Adaptability in Talent Development

Esther Jackson

• Publisher: Association for Talent Development
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781952157523
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Boost Your Adaptability
Adaptability is a critical skill for leadership capability, career potential, and working relationships. Therefore, it is vital for talent development (TD) professionals who face countless situations that test their ability to adapt—from reacting to unplanned modifications in the training they design, to implementing new learning technologies, to adjusting to their organization's shifting needs.
Part of the ATD Soft Skills Series, Adaptability in Talent Development will empower you to build career resiliency by matching your technical expertise with newfound soft skill abilities. TD expert Esther Jackson takes you through a process of raising your self-awareness and developing an adaptive mindset. This means embracing feedback, recognizing your mistakes, and turning them into learning and development moments. You will discover ways to get out of your comfort zone, welcome chances to innovate or disrupt and embrace new projects. By the end, you will be equipped to level up your TD efforts and adapt your career for whatever comes next.
Included are guiding questions and tools to build your adaptability value proposition for whatever TD role you may hold.
Other books in the series:

• Emotional Intelligence in Talent Development
• Creativity in Talent Development
• Teamwork in Talent Development
• Influence in Talent Development

CHAPTER 1

The Subtle Art of Adaptability

A carpenter’s passion was the building block of the successful woodworking shop he founded in 1916, producing furniture such as ladders, stools, and ironing boards. Almost 10 years later, his sons started an accidental fire that caused all his dreams and his home to go up in flames. Instead of quitting, he decided to build a larger workshop. Almost 10 years after that, his wife passed away. During this time, he also encountered financial hardship with the business. Because of the loss he experienced, the woodshop owner decided to create inexpensive products such as cheap toys, which led him into bankruptcy. Refusing to give up his passion, he continued with his company and renamed it to reflect its new direction. The new name was taken from leg godt, which was Latin for “play well.” The company became known as LEGO, and Ole Kirk Christiansen, the woodshop owner, persevered with adaptability to become an industry giant.

What Does Adaptability Mean?

Adaptability, and its appearance in humans and all other species, has been a topic of discussion for millennia. In fact, Aristotle and Empedocles were two Greek philosophers who introduced us to adaptation. Aristotle posited that an organism’s features and characteristics are a result of environmental influences. These influences inform our understanding of adaptability.

As we get into the subtle art of adaptability, let’s revisit what adaptability is—the ability to respond to unanticipated changes or new conditions in our environment. Often, flexibility and versatility are also thrown around as synonyms. However, for the context of this book, I have come to view them slightly differently. At a basic level, flexibility is having the ability to change or be changed easily based on the situation. Versatility means having a variety of abilities. I also like the distinction that Tony Alessandra and Michael J. O’Connor make between flexibility and versatility in their book The Platinum Rule (1998): They explain flexibility as your attitude or willingness to adapt, while versatility is your ability to adapt.

Based on Alessandra and O’Connor’s explanation of flexibility and versatility as two components of adaptability, we can gain greater appreciation for adaptability at work personally and professionally. These components not only contribute to our description of adaptability, but also give us a view of it as something within our power to control. Of course, we know that unanticipated changes cannot be controlled. That leaves our response to those unanticipated changes as the thing within our control.

When I was laid off almost 10 years ago, I encountered a situation for some self-discovery with my flexibility and versatility. During my time with the city government, I received multiple promotions working in the training division for our HR department. We conducted training for more than 14,000 city employees. Then, because of budget cuts, they dissolved the training division. After nearly 15 years, this came as a shock, although I should have seen it coming. They offered me a demotion with a $30,000 pay cut, which would allow me to keep my benefits and remain on the payroll in a permanent position. I declined and decided to focus on increasing my marketability and putting my job search into overdrive. One week after I declined the demotion, they offered me a contractual role at my previous salary, but with no benefits. I thought it over, prayed about it, and decided to accept this contractual role as an instructional designer for the human resource information system (HRIS) implementation project in the IT department.

