IQ, EQ … and now AQ? Meet the 'agility quotient' built for an age of uncertainty

The rise of AI has made "change" a word of everyday life. In just a few years, AI has upended how people live and work, reshaped labor markets and rewritten the rules of entire industries. Jobs and roles that seemed permanent until yesterday are being redefined overnight, and a pervasive anxiety about what tomorrow might bring prompts a question many now ask themselves: "How much longer can I keep doing what I do?"

Change rarely announces itself. From sweeping technological shifts that remake the world to something as mundane as a subway train stalling on the morning commute, we navigate constant uncertainty — large and small. What these disruptions share is a single trait: they give no time to prepare. The real question, then, is not how accurately we can predict change, but how quickly we can adapt once it arrives.

In an era when no profession can guarantee its own permanence, individuals and organizations alike must find ways to reinvent themselves. Change, of course, rarely feels anything but daunting. Liz Tran, a Silicon Valley leadership coach who has worked alongside leaders at Meta, Apple and Anthropic for more than 15 years, argues that the defining competency for this moment is AQ — Agility Quotient. After the age of IQ and then EQ, she contends, the ability to navigate change and uncertainty has become the most essential quality a person can possess.

"We can no longer plant both feet firmly on the ground in a world that never stops shifting," the author writes. "Now we must learn to take flight."

Building AQ begins with understanding your own tendencies, because people meet life's waves in very different ways. Tran identifies four personality types: the "neurosurgeon," who pursues diligence and perfectionism but shies away from change; the "novelist," who turns vision into reality but is thrown off by unexpected disruptions; the "firefighter," who holds steady in a crisis but is so focused on putting out the nearest blaze that long-term foresight suffers; and the "astronaut," who is passionate and bold but prone to missing the details.

People's responses to unplanned change, Tran argues, typically move through three stages: avoidance, in which change is rejected outright; struggle, in which a person fights to resolve the situation; and "full AQ," in which change is wholly embraced. The hallmark of that final stage is a shift in the questions one asks — replacing "why is this happening to me?" with "how can this work in my favor?"

"At this stage, you no longer resist change or try to force your way through it," the author explains. "Whatever happens, you look for the positive within it and accept it."

How does one reach full AQ? Tran offers four practical tools: an Anchor — the people, places and routines that steady us when we feel unmoored; Betting — expanding one's world by embracing novelty; a Classroom mindset — treating every moment in life, large or small, as an opportunity to learn; and Discomfort — the willingness to accept what is unwelcome.

Today's careers are breaking free of the traditional notion of a stable, linear path. According to Harvard research, the shelf life of technical skills needed for a specific job is now less than five years. With AI on course to surpass human technical ability in virtually every domain, Tran argues that people must use AQ as the foundation for cultivating the distinctly human potential that machines cannot replicate.

If change is the only constant, what is needed, the author contends, is the courage to dream of a leap — and then take the first step.

"In an age of breathtaking transformation, we must learn to navigate off the beaten path," Tran writes. "The more uncertain the future, the more your greatest asset is becoming someone who can perform even when caught completely off guard."

"AQ: Agility Quotient" by Liz Tran, translated by Han Mi-seon, published by RH Korea