Adaptability and flexibility in workplace: 7+7 Examples

What does it mean – adaptability and flexibility in the workplace? 

Since the pandemic, adaptability and flexibility more or less are the new buzzwords.

That’s why I decided to create content that can help those who’d like to understand what they are, how they differ from each other, and examples, how both adaptability and flexibility look like in the workplace.

How is adaptability different from flexibility?

By the Cambridge dictionary,

Adaptability is an ability or willingness to change in order to suit different conditions.

Cambridge dictionary

Flexibility, on the other hand, is

the ability to change or be changed easily according to the situation.

Cambridge dictionary

So, it’s easy to see why they’re often used together, right?

Both words mean ability to change.

What’s different?

The scale:

• Adaptability is a longer-term skill that is connected to a bigger scale, or the environment of the market or workplace, economy, etc.
• Flexibility is something that happens at a particular time and place, and that you need to react quickly, in the moment (or with a short time of preparation).

OK, now you know the difference between the two buzzwords.

What do each of them look like in the workplace?

7 examples of adaptability at work

1. Pandemic. Now, 2 years in, it’s clear that the new conditions will stick for a longer time. You need to adapt and work partly from home, partly from the office.
2. A new regulations have been pulled through (for example, the no-plastic rule or GDPR in Europe), so you have to adjust your processes of the product to fit the new rules.
3. You or someone on your team becomes a new parent. You need to adapt to the new conditions that you (or someone from your team) leaves early, and are not as responsive in the evening as they used to be.
4. It’s around year 2000, and you love your Windows 98. However, Windows 98 is not working on your computer anymore, so you need to learn how to use the Word Vista (argh, I know) and nothing on Word works like before. You have to adapt or you won’t be able to work with Word.
5. You became the star of the department. They promote you, so you have to adapt to the new tasks – you don’t need to focus on your own results anymore. Instead, your job is to help others achieve them. That requires you to act differently, that requires a new mindset, and your schedule will be completely different. You need to adapt to the new role, or you’ll feel terrible at your work, and the results might not be good for your team.
6. The company or department hires a new manager. You have to adapt to their management style to work together successfully.
7. Your brick-and-mortar business has always been successful, but now, in the digital world, it’s starting to crumble. The clients like to shop online and have the products delivered to their homes. You need to adapt your business to the digital world, or you lose the business.

7 examples of flexibility at work

See the examples in video or read them below.

1. You are the manager, and you have to explain new changes to your team to Maggy, the team’s sweetheart, Rachel, the analytical genius and Blake, the autonomous free spirit. You have to be flexible – to change your communication style when you present the same info for different people, or you’ll fail to communicate the changes.
2. During the presentation the powerpoint is not working, so you have to figure out a new way to present the idea, or there’s a great chance the presentation will fail.
3. At a usual work day the manager comes in with hands full of colourful post-it notes and says “today we’re working differently”. If you join the activities and even have fun instead of staying at the same routine – you might get new ideas that help to improve your work in larger or smaller scale, and, therefore, build your career confidence.
4. You usually leave the office at 6, but there’s an emergency, so you have to be flexible and stay longer. You can say – well, my working hours are over – but that may cost you a reputation of an unhelpful employee in the long term. (sometimes it’s good though, I’ll talk about this in other blogs).
5. You have an important Zoom call, and suddenly your partner’s parents arrive. Both of them are important to you. You have to be flexible and figure out the best ways to react so that both your business partners and partner’s parents stay happy.
6. The computer breaks down an hour before deadline. You have to be flexible and figure out how to finish the task.
7. The project you’re working on goes as planned, but then the client calls with “some small adjustments” that completely change the direction. You have to react in a way that helps you to keep going and to help the client in the best way as well.

The cost of not being flexible and adaptable at work?

Why should you care about these skills at all, now that you know how what they are?

Depending on the scale you’re working on and your ambition, the cost of not being flexible or not being able to adapt may cost you great career opportunities, promotion, invitations to bigger, more exciting projects or even a loss of business.

The challenge is also the increasing speed of changes in the world and technology. If you don’t train the skill now, it will be even harder later.

The good news is – adaptability and flexibility go hand in hand. If you train your flexibility, your adaptability skills will grow as well.

How to become more flexible at work?

Read it here, or see the video below:

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