focus is placed on personal habits and internal change, though some workplace stories are included.
Bend, Don’t Break is an innovative self-help book about nurturing adaptability in the technological age.
Reviewed by
Jennifer Maveety
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