In the new role, I used more blended learning approaches and more advanced technology, worked with a multicultural staff at a different location, and focused more on technical training. I viewed this as an opportunity to rise to the challenge, because it was completely outside my area of expertise and comfort zone. I had the versatility. I knew that I could learn whatever I put my mind to, and I was acutely aware of my potential at the time. I did not view this change as the opportunity it eventually turned out to be for my career. Yet, on reflection, it became a testament to my adaptability, flexibility, and versatility. Your adaptability journey will require looking to your past experiences and reactions, because they will inform how you’re able to adapt in the future.

It’s a Matter of Perception and Perspective

Perception and perspective are two driving factors for adaptability. Perception is the mental grasp you have of something through the use of your senses, while your perspective is your point of view. I held the belief that the lens through which I was viewing the world ultimately shaped my interpretation of that view. However, that is not the case. It is actually your perception that dictates your perspective.

In The Seven Habits of Effective People, Stephen R. Covey tells a poignant story that captures perception and perspective. Two battleships are at sea and are experiencing severe weather. A signalman reports to the captain that he sees a light. When the captain inquires, the signalman informs the captain that another ship appears to be on a collision course with them. The captain instructs the signalman to advise the other ship to change course by 20 degrees. The other ship signals back with the same, advising to change course by 20 degrees. The captain tells the signalman, “Send, ‘I’m a captain; change course 20 degrees.’” They receive a reply, “I’m a seaman second class, who advises that they change course 20 degrees.” In an outrage, the captain instructs the signalman to send the message that they are a battleship, so the other ship should change course. The seaman responds with a flashing light: “I’m a lighthouse.” The captain realized his ship had to change course. Covey shares the story to explain the importance of being open to a paradigm shift. His idea of a paradigm shift requires the willingness to re-evaluate one’s perception and adjust your perspective as needed.

My initial experience with ATD created a vivid personal picture of perception and perspective. When I was in the city government position, my manager, Mr. Bridges, encouraged me to join our local ATD chapter. This was just a short time after I’d earned a master’s degree in instructional technology. He explained that this would be a great move for my career, my network, and my exposure to what is current in training and development. I took his advice, as I usually did, and decided to attend a chapter meeting. Based on this experience, I joined the chapter, only to find out that my job was discontinuing reimbursements for professional memberships because of budget cuts. That did it for me. I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of this added expense, considering my salary at the time.

Some years later, my perception changed when I experienced the layoff mentioned previously. I went from viewing a potential ATD Detroit chapter membership as an expense to viewing it as an essential investment in enhancing my marketability. Instead of walking away, I ran to ATD Detroit with a new perception that affected my perspective. How was I able to do this? It was due to my perception of the situation. The reality I was seeing dictated my point of view.

Reflect on situations you have encountered in your life where your perspective was not too favorable because your perception was negative. Now think about how your perspective might have been different if you’d been able to improve your perception—your adaptability.

Consider This

• How do I define adaptability?

• Where can I see evidence of my ability to adapt?

How We Respond to Uncertainty and Adversity

In his book No Limits, John Maxwell (2017) states, “The greatest separator between successful and unsuccessful people is how they deal with and explain their failures, problems, and difficulties.” There is usually a story we tell ourselves regarding what we are experiencing amid adversity or unanticipated changes. Ole Kirk Christiansen could have told himself that his woodworking business was over or that it wasn’t meant to be. But no. The story he told himself was one that had to inspire and drive him to keep going when situations were uncertain and obstacles were frequent. Regardless of how well the story is told, the question centers on what kind of story you are telling yourself. Amid change, we learn about who we are.

Changes create challenges or disruptions that require us to respond. Change is inevitable and it can happen in a variety of ways. At work, it could be a job change, process change, new team member, company merger, new product line, or business closure. In our personal lives, it could be having a child, starting college, getting lost, dealing with a car accident, or losing a loved one. How we respond is usually the result of our past experiences, education, and emotional state.

