Adaptability for the Future of Work Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Team Leaders, Project Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-PE-017

Before you join: Participants should have at least two years of professional experience and be able to discuss a current or recent change affecting their role, team or organisation.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Work roles, technologies, customer expectations and operating models can change faster than established routines. Professionals are expected to absorb new information, adjust priorities, learn unfamiliar tools and remain effective when direction is incomplete. Adaptability is not passive acceptance of change; it is a set of observable behaviours for assessing what has changed, choosing a response, learning quickly and helping colleagues move forward without losing service quality, controls or accountability.

This course develops the practical habits required to work effectively through uncertainty and transition. Participants examine their response patterns, build cognitive flexibility, apply learning-agility methods, manage stress during sustained change and make decisions using incomplete evidence. They practise communicating change clearly, handling resistance, adapting to digital and AI-enabled ways of working, and contributing constructively to team change. Frameworks including ADKAR, SCARF, Cynefin and the OODA Loop provide usable structures for analysing situations and selecting responses.

Instruction combines short tutor briefings with realistic cases, facilitated group work, decision simulations and individual reflection. Cases can be adapted to public services, financial institutions, NGOs, multinationals and operational teams facing restructuring, system implementation, policy changes or shifting customer demand. Participants produce a personal adaptability profile, a change-response plan and a 90-day application plan for a live work challenge.

The course suits experienced professionals whose work now involves changing processes, digital tools, stakeholder expectations or cross-functional responsibilities. It is particularly valuable for people managers, project staff and specialists who need to remain credible, productive and collaborative while their work changes around them.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess personal adaptability patterns using a structured self-assessment and feedback evidence
  • Apply the OODA Loop to make timely decisions under incomplete information
  • Use Cynefin to distinguish clear, complicated, complex and chaotic situations
  • Create a learning-agility plan for acquiring skills during role or technology change
  • Manage change-related stress using emotional regulation and recovery techniques
  • Communicate change impacts using stakeholder mapping and targeted message design
  • Respond to resistance using ADKAR diagnostics and practical support actions
  • Produce a 90-day adaptability action plan for a current work challenge

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Recognise personal reactions before they disrupt judgement, relationships or performance
  • Build confidence when priorities, tools or reporting lines change unexpectedly
  • Learn unfamiliar processes faster through deliberate learning-agility routines
  • Communicate concerns and adjustment needs clearly to managers and colleagues
  • Convert a current work disruption into a structured 90-day development plan

For your organisation

  • Faster employee adjustment to new systems, processes and service models
  • Reduced productivity loss during restructuring, policy changes and technology implementation
  • More consistent decisions when teams face unclear or rapidly changing conditions
  • Earlier identification and constructive handling of employee resistance
  • Stronger internal mobility as staff develop transferable learning and change skills

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define adaptability behaviours and identify the workplace conditions requiring different responses.

  • Adaptability defined through behavioural, cognitive, emotional and learning dimensions
  • Future-of-work drivers: automation, remote coordination, skills volatility and restructuring
  • Distinguishing planned change, emerging change, disruption and continuous improvement
  • Fixed, growth and learning mindsets compared through workplace response patterns
  • Personal adaptability baseline using performance evidence, feedback and recurring challenges
  • Control, influence and concern circles for directing effort productively
  • Role expectations during changing priorities, processes and stakeholder demands

Participants can identify automatic responses and reframe assumptions when circumstances change.

  • Trigger mapping identifies situations that produce defensiveness, avoidance or overcontrol
  • Cognitive flexibility separates facts, assumptions, interpretations and predictions
  • Ladder of Inference tested against incomplete workplace information
  • Reframing questions generate alternative explanations before choosing a response
  • Confirmation bias, status quo bias and sunk-cost effects recognised
  • SCARF domains explain social threats during role and process changes
  • Feedback requests structured around observable behaviour, impact and preferred alternatives

Participants can regulate change-related emotions and maintain sustainable performance during pressure.

  • Emotional agility distinguishes feelings, impulses, values and chosen actions
  • Name, normalise and notice technique reduces reactive change responses
  • Stress appraisal separates controllable demands from uncontrollable uncertainty
  • Recovery routines use workload boundaries, sleep, breaks and social support
  • Energy audit links demanding tasks with realistic restoration practices
  • Psychological safety conditions support questions, errors and early escalation
  • Resilience plan identifies warning signs, support contacts and recovery actions

Participants can build a targeted plan for acquiring and applying new skills quickly.

  • Learning agility combines curiosity, experimentation, reflection and feedback
  • Skill-gap analysis compares changing role requirements with current capability
  • 70-20-10 development planning applied to a priority skill
  • Deliberate practice converts complex tasks into repeatable improvement cycles
  • After-action reviews capture lessons from changed processes and decisions
  • Learning sprints define outcomes, resources, evidence and review dates
  • Knowledge-sharing routines prevent expertise loss during role transitions

Participants can select proportionate decision methods when evidence, time and risk vary.

  • Cynefin distinguishes clear, complicated, complex and chaotic decision contexts
  • OODA Loop structures observation, orientation, decision and timely action
  • Reversible and irreversible decisions require different evidence thresholds
  • Assumption logs expose uncertainties requiring validation before commitment
  • Premortem analysis identifies likely failure modes and preventive actions
  • Minimum viable experiments test options without excessive resource commitment
  • Escalation criteria clarify when uncertainty exceeds delegated authority

Participants can reset priorities and working methods when demands change rapidly.

