Adaptability-Currency of The Future of Work

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Adaptability-Currency of The Future of Work

31 Jan 2023
- admin
- Innovation & Design Thinking
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The rapidly changing landscape of the world led by the pandemic and then the geo-political events have not escaped the business world. Organizations and people that were built on deep silos failed to manage the disruption and transition effects. Adaptability became the new mantra as adaptable organizations were able to transition to the new reality of work effectively as they managed to deploy resources much more efficiently. In a rapidly and dynamic business ecosystem, adaptability is a major factor that helps organizations navigate the uncertain and ambiguous future.

Similarly, for people – while flexibility in their line of work is a given, adaptability in today’s workplace is just as important, people who fail to make their presence count in today’s rapid and constantly changing work environment tend to get left behind.

Organizations are increasingly looking to future-proof themselves and their people. In an increasingly unpredictable world, adaptability as a skill cannot be ignored. Adaptability is inevitable and has to be adopted as a culture in itself.

In the modern business world, being able to adapt is one of the most critical traits a person can possess. Organizations too are investing and looking to hire employees that can adapt to change-whether to new technologies or a changing economic order or a changing business ecosystem. This breed of people brings a different approach to leadership and emotional intelligence to the workplace.

However, people tend to resist adaptation and change and use rationality to resist. In general, people do not like to adapt.

The rapidly changing landscape of the world led by the pandemic and then the geo-political events have not escaped the business world. Organizations are increasingly looking to future-proof themselves and their people. In an increasingly unpredictable world, adaptability as a skill cannot be ignored. Adaptability is inevitable and has to be adopted as a culture in itself.

Adaptability – A Fine Balance Between Technology And Human Factors

In the business world, capitalization of technology is often identified as the key driver of enterprise value. Human factors are also seen as the resistors of technology and thus swept under the carpet. However, being able to tackle the unforeseen and unpredictable requires a workforce that is built on the edifice of human factors. Thus, organizations should be looking to consider human capital and technology compositely. Businesses that recognize the fact that technology by itself, would be unable to handle new modes of working and business, would be resilient and thrive in the long run. So, what are the human factors that are the tower of adaptability?

As per the Delloite Global Human Capital Trends,
- ‘Well-being’ and
- ‘belonging’
were identified as the fundamental prerequisites for organizational success. These human factors also were found to be most important in fostering adaptability.

Well-being refers to employees living and performing at their optimum level. Employees tend to perform and contribute at a higher level if their well-being is assured. For instance, work-life balance is a key enabler that ensures well-being in lives and performance and productivity at work.

In an increasingly divergent society, a sense of belonging in the workplace leads to heightened purpose in organizational performance. Sharing values with a community of people tends to enhance the purpose of employees.

Some Adaptability Skills

Adaptability is a composite soft skill that helps employees to adjust to changing circumstances. It equips people at the workplace to easily tackle changing priorities, projects, clients, and technology. These changes could be by way of change at work or work environment.

Some key adaptability skills include –
- Critical thinking – These skills help people to adapt to the demands of a changing work environment or requirements of projects, goals, or environments. Adaptable people are efficient critical thinkers and this helps them to assess situations, weigh the possible outcomes and decide the course of action.
- Resilience – Resilience is a vital adaptability skill for employees to have. It helps them to come back stronger from challenges or periods of adversity.
- Growth mindset – This helps people to continually improve at the workplace through learning. These people are adaptable and prone to take on challenges.
- Teamwork – Adaptable people collaborate with their teams through interaction and come up with solutions for changing circumstances at the workplace. Adaptable people cut across the hierarchy at the workplace to handle change through effective communication.
- Creative and strategic thinking – Adaptability entails a worker being creative in approach and thinking strategically. This helps develop new ideas and methodologies to face changing scenarios or work on tweaks to existing ones.
- Responsive to feedback – Accepting and acting on feedback from co-workers and superiors helps people to respond better to change. Adaptable people listen, process, and implement feedback and resulting in better teamwork and effective working.
Adaptability is a composite soft skill that helps employees to adjust to changing circumstances. These changes could be by way of change at work or work environment.

Adaptability – The Currency of The Future of Work

Disruption and discontinuity are challenging traditional models and assumptions of business. The business landscape is no longer driven by boundaries and globalization is the order of the day. To traverse the unknown evolution, organizations and workers should come together and look at adaptability as a key quotient.

To plan for the future and continually prepare for the unexpected requires both organizations and workforces to be agile. An adaptive enterprise and adaptive employees could ultimately lead to a re-imagination of traditional business models.

