We are experiencing a sharp surge in uncertainty—the highest since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. But today’s turbulence is not an isolated moment; it’s part of a long-building trend. For more than two decades, the pace of change has been accelerating, and with it, the complexity leaders must navigate. What sets today apart is the convergence of major disruptors happening all at once: rapid and uneven advancements in AI, intensifying geopolitical tensions, economic instability, climate-related crises, shifting workforce expectations, and significant demographic transformations. This volatile environment demands more than just resilience—it calls for organizations to build adaptability into their core, treating it not as a reaction to disruption, but as a proactive strategic capability.
Organizations need to balance tackling immediate challenges with laying a strong foundation for the long-term that’s able to respond to increasing uncertainty and the myriad of external disruptors. As leaders look toward the future, the companies that will outpace and outperform their competitors will be those that can embrace and scale adaptability and agility in their operations.
What we know about adaptable organizations
The highest performing organizations are, and will continue to be, those that create and nurture adaptability in a variety of ways. At the heart of it, this requires creating more leadership from more people—up, down, and across the organization. There are three critical characteristics that adaptable organizations possess.
Change-friendly management approaches
Adaptable organizations are those that have management approaches in place that are open to and able to change, to be able to respond to emerging internal and external disruptors. They establish formal systems and processes that balance efficiency and agility. For example, rather than adopting rigid three- to five-year strategic plans, they embrace principles-based decision making and ground their plans in assumptions about the future that are revisited frequently. They embrace scenario planning as a way to prepare to act fast when market dynamics shift. They target talent strategies with an emphasis on what will be needed for the future, rather than what worked in the past. When the formal management approaches in place are more change-friendly, organizations can be more proactive in responding to new threats, such as increased tariffs, and opportunities, such as leveraging AI for faster product development, in the market.
Adaptable cultures
Organizational culture emerges from the behaviors and norms that are reinforced over time. A focus on culture is not just “fluffy, soft stuff” that’s a nice to have—it’s a critical enabler of performance. The highest performing companies establish and nurture adaptable cultures, those that allow them to appropriately respond to both threats and opportunities. These companies take a multi-stakeholder view (employees, shareholders, customers, vendors, and the community), establish high trust in their workforce and limit unhelpful bureaucracy, embrace appropriate risk-taking, balance both a short- and long-term view, and bias toward proactivity even without perfect information.
Broad-based change capabilities
Often, talent development strategies focus on strengthening technical skills. While it is important to equip the workforce with skills around emerging technical needs (such as optimizing the use of AI), they are not enough on their own, especially since these required skills are changing rapidly. Companies need to invest in helping their people build stronger change muscles, developing the knowledge, and the skills to apply that knowledge, to their jobs. Skills such as the ability to articulate a compelling vision of the future, manage challenges to new ideas and ways of working, inspire and mobilize others even without direct authority, and implement strategies to overcome barriers to change are critical to developing a workforce that creates a competitive advantage.
Three strategies to make it happen
Each of the characteristics outlined above can be cultivated through deliberate action. There are a set of strategies that help organizations move the needle on all three elements outlined above.
Align and activate leadership
The first step toward readying your organization to respond to continued disruption and uncertainty is for leaders to get clear on the opportunities ahead, why you are uniquely positioned to capitalize on those opportunities, and why you must act now. For example, with the constant pendulum swing on tariffs, many organizations are facing very real and very significant supply chain hurdles. While the economic challenges are undeniable, some organizations may have an opportunity to rethink partnerships with manufacturing sites, shipping processes, and even target consumer markets. Shaping the narrative around the opportunities that disruption can unlock, rather than solely being reactive and focusing on the challenges it presents, is critical.
It’s not enough to be aligned in theory; leaders need to be actively engaged in making the opportunity a reality. They need to communicate much more than leaders typically assume is necessary. Deliver the message in multiple forums, through multiple modalities, and continue to beat the drum. Then, find ways to demonstrate meaningful action, and remove barriers that could get in the way of others taking action. And recognize that this “action” may actually mean stopping efforts that are not aligned or contributing to the desired future state.
When leaders are aligned and ready to act, you will enable much faster, and bolder, decision making.
Engage many more people
Responding to disruptive factors cannot stop at the executive level. Keeping up with the pace of change requires contribution from people up, down, and across the organization. Find opportunities for employees to not just execute ideas that come from the top, but rather, create space for them to identify opportunities, surface ideas, and then experiment with implementing these new ideas. When employees are empowered and engaged in this way, you can create a sense of passionate buy-in and ownership.
A large utility company did this exceptionally well. After a tumultuous ERP implementation, executives realize the technology team was not structured to best meet the needs of their business partners. Rather than designing the organization in a locked room with HR, senior leaders crafted a brief that captured the problem statement, the opportunity they saw, and a small set of guardrails. Then, they tasked a group of employees, who were close to the work and business partners, with designing the new structure. Through multiple iterations, they landed on a model that was a true evolution and would require new ways of working. Once the model was designed, team members at all levels had the opportunity to submit their skills, past expertise, and areas of passion as input for their placemat in the new organization. And, once all roles were filled, those who were owning new processes came together in collaborative ways or working sessions to define these processes, including governance, hand-offs, and collaboration norms. This employee-led approach was key in driving results—which included zero voluntary turnover in the first six months and accelerating the achievement of numerous KPIs.
Engineer results
While many employees will get onboard with new ways of working, especially if the opportunity is framed in a compelling and inspirational way, there will always be skeptics. To build momentum, leaders must demonstrate progress and ensure efforts are driving meaningful results (not just “feel good” activities). It is imperative to not just wait for wins to happen organically but to intentionally engineer them. Start with the end in mind and work backwards to determine critical milestones, leading indicators, and desired behaviors that will enable the ultimate objective. Once these are identified, use the power of the workforce to make these proof points a reality, and pause to shine a spotlight on them when they happen. Not only will this create a wave of momentum that helps bring skeptics along, but it will also help develop an unrelenting focus on value.
Navigating the choppy waters and disruption facing businesses today—as well as the continued upward trend of uncertainty—will require organizations to foster more adaptability. To keep up with changing economic realities, new customer demands, emerging technology, and more, leaders need to evolve how work gets done. Investing time in aligning and activating leaders and then engaging the workforce to drive new ways of working and meaningful results is critical to unlock and maintain a competitive advantage. In today’s world, adaptable organizations are going to be the ones that can weather the storms of today and tomorrow.