  • Eisenhower Matrix separates urgent activity from important outcomes
  • Weekly review resets commitments against changed goals and constraints
  • Kanban visualisation exposes bottlenecks, work-in-progress and blocked tasks
  • Timeboxing protects focus during competing requests and rapid reprioritisation
  • Stop-start-continue review removes obsolete work and preserves useful practices
  • Service-level commitments assessed before accepting new urgent demands
  • Boundary-setting scripts communicate trade-offs, capacity and delivery consequences

Participants can communicate change impacts clearly and respond constructively to resistance.

  • Stakeholder mapping identifies influence, impact, concerns and communication needs
  • ADKAR diagnoses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Change messages answer what, why, when, impact and required action
  • Active listening surfaces concerns beneath stated objections and complaints
  • Resistance categories distinguish information gaps, capability gaps and value conflicts
  • Difficult conversations use SBI feedback and curiosity-based questioning
  • Communication cadence balances updates, dialogue, escalation and reinforcement

Participants can adopt new digital tools responsibly while protecting judgement, confidentiality and quality.

  • Technology adoption curve explains different rates of acceptance and confidence
  • Digital workflow mapping identifies manual steps suitable for redesign
  • Prompt purpose, context, constraints and review criteria improve AI outputs
  • Human review checks accuracy, bias, confidentiality and policy compliance
  • Data classification determines information unsuitable for public AI tools
  • Technology pilots define success measures, user feedback and exit criteria
  • Digital confidence plan prioritises tools required for changing role demands

Participants can contribute to team practices that improve coordination and learning during change.

  • Team working agreements clarify decisions, response times and communication channels
  • RACI matrices assign accountability during shifting responsibilities and handovers
  • Psychological safety supports challenge, reporting, questions and learning
  • Retrospectives identify improvements after milestones, incidents and process changes
  • Cross-functional translation turns specialist language into shared operational understanding
  • Conflict modes assessed using the Thomas-Kilmann framework
  • Distributed teams coordinate through explicit norms, documentation and check-ins

Participants can convert course methods into a monitored 90-day adaptability plan.

  • Personal adaptability profile summarises strengths, triggers and development priorities
  • Current change challenge analysed using Cynefin, stakeholder mapping and ADKAR
  • SMART actions connect adaptation goals with observable workplace behaviours
  • Implementation intentions specify cues, actions and contingency responses
  • Thirty-sixty-ninety-day milestones sequence learning, communication and delivery actions
  • Accountability partners provide challenge, feedback and progress review
  • Leading indicators track learning effort, behaviour change and stakeholder response

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Personal adaptability profile
  2. Learning-agility development plan
  3. OODA decision worksheet
  4. ADKAR change-response template
  5. Stakeholder communication map
  6. 90-day adaptability action plan

Who should attend

  • Team Leaders — guiding staff through changing priorities, systems and operating procedures
  • Project Managers — maintaining delivery when requirements, risks and stakeholders shift
  • Operational Managers — adapting service processes while protecting quality and controls
  • Business Analysts — responding constructively to evolving requirements and digital change
  • HR and Change Practitioners — supporting managers and employees through planned transitions
  • Technical and Functional Specialists — updating skills and influence as roles evolve

Skills and tools covered

Cognitive flexibilityLearning agilityChange communicationDecision-making under uncertaintyPersonal resilienceDigital adaptability

Tools and standards

ADKAR Model, SCARF Model, Cynefin Framework, OODA Loop

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce each framework, followed by sector-relevant cases, facilitated group analysis and decision simulations. Participants examine scenarios such as a banking system rollout, a public-service policy change or an NGO funding shift. Structured reflection identifies individual response habits, while peer discussion tests alternative interpretations and communication approaches. Each participant applies the methods to a live workplace change and builds a 90-day plan. The instructor gives practical feedback on analyses, messages and action priorities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least two years of professional experience and be able to discuss a current or recent change affecting their role, team or organisation. Familiarity with ordinary workplace planning, meetings and digital collaboration tools is assumed. No prior study of change management, psychology, agile methods or coaching is required. This is not a specialist organisational change certification course, nor does it require technical knowledge of artificial intelligence, data analysis or project management. Participants should be willing to receive feedback and examine their own working habits.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need professional workplace experience and a current or recent change situation to consider during the course. No prior change-management qualification, agile certification or technical AI knowledge is required.

Bring examples of a changing process, role, system, team structure or stakeholder requirement. Participants may also bring a laptop for note-taking and accessing course materials, although it is not essential for classroom delivery.

It is designed for professionals who must adjust their own work while helping colleagues, customers or stakeholders adapt. It is especially relevant to managers, project staff, operational leaders, analysts and specialists experiencing frequent change.

Change management courses usually focus on planning and delivering organisational change programmes. This course focuses on the individual behaviours needed to respond well to change, including learning agility, resilience, judgement, communication and work adjustment.

Participants use their own workplace challenge to create a personal adaptability profile, stakeholder map and 90-day action plan. The plan includes actions, review points, support contacts and indicators of progress.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between tutor input, case analysis, group activities, simulations, reflection and application planning across ten modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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