The GOP — having lost Senator Arlen Specter to the Democrats yesterday — and Chrysler, which filed for bankruptcy this morning, both seem to be institutions undone by their own rigidity. They, as well as Fortune 500 giants such as General Motors and Sears and Citigroup , have failed to adapt quickly enough to changing times and circumstances. And in this unforgiving environment, they’re now paying bigtime.

Face it: In whatever sphere you operate in — business, politics, philanthropy — flexibility is more important than ever. If you get set in your ways or even make a firm plan for the future, you’re really steeling yourself against opportunity. I think a lot about what Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy said to me a few years ago: The future is increasingly unpredictable, so adaptability is a critical attribute of leadership. Yes, now more than ever.

I was thinking about adaptability and flexibility yesterday, in fact, when I visited Senator Olympia Snowe in Washington. Purely by coincidence, my visit was on the day that her bracingly critical op-ed about the sorry state of her party appeared in the New York Times. Our chat was off the record, but I can tell you that “rigidity” was front and center as she talked about the symptomatic weakness of the GOP. Snowe is sad about it and strongly urging, as she says, “an expansion of diversity within the party.”

I wonder, is it coincidence that the two Senators who have voted most often against their political party are women? These two Senators, according to a New York Times analysis of Congress’s current session, are Snowe and Susan Collins, also a Republican from Maine. Not that crossing the aisle is the best measure of flexibility, but it’s certainly a key measure. Do women, by virtue of bending and balancing and juggling multiple lives and careers, tend to be flexible? Maybe. All the better, for power and survival.