Adaptive intelligence empowers HR to approach uncertainty with confidence and creativity. But how can practitioners cultivate this essential capability – both in themselves and their teams?

Picture a smart, capable employee who’s long been a high performer at your organisation. They know the company’s processes inside and out, and are great at solving problems. But when the company rushes to embrace new generative AI systems to improve workflows, they hit a wall.   Sticking to the old ways that have always worked for them, they fall behind as their teammates adapt to new processes. 

Then the business enters a new international market, requiring teams to adjust to different cultural norms and regulatory frameworks. The employee can’t quite adjust their communication style, and misunderstandings start to pile up. They feel frustrated and out of step as the workplace evolves around them.

It’s not that they aren’t intelligent. But traditional intelligence alone isn’t enough in a world that’s constantly changing. Without the ability to adapt, even the brightest employees can find themselves struggling to keep up. 

In these environments, adaptive intelligence is what makes the difference – in other words, the ability to navigate and respond effectively to new, challenging and uncertain circumstances.

“Adaptive intelligence is a different type of intelligence. It requires you to rewire your brain. And it’s not always an easy journey,” says Siobhan McHale, Executive General Manager of People, Culture and Change at Dulux. “It’s not just about you – it’s about the ecosystem, and how that system can deliver, grow and adapt to new situations.”

For instance, adaptive intelligence on an individual level might look like a manager adapting their leadership style to manage a multigenerational team, or an employee being able to quickly learn and implement new skills. 

On a systemic level, it might look like guiding the workforce through a large upskilling initiative without overwhelming them, or helping a team adjust to new procedures. This is where adaptive intelligence becomes essential for HR, says McHale. 

“We are on a journey to reframe HR from technical specialists to being business leaders with expertise in enabling the organisation to deliver on its business and change imperatives. If you are going to be at the management table to help the organisation adapt to its circumstances and the market conditions, then you need to have adaptive intelligence.”

Overcoming threat response 

Developing adaptive intelligence is much easier said than done. A big part of the reason for this is that our brains are biologically wired to resist uncertainty, explains Samantha Rush, academic, consultant and decisive culture expert. 

“From an evolutionary perspective, back when we were hunter-gatherers, uncertainty usually meant we weren’t going to live very long. Our brains and our bodies are wired for survival. What that means is when we’re in a situation where there’s something we don’t have a playbook for, we freak out – our threat response goes off.

One of the most important ways employers can help overcome people’s natural instinct to push back against change is by creating a psychologically safe work environment, she says 

“What I’ve found is that, overwhelmingly, the extent to which you feel safe to contribute, to feel that your views will be listened to, and to feel you’re an important member of the team, has a significant impact on your ability to say, ‘I don’t have a playbook for this, but I feel safe enough to ask questions, offer ideas and talk to people about it so I can figure it out.’” 

A big part of helping teams cultivate adaptive intelligence is to present change in a considered way, says McHale.

“Adaptive intelligence is about knowing how to introduce change, stagger change, or even intervene in an ecosystem in a way that is manageable, so it’s not like a fire hydrant.

“As change leaders, we in HR need to have an understanding of the complete picture and what different parts of the organisation are experiencing so we can make the change manageable, rather than having multiple changes hitting the same group at once.”

Tailored interventions

Cultivating adaptive intelligence is often as simple as reframing the issue at hand, says McHale.

By shifting perspectives, individuals and teams can help turn uncertainty into opportunity.

During a recent expansion at DuluxGroup, she encouraged her team to reframe obstacles and potential risks when considering new acquisitions or opportunities for growth.

“Adaptive intelligence is about knowing how to introduce change, stagger change, or even intervene in an ecosystem in a way that is manageable, so it’s not like a fire hydrant.” – Siobhan McHale, Executive General Manager of People, Culture and Change, Dulux

“Rather than going in with a lens of automatically saying, ‘No, it’s a risk,’ we went in with a different lens, saying, ‘What’s possible? Why not? Why wouldn’t we do this? How can we make this happen?’”

On an individual level, reframing your perspective from ‘expert’ to ‘learner’ is a key step to developing adaptive intelligence. 

“If you can reframe your role to one of a learner, you can be open and curious. In the role of learner, we have permission to experiment and to see things with fresh eyes, so it often takes the pressure off people and allows you to be curious.”

Structured adaptation 

Although adaptive intelligence relies on flexibility and creativity, paradoxically, structured processes can be the key to unlocking it, says Rush.

In high-pressure situations, structured approaches provide a sense of stability that helps keep our ‘fight-or-flight’ response in check, she says.

“If you’ve got some kind of structure that you can walk through that says, ‘This is how we’re going to do this,’ you’re freeing up more cognitive capacity to focus on what we need to adapt to,” she says.

A structured process for change might look like a step-by-step approach with assessment, planning and execution stages, or a dedicated scenario planning function to plan ahead for future developments. Another structured tool Rush has found useful for building adaptive intelligence on both an individual and team level is a set of reflective questions to interrupt your instinctive reaction to change and intentionally rewire your thoughts to respond with clarity and purpose. 

These include:

• What other perspectives do I need to consider, or can I consider?
• Who could I collaborate with to improve my understanding or my approach?
• What assumptions do I have about this matter? Are they valid? 
• Who or what could I be overlooking that could add valuable insights?
• Is there a data source that might be available to shed light on this? 
• What are the recent changes in the environment that could require some strategic adjustment? (For example, are you seeing some kind of change in the environment, in an adjacent industry, or perhaps in another country?)

“Having those structured questions that you can pull out in situations where you see that other people aren’t practicing adaptive intelligence is a really great way for you to have a big impact,” she says.

“This is where I think the role of HR is so important. HR is in an amazing position to be able to model behaviours. The results of having adaptive intelligence are being able to innovate, create, work quickly and be productive. If HR can model those things, then the rest of the organisation is going to see it.”

A longer version of this article was originally published in the February issue of HRM Magazine.

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