As we head for a possible global recession, adaptiveness is key to future success. A confluence of an adaptive enterprise with an adaptive workforce will be the key to a successful transformation and resilience of businesses. The underlying culture, skills, and organizational structures within the organization will make these future-of-work efforts.

The business landscape is no longer driven by boundaries and globalization is the order of the day. To traverse the unknown evolution, organizations and workers should come together and look at adaptability as a key quotient.

The “SOIL” Factor

As businesses encounter increasing disruptions that threaten the normal, the demand for business leaders that can adapt is continually on the rise. Leading from the front requires a skillset that helps them to strategize, adapt, and foster a culture of innovation and opportunities. The MBA in Business Design has been designed to expose the student to management concepts using design thinking and liberal arts. A key component of the two-year MBA course in Business Design is an emphasis on soft skills that are focussed on imparting a human-centric approach to business. The curriculum is uniquely designed to impart knowledge on management concepts using design thinking and liberal arts.

The two-year MBA course emphasizes experiential learning and project work that provides students with an opportunity to learn and address real-world challenges. The unique case study method pioneered by Harvard Business School and adopted by SOIL Institute of Management throws students challenges that move away from rote or book learning. The takeaway at the end of a two-year MBA in Business Design is a well-rounded business professional who has character, competence, and enthusiasm. The two-year MBA in Business Design teaches the art of innovation using Design Thinking. Students develop problem-solving skills primarily based on human-centeredness and become leaders focused on innovation. These adaptable leaders are the future leaders of India that would help create and contribute to sustainable organizations of consequence.

SOIL Institute of Management’s two-year MBA course in Business Design has an emphasis on soft skills that are focussed on imparting a human-centric approach to business.

FAQs
Is an MBA in Design Thinking a good career option?

An MBA in design thinking looks to bridge the gap within generic management streams using the design and innovation processes required by every organization to manage change. It will help the management graduates develop the confidence to take swift decisions, be comfortable with placing strategic bets using intuition and data, it will further help business leaders to incorporate thinking across multiple disciplines, undertake more ethnographic studies and less quantitative analysis, and view richer insights about the targeted personas.

What are some adaptability skills that help employees to adapt to the changing work environment?

Adaptability is a composite soft skill that helps employees to adjust to changing circumstances. These changes could be by way of change at work or work environment.

Some key adaptability skills include –

Critical thinking

Resilience

Teamwork

Creative and strategic thinking

Responsive to feedback

What are the skills required to pursue an MBA – PGDM in Design Thinking?

A design thinking mindset would expose and nurture skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, leadership, collaboration, and communication. These are skills that would be essential and fundamental to a successful design-thinking professional.

What will I achieve after pursuing an MBA in Design Thinking?

Exploring beyond the realms of a traditional MBA with SOIL Institute of Management’s PGDM in Business Design would allow one to be part of a transformational program that would enable the students to work for “human-centered innovation”.

Some traits that the MBA courses look to develop in their students are –

Developing Empathy and Understanding People

The Art of Critical Questioning

Being Open-minded

Working in Teams – Being a Team Player

Divergent and Convergent Thinking

Failing is an Opportunity to Learn

What are the eligibility criteria for pursuing MBA in Design Thinking?

Eligibility Criteria

All applicants are required to appear for GMAT /CAT /XAT /MAT.

Freshers and candidates with less than 5 years of work experience are eligible to apply.

Applicants should hold a Bachelor’s degree in any discipline from a recognized institution

Graduation type: 3 years / 4 years or 5 years integrated program

Stream: Arts/Commerce/Science/ Engg. (B. Tech / B.E) etc.

Applicants may submit multiple examination scores; SOBD will consider the best score provided by an applicant while shortlisting applications

Candidates should have a full-time undergraduate degree completion certificate before 15th June 2022

How much does SOIL Institute of Management’s PGDM in Design Thinking cost?

SOIL Institute of Management’s MBA in Design Thinking fee is inclusive of tuition fee, examination fees, extra and co-curricular activities on campus, Library books & reading material, IT Services, etc. See all details here.

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Is an MBA in Design Thinking a good career option?

What are some adaptability skills that help employees to adapt to the changing work environment?

What are the skills required to pursue an MBA – PGDM in Design Thinking?

What will I achieve after pursuing an MBA in Design Thinking?

What are the eligibility criteria for pursuing MBA in Design Thinking?

How much does SOIL Institute of Management’s PGDM in Design Thinking cost?

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