The adaptability skills you need to thrive in the new normal
The Grattan Institute’s report, Coming out of COVID-19 Lockdown (June, 2020), says we are transitioning to a ‘new normal’, and are currently in a phase with “no endpoint unless a vaccine is found”. Depending on what source you read, researchers suggest it will take 6-18 months (yes six to eighteen) for a COVID-19 vaccine to be available. This is a long time to be living with fluctuations in change – particularly as countries frequently change the content of their quarantine measures and what behaviours citizens should follow. And even if and when a vaccine does become available, will we see businesses return to ‘normal’? That is, the ways of working pre-COVID or will organisations continue to evolve and adapt, building on their learnings from the COVID period?
The need for employee adaptability
Being faced with a virus that threatens our safety needs, our sense of love and belonging, and esteem (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) has challenged us personally and professionally. People have extrapolated, on some level, to imagine what the future and life beyond the pandemic might look like: the ‘new normal’. The need for a defined ‘new normal’, and a sense of control and stability, is understandable. But this ‘new normal’ is often talked about in terms of it being a final phase, strategic goal or even idealistic outcome.
While organisations are evolving their work environments in response to the pandemic and establishing a path forward, preparing employees for ongoing change and enabling them to become more adaptable is equally important. Why the need to grow our adaptability muscle? Because our societal, technological and economic environments are rapidly changing even more so post COVID. Organisations need to not only survive, but thrive and so must their employees.
Adaptability to change, and our responses
Many articles about the ‘new normal’ are written without concepts around employee adaptability yet work is often in a constant state of change, whether internal or as a product of the environment it operates in. Change can challenge our conscious and unconscious thoughts, feelings and behaviours, physical and psychological resources, which at times can have detrimental effects. Yet when we are able to strengthen and leverage these, it can enable the ability to deal with change in a more sustainable and beneficial manner.
Understanding our response to change and strengthening our resources can lead to improved outcomes. Identifying the benefits of change can be challenging at times however can also provide a clearer perspective. When there is a tendency to ‘catastrophise’ about the change, firstly awareness is important, and secondly anchoring back to the known versus the unknown can assist. Eliminating poor coping strategies and replacing with effective mechanisms can also support our adaptability muscle growth.
Where to begin?
With this in mind, take a moment to reflect on your own readiness for change:
How do you respond to change?
What are some of the emotions you have experienced in relation to change in the past, and how have you managed these?
What will you keep doing and what will you do differently to build your adaptability muscle?
Consider how change affects those around you too.
Some suggested strategies for flexing to change and building your adaptability muscle are outlined below.
Individual strategies
Maintain supportive and close relationships with family, friends, colleagues or other important people. Research shows how resilient you feel can depend on the strength of your sense of connectedness
Be curious and stay open minded when it comes to change. Look for the positives in change, taking the perspective that change is not always a loss and can be an opportunity
Work to understand other peoples’ perspectives of change, being supportive where you can be
Create dialogue inviting others to ask questions, share emotions, experiences, and insights
Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems and try to keep things in perspective
Stay open to adjusting your style to changing situations, and revise or iterate your plans where necessary
Treat mistakes as opportunities for learning and growth – punishment or chastise helps no one and damages relationships and morale
Chunk goals down into small achievable tasks so that you can make a start – even if you don’t know what the ending is going to look like!
Remember to celebrate your wins along the way and show your appreciation to those who contributed to your success
Team focused strategies
Checking in with your team beyond the superficial – do a “getting to know you better” exercise that encourages safe sharing of broader life interests and aspirations, or ask “how are YOU?”. If they say very little, encourage them to give you 3 or more adjectives to describe how they are currently feeling. Hear, acknowledge and be respectful of others’ concerns, which could be just the same as yours or quite different
Communicate, communicate, communicate! It’s common to fear being left out of the loop, so work hard to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone in your team or stakeholder set
Provide clear, consistent and frequent messaging about upcoming changes. Speak to any associated ambiguity and highlight your confidence in the team’s track record in working through previous changes
Establish new or altered ways of working well together to suit the changed circumstances, e.g. facilitate a session to establish/re-establish group norms
Ensure communication processes are in place so that people know which ones to use and when, and ensure stakeholders know them too (e.g. when to email vs text vs instant message)
Keep updated with the changing external influences and pressures facing the team and organisation, so as to help the team contextualise their work and share a positive mindset
Use team meetings and 1:1s to ask Who? What? When? Why? How? Questions
Investing in readiness for change to enable employees to strengthen their adaptability muscle provides a more sustainable and enduring workforce, to flex as the business requires – leading to talent retention and improved ROI. Identification of skills development must consider organisational, team and individual perspectives to optimise outcomes which may then determine the appropriate learning options being internal or external means.
Act now!
We are all faced with change, in both our professional and personal lives. Strengthening your ability to adapt will put you on the front foot for dealing with a broad range of scenarios, and ultimately enable you to achieve greater success. So... what's one thing you will do today to build your adaptability muscle?
Reference
Grattan Institute, Coming out of COVID-19 Lockdown report, released 22 June 2020. https://grattan.edu.au/report/coming-out-of-covid/