Adaptability often comes down to how we deal with times of uncertainty. Situations that make us feel unsure of a predictable future and as though we have no control leave us uncomfortable. They might even feel dangerous to us. Dealing with the unknown, or the lack of a clear picture of what is going to happen, forces us to rely on past experience or let our imagination have its way. In these instances, our mental strength is challenged. People may resort to trying to capture some aspect of control over events or other people, or they may revert to shutting down. Letting go is also a type of response. This could be letting go of:

• The need for things to go a certain way

• The idea that things should go as you imagine

• Things you don’t actually control

• People who are not good for you

• A job that no longer makes you happy

• A negative story you may be telling yourself

Think about a time when the root of your problem was refusing to let go of the idea that you have to get everything right or be right all the time. This worked in my favor when I was rejected a second time for a proposal that I believed was very well written and met more than the requirements. I let go of the thought that I would never get the approval or proposals would continue to be rejected because I didn’t have what it took. Letting go is a positive course of action, unlike shutting down, which happens when uncertainty causes us to feel overwhelmed. To avoid the worry, frustration, stress, and other feelings that can overwhelm us, we can identify how adaptability skills benefit us in uncertain times.

We can learn more about our individual ability to adapt by closely examining common negative and positive responses when we face adversity or a change. Negative responses or thoughts might include:

• “I knew something would go wrong.”

• “I’m just not cut out for this.”

• “That’s too much to handle.”

• “I don’t see how we can make this work.”

• “It sounded too good to be true.”

• “Well, someone else needs to figure out a way out of this.”

How many times do you recall yourself stating or thinking along these lines when you were dealing with a situation that seemed like it was too much for you to handle? This is not to say that if you’ve ever had these thoughts, you’re lacking in adaptability. But if you have a pattern of this line of responding or thinking, it’s worth exploring. These responses can be observed in behavior—it might be stressing out, getting frustrated, shutting down, or being pessimistic. Booker T. Washington said, “I have begun everything with the idea that I could succeed, and I never had much patience with the multitudes of people who are always ready to explain why one cannot succeed.” Usually, it is easy for us to recognize patterns of negativity in others. It takes intentionality to reflect on our own behavior to see if there is opportunity for improvement in this area.

On the flip side, positive types of responses that are characteristic of individuals with high adaptability skills include:

• “Things will work out. Let’s rethink this.”

• “I was built for this.”

• “I can figure out a way to handle this.”

• “We can do this. There must be a way to make this work.”

• “I think this is an opportunity to try something different.”

• “Give me some time to think this through and come up with another option.”

Are these your default responses to adversity? As I mentioned, we are talking about a pattern of behavior or line of thinking indicative of someone with high adaptability skills. Such behaviors can include thinking out of the box, stepping out of your comfort zone, being willing to learn something new, or quickly adjusting when transitioning among multiple tasks.

Here’s a situation where I was forced to turn the magnifying glass on my own behavior. I was working on contract with the city for a special project for an HRIS implementation. I was one instructional designer on a team of three, and I enjoyed the role despite the extreme change from my previous role in HR. The project reached a point where a new system was selected for the implementation, and an external consulting company was coming in to manage it for the whole city. Our team was asked to gather all source documents, files, spreadsheets, and custom work we created so they could be provided to the external team, which would take over what we were doing. That was a major change, and I told myself once again that I had stayed with the city too long.

We had our watercooler talks and the feeling was mutual on our team that it was a problem to just package everything nicely for others to walk in and take over. Of course, it felt worse for me, because I was the only one on our team who had been laid off and was working on contract. At first, I could not bring myself to get on board with this change. But then I realized I had to re-evaluate and reflect on what I was thinking and saying. Th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Series
• Series Foreword
• Introduction
• Part 1. The Case for Adaptability
• Part 2. Putting Adaptability Into Practice
• Appendix
• References
• Index
• About the Author
• Back Cover