Adaptability Skills at Work: Change Mindset, Emotional Agility and Flexible Thinking – Paris, 12–16 Jul 2027

Programme overview

Introduction:

Adaptability skills at work decide whether a new system, restructure or role change lifts output or stalls it. When employees meet each shift with confusion, old routines and silent pushback, rollouts slip and good people disengage. This Core Concept course builds adaptability skills and a change mindset in individual contributors: reading their own reactions to change, shifting perspective, handling uncertainty, learning unfamiliar tools and roles quickly, dropping outdated habits and joining new teams with confidence. Participants rehearse in unfolding change simulations and finish with a Personal Adaptability Plan for a real change they currently face.

Course Objectives:

• Assess their own adaptive performance across the dimensions of the Job Adaptability Inventory and identify priority gaps
• Recognise where they sit on the change curve and in the Bridges transition model during a live workplace change
• Apply cognitive flexibility and reframing techniques to reinterpret disruptive events and generate alternative courses of action
• Label emotions triggered by change precisely and choose values-anchored actions instead of reactive ones
• Learn new tools, procedures and role expectations quickly while retiring habits that no longer fit
• Build a Personal Adaptability Plan with actions, support and check-in points for a real change

Target Audience:

• Specialists and technical staff whose tools, systems or procedures are being replaced or upgraded
• Administrative and operations staff moving into restructured units, merged teams or new reporting lines
• Individual contributors taking on a new role, expanded remit or cross-functional project assignment
• Customer-facing staff adjusting to new service channels, scripts or digital platforms
• Early-career and recently transferred employees settling into unfamiliar teams and ways of working

Course Outline:

Day 1: Adaptability at Work and Personal Reactions to Change

• Pulakos Adaptive Performance Dimensions in Everyday Jobs
• Job Adaptability Inventory Self-Rating and Personal Adaptability Profile
• Change Curve Mapping: Shock, Resistance, Exploration and Acceptance
• Bridges Transition Model: Endings, Neutral Zone and New Beginnings
• Personal Change Inventory: Role, Tool, Team and Structure Shifts

Day 2: Mindset, Cognitive Flexibility and Emotional Agility Models

• Fixed and Growth Mindset Signals When Facing Unfamiliar Work
• Set Shifting and the Martin and Rubin Cognitive Flexibility Scale
• Budner Ambiguity Tolerance Scale and Threat Versus Opportunity Appraisal
• Emotional Agility Sequence: Showing Up, Stepping Out, Labelling and Acting on Values
• Emotion Granularity Wheel for Naming Change Reactions Precisely

Day 3: Reframing, Rapid Learning and Unlearning Old Routines

• Reframing Canvas: Alternative Interpretations of a Disruptive Event
• Rapid Onboarding Sprint for a New Tool or System: Explore, Try, Review
• Role Transition Checklist: Expectations, Key Contacts and Early Wins
• Habit Unlearning Plan: Cue Replacement and Retiring Outdated Routines
• Values Card Sort for Anchoring Choices During Change

Day 4: Uncertainty, New Teams and Flexible Problem Solving

• Assumption Log and Small-Step Experiments When Information Is Incomplete
• Joining a New or Cross-Functional Team: Working Agreements and Communication Preferences
• Interpersonal and Cultural Adaptability in Hybrid and Remote Work Patterns
• Multiple-Option Generation and Pre-Mortem for Flexible Problem Solving
• Adaptability Derailers: Over-Adapting, Change Fatigue and Rigid Routines

Day 5: Change Simulations and the Personal Adaptability Plan

• Unfolding Simulation: New System Rollout With Shifting Priorities
• Restructure Simulation: New Manager, Merged Team and Revised Responsibilities
• Personal Adaptability Plan Drafting for a Real Workplace Change
• Peer Coaching Triads: Plan Challenge and Feedback
• Ninety-Day Adaptability Check-In Schedule and Progress Indicators

Skills You Will Gain:

• Adaptive Performance Self-Assessment
• Transition Awareness
• Cognitive Reframing
• Emotional Labelling
• Ambiguity Tolerance
• Rapid Tool and Role Onboarding
• Habit Unlearning
• Cross-Team Integration

Why Attend This Course:

• Leave with a Personal Adaptability Plan for a change you are facing now, already tested by peer coaches
• Know your own adaptability profile and the reactions that usually slow you down when work shifts
• Rehearse a system rollout and a restructure in simulations before living through the real thing
• Swap practical adaptation tactics with employees from other sectors and organisations going through similar shifts

Conclusion:

Adaptability is a set of observable skills that employees can assess, practise and strengthen. The week moves from adaptive performance dimensions and personal reactions on the change curve, through cognitive flexibility, ambiguity tolerance and emotional agility, to reframing, rapid onboarding and habit unlearning, then to working with incomplete information, joining new teams and solving problems flexibly. The final day applies these skills in change simulations and produces a Personal Adaptability Plan with a ninety-day check-in schedule.