Adaptability and Resilience Training Course for Leaders in Changing Organisations

Programme Summary

Adaptability and resilience for leaders in changing organisations is the subject of this five-day training course for managers at intermediate to advanced level, culminating in a personal and team adaptability plan. Automation, restructuring and shifting markets now change roles faster than job descriptions, and leaders must keep their teams effective through each shift. The approach moves from the skills employers expect to grow, through mindset, learning habits and work with AI, to personal resilience and adaptable teams. Mars Training Centre UK delivers this programme in adaptability and resilience.

The Business Case

When change outpaces people, organisations pay through stalled adoption of new tools, fatigue and the loss of capable staff who see no future in their role. Leaders who treat adaptability as a learnable skill shorten the time between a change decision and productive work, and keep their teams willing to take on what comes next.

• Time to Productivity After Change: Shortens as teams reskill early and experiment with new ways of working.
• Adoption of New Tools and Processes: Improves as leaders frame change as learning rather than threat.
• Regretted Attrition During Transformation: Falls as staff see a development path through each change.

Principles and Evidence Base

• WEF Future of Jobs Skills Outlook: Its ranking of analytical thinking and of resilience, flexibility and agility among core skills frames the skills audit in Session 1.
• Growth Mindset: The belief that abilities develop through effort and learning shapes the mindset work in Session 2.
• Learning Agility: Mental, people, change and results agility guide the personal learning habits built in Session 3.
• Cognitive Flexibility: Switching between perspectives and reframing problems underpins the creative thinking practice in Session 2.

Intended Participants

• Managers leading teams through digitalisation, automation or restructuring.
• Senior professionals whose own roles are being redesigned by new technology.
• Leaders responsible for reskilling and redeploying staff.
• Heads of function who must sustain performance during prolonged change.

The programme serves operations, finance, customer service and support functions in banking, energy, telecommunications and government entities.

Learning Outcomes

1. Participants will be able to assess their own and their team's adaptability against the skills employers expect to grow.
2. Participants will be able to apply growth mindset and reframing techniques to unfamiliar problems.
3. Participants will be able to design a continuous learning routine that builds new capability alongside daily work.
4. Participants will be able to evaluate which tasks in their area are suited to automation and AI and redesign work accordingly.
5. Participants will be able to construct personal resilience routines for sustained periods of change.
6. Participants will be able to justify a team adaptability plan to their sponsor.

Programme Structure

Day 1: Adaptability and the Changing World of Work

Which skills will matter, and how adaptable is the participant today?

• Future of Jobs Skills Outlook: Core and Growing Skills
• Drivers of Change: Technology, Demographics and Economics
• Adaptability Self-Assessment and Team Skills Audit
• Role Disruption Mapping for the Participant's Function
• Resilience, Flexibility and Agility as Leadership Skills

Day 2: Mindset, Reframing and Creative Thinking

How do leaders think differently when the old answers stop working?

• Growth Mindset Versus Fixed Mindset at Work
• Cognitive Flexibility and Perspective Switching
• Reframing Techniques for Unfamiliar Problems
• Creative Thinking Methods for Teams
• Managing Uncertainty and Ambiguity in Decisions

Day 3: Learning Agility and Working With AI

How does a leader keep learning and redesign work around new technology?

• Learning Agility: Mental, People, Change and Results Dimensions
• Personal Reskilling Plans and Learning Sprints
• Task Analysis for Automation and AI Assistance
• Human and Machine Collaboration in Daily Work
• Technological Literacy Expectations for Managers

Day 4: Personal Resilience Under Sustained Change

How do leaders keep energy and judgement through long periods of change?

• Stress Responses and Recovery Cycles
• Energy Management and Workload Boundaries
• Support Networks and Peer Coaching
• Learning From Setbacks Through After-Action Reviews
• Personal Resilience Routines and Early Warning Signs

Day 5: Applying Adaptability and Resilience in the Team

Is the team adaptability plan realistic and ready to launch?

• Turning the Day 1 Skills Audit Into Team Priorities
• Building Day 3 Learning Sprints Into Team Routines
• Using Day 2 Reframing in Team Change Conversations
• Psychological Safety for Experimentation
• Completing the Personal and Team Adaptability Plan

Methodology

The programme combines structured exercises with case analysis. Participants audit their own role and team, test reframing and creative methods on live problems, redesign a workflow around AI tools and practise resilience routines. Cases come from banking, utilities and public services.

• Suggested activity: Mapping which tasks in a team role could be automated, assisted or kept human.
• Suggested activity: Reframing a stalled change initiative from three stakeholder perspectives.
• Suggested activity: Designing a two-week learning sprint for a new capability.

Capstone Output

Each participant completes a personal and team adaptability plan. It contains a skills audit, a role disruption map, a personal reskilling plan, a redesigned workflow, resilience routines and a team learning calendar. It is agreed with the participant's sponsor and reviewed at the next performance cycle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is adaptability and resilience training suitable for experienced managers?

Yes. It is set at intermediate to advanced level for managers leading teams through change, and assumes several years of people leadership.

Which models does the adaptability and resilience programme rest on?

It rests on the World Economic Forum skills outlook, growth mindset, learning agility and cognitive flexibility.

How is the plan from adaptability and resilience training used at work?

You can use it to set team learning priorities, redesign work around new tools and agree development goals with your sponsor.