Resilience Rewired: Building Strength and Adaptability in IT

Summary

Landon Miles discusses how IT professionals can build resilience and adaptability in both their systems and personal lives in this inspiring episode of Hands-On IT. Focusing on the four key pillars of learning, creativity, documentation, and reflection, Landon breaks down practical strategies that empower IT professionals to tackle challenges, drive innovation, and grow professionally. 

Whether you're looking to create adaptable IT solutions, enhance your problem-solving skills, or kick-start habits that fuel long-term personal development, this episode offers actionable advice you can put into practice right away.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome back to the Hands-On IT podcast! I’m your host, Landon Miles, and as always, we’re here to explore the world of IT and the lessons we can learn to become just a little smarter, more adaptive, and resilient—not just in our work, but in life itself.

This podcast is part of Automox’s Autonomous IT podcast network - so be sure to subscribe and check out new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. 

Today’s topic gets right to the heart of what I’ve been thinking about as we kick off another year—resilience and adaptability. We’ve all heard about how vital it is to build resilience in IT systems and workflows to deal with unexpected changes, right? But here’s the thing—resilience isn’t just about the tools and solutions we implement at work; it’s also about how we as people build strength, flexibility, and adaptability into our own routines.

Being resilient isn’t just about surviving the tough stuff—it’s about structuring your life and work in a way that makes you stronger, smarter, and more creative as you adapt to whatever comes your way. The same goes for adaptability! It’s not about resisting change but rolling with it and coming out ahead.

Today, we’re going to talk about four key pillars of resilience and adaptability—and these apply equally to your IT systems and your day-to-day life. Think of it as a New Year’s reset for the brain. Those pillars are Learn, Create, Document, and Reflect. 

Alright, ready? Notebook in hand—or at least your favorite note-taking app? Or if not, you can throw the transcript into your favorite LLM of choice, and make some notes that way. It is 2025, after all.

Learn

The first pillar of the unofficial Hands-On IT guide to resilience and adaptability is learning. And when I say learning, I mean becoming a lifelong learner.

Here’s the thing, whether you’re working in IT or any other field, the moment you stop learning, you start falling behind. Technology evolves every day—it’s a given. Yesterday, it was all about cloud migrations, and today, we’re talking AI governance and quantum computing. Who knows what tomorrow holds?

But this doesn’t mean you need to treat learning like a chore. Think of it as curiosity with purpose. You don’t need to master every topic out there—just pick what aligns with your role or sparks your interest. Maybe you schedule time each week to mess around with a new tool, take a free online course, or read that tech blog you’ve been bookmarking for weeks. Make it fun. Start with curiosity and follow it wherever it leads.

Even outside of IT, learning builds adaptability. When you learn new skills, explore hobbies, or ask questions, you’re literally training your brain to seek patterns and create solutions. The more you do, the easier it becomes to tackle challenges when they pop up at work—or anywhere else.

Take action this week. Be curious - go down a wikipedia rabbit hole, start a book, or try something new. Start with just five minutes a day. That’s it!

Create

Our second pillar is Create. And no, I don't mean churn out PowerPoints like your career depends on it—though, if that’s what excites you, go for it! No judgement here.

The idea here is deeper—leaving space for creativity. Creativity is essential, not just for designers or engineers but for anyone in IT or tech. Building resilient solutions often requires creative problem-solving—sometimes you need to think outside the script, literally. But this applies to more than work. Creativity is personal fuel.

Think about the last time you really got into a creative flow for anything. You might’ve been troubleshooting a quirky issue at work or tinkering with your smart home setup at home. That time you repurposed an old PC for a home server? That counts. Or maybe it’s not even tech-related—maybe you fixed something, created something, cooked, or solved a problem in a new way. That’s creativity!

The point is, creativity connects you to why you do what you do. And it’s adaptable. It can spark innovation, remind you why you love your field, or just give you a mental break when work feels like it’s on fire and not in a fun way.

Here’s my recommendation. Schedule room to be creative. Find time to create something solely for the joy of it. You'll be amazed by how much it opens your mind to new solutions. If you don’t have a hobby that exercises those creative muscles, it’s never too late to start.

Document

On to Document. This one’s important. We’ve talked about this in previous podcasts, but mainly it’s because I’m REALLY bad at this one. 

Documentation is like a safety net for both your systems and your future self. At work, it’s about resilience—outlining the why and how behind what you're doing for the next person or the "you" six months from now who won’t remember a single detail. It can be as basic as organizing notes, setting up a wiki, writing a markdown file, or leaving comments in your code.

Good documentation isn’t just about processes—it’s about telling a story. And that applies to your personal life too. Think about journaling, keeping track of big ideas, or even snapping screenshots of moments you want to revisit. Documentation creates clarity and connection. It forces you to slow down just long enough to make sense of what’s happening.

Personal documentation is a great habit to get into also. Taking pictures, notes, and creating lists about things you want to do is a great way to get started. 

Whether it’s short notes on the content you consume (books. Podcasts, tv shows, movies), or even screenshots of a restaurant you liked, these can be just as useful as the documentation you make for work. 

Things will change or break, and when they do, good documentation ensures you and your team can realign faster. There’s a famous saying that “A dull pencil is better than the sharpest mind.” To put that into the world of IT, a few extra clicky-clacks of a keyboard now saves you a lot of late-night clicky-clacks later. 

Start small. Find one thing you did this week you think you'll forget—and write it down. Trust me, Future You will say thanks.

Reflect

Finally, we have Reflect. Reflection is the simplest, most powerful adaptability tool out there.

Here’s the thing—if you never stop to look around, how will you know where you’re heading? Reflection is about taking a step back to assess what’s working, what isn’t, and where you want to go next. And it applies both to your work and your life.

Personally, I like to end my day by asking myself one thing I learned, something I messed up, and what I’m grateful for. Professionally, I’ll look at projects and ask simple questions like “What went well?” “What were the gaps?” and “What can we do better next time?”

You can start this practice any time, but since we’re at the start of a new year, why not start now? 

Reflection doesn’t have to be formal. It’s about mental space. Maybe for you, it’s hanging out with a cup of coffee before work and replaying the last week in your mind. Or maybe you want to go full-on charts and visuals—whatever works.

Reflection is how you adapt. It’s how you learn from both the tough challenges and the hidden wins. And when the unexpected hits—and it will—it’s how you recalibrate.

Take a moment this week. Reflect—whether it’s on a project that didn’t go well or just on a setting some time aside to let your brain wander to big ideas about the future.

What’s your plan to build resilience and adaptability this year? I’d love to hear it—drop by LinkedIn, the Automox Community, or wherever else you find me online and tell me what you’re working on. And if this episode sparked something for you, maybe share it with a friend who might need it too.

I’m Landon Miles, this is Hands-On IT. Keep learning, stay curious, and never forget to leave a little room for creativity in your day. Thanks for listening!