Adaptability at Work: The Real Skill for Thriving in Change

A few years ago, I was driving to meet a friend for dinner somewhere I’d never been before.

It was one of those damp, slightly gloomy evenings when everything feels unfamiliar. Without really thinking, I put the address into the sat nav and followed the instructions exactly as it told me to.

Until it confidently directed me straight towards a brick wall.

The road it thought existed… didn’t anymore.

Sitting there, mildly panicked and mildly annoyed, I realised something that shows up again and again in working life. When it comes to adaptability at work, the problem isn’t usually effort or intelligence — it’s that we’re following instructions designed for a world that’s already moved on.

That moment has stayed with me. Because it turns out it’s a pretty good metaphor for how many careers still work.

The problem with “doing everything right”

For a long time, we were taught that success at work was about being smart, capable and compliant.

Get the qualifications.
Work hard.
Follow the path.
Tick the boxes.

And for a while, that approach worked.

But in a world of restructures, automation, AI, hybrid working and constantly shifting expectations, intelligence on its own isn’t enough anymore. The people who seem to be thriving aren’t always the ones with the highest IQs or the most impressive CVs.

They’re the ones who notice when the route changes and respond.

What adaptability at work really looks like

Adaptability isn’t about being relentlessly positive or pretending change is easy.

It’s about noticing when something that used to work… doesn’t.
Letting go of definitions of success that no longer fit.
Staying curious when certainty disappears.

In my COMPASS framework, Mindset sits at the heart of sustainable career success. Not because mindset magically fixes everything but because without it, everything else tends to stall.

You can have skills, experience and opportunity.
But if you’re clinging to an old map in a changed landscape, progress becomes hard work.

Careers without a sat nav

Careers used to feel more linear. Today, they rarely are.

A better metaphor now is orienteering.

You might have a general direction in mind, but the terrain keeps shifting. Routes close down. Obstacles appear. New paths open up that you couldn’t see from where you started.

There isn’t a single “right” way through.

Adaptable people read the landscape as they go. They adjust their pace. They change direction. They make decisions with incomplete information. And they keep moving.

That isn’t about being clever. It’s about mindset.

When the map stops making sense

Sitting there in the car, facing that brick wall, I realised something slightly uncomfortable.

I hadn’t done anything wrong.
I hadn’t misunderstood the instructions.
I hadn’t been careless or incapable.

I’d done exactly what I was supposed to do.

The problem was simpler and more unsettling than that.
The map was out of date.

My first instinct was to keep fiddling with the sat nav. Recalculate. Refresh. Look for reassurance that theremust be a way through if I trusted the system for a bit longer.

And that’s the trap many people fall into at work.

They keep recalculating using the same assumptions.
They double down on rules that used to make sense.
They wait for clarity from systems that no longer reflect reality.

What that moment forced me to do was pause, look around, and take responsibility for navigating differently. To stop relying on instructions designed for a landscape that no longer existed and start paying attention to what was actually in front of me.

That’s the mindset shift many careers need now.

Not more intelligence.
Not better plans.

Just the willingness to notice when the route has changed and adapt.

Why this matters so much at work right now

In organisations today, I regularly see highly capable people getting stuck — not because they lack talent, but because they’re waiting for directions that never arrives.

They’re waiting for the right time.
The perfect role.
Someone else to decide.
A guaranteed outcome.

I hear it in workshops and coaching conversations: “Once things settle down, then I’ll…”

But things rarely settle down.

Adaptability is accepting that certainty is rare and acting anyway.

It’s the mindset that says:
“I may not control the landscape, but I can control how I respond.”

That’s what helps people navigate change without burning out, keep learning rather than withdrawing, and stay employable as roles continue to evolve.

A few questions worth sitting with

Whether you’re reflecting on your own career or supporting someone else, these are useful places to pause:

• Where might you be holding on to a definition of success that no longer fits?
• What has changed around you that your thinking hasn’t quite caught up with?
• If the old route is blocked, what alternatives might be worth exploring?

These aren’t questions with neat answers — and that’s kind of the point.

Adaptability at work isn’t a personality trait

Some people worry that being adaptable means constantly reinventing yourself or never committing to anything.

It doesn’t.

It means staying open.
Learning from experience.
Being willing to update your thinking as the world updates itself.

In my Career Conversation Model, this is where reflection matters just as much as action — learning from the past, imagining possible futures, and taking small, intentional steps in the present.

That’s where adaptability actually lives.

One small step

Instead of asking, “What’s my next role?” try asking:

“What am I learning right now? And what might it be preparing me for?”

It’s a subtle shift, but a powerful one. And in my experience, it’s often the starting point for real adaptability at work, especially when certainty is in short supply.

If this way of thinking resonates, you might want to explore how mindset, adaptability and ownership come together in my COMPASS keynote work. Or you might simply sit with the question for a while longer before deciding what comes next.

Either way, noticing when the route has changed — and choosing to respond differently — is often the most important move you can make.