Skills · Readiness
When the work changes, what carries forward?
Adaptability has to show up in a new task. Look at what people notice, what they need to learn, and how they use help.
Mike Vaughan · December 28, 2024 · 2 min read · updated September 26, 2026
A person can be excellent at a familiar process and need substantial help when the work changes. That is not a contradiction. The new task may require knowledge, relationships, or judgment the old one never demanded.
The useful question for L&D is what carries forward, what must be learned, and how to give the person a fair chance to develop it.
Look past the old task list
Suppose, in an illustrative example, a service team adopts a tool that drafts customer replies. Writing the first draft takes less time. Checking the draft becomes more important: is the policy current, does it fit this customer's circumstances, and does the proposed remedy create another problem?
The employee still needs product and policy knowledge. They also need opportunities to practice checking an attractive answer against the actual situation.
A redesign that teaches only where to click misses that change in responsibility.
Find the judgment the new work requires
Ask where the tool can be incomplete, where two legitimate goals conflict, and where a person needs to escalate rather than act alone. Build practice around those decisions.
For example, give the employee a plausible draft based on a policy that does not cover the customer's case. Ask them to identify what must be verified, explain an alternative, and decide whom to involve.
Do not simply teach that AI outputs should be checked. Let the person practice deciding what deserves a check and how to perform it.
Separate contribution from personal worth
The Value Worker framework asks how learning and adaptation contribute to useful work over time. It should not become a label for sorting people into valuable and disposable groups.
Contribution depends on opportunity, tools, support, task design, and conditions as well as individual capability. A person who cannot apply a skill because the process prevents it does not need the same intervention as someone who has never practiced it.
Help the individual see a path
A useful record might say: “You noticed that the draft did not account for the exception. Next, practice explaining the exception to a colleague who wants to send the standard reply.”
That gives the person a next step. “Become more adaptable” does not.
The organization can use the same observation more narrowly: there is evidence of checking an exception in this task, while stakeholder negotiation remains unobserved.
Test transfer rather than announcing it
Try another task with a different policy exception. Later, examine relevant work under the support conditions the role actually provides. Expertise and context matter; a good performance in one setting does not automatically travel to another.
Take this into workforce planning: When a task is automated, name the decision responsibility that moves to the person. Where will they practice it before the consequences become real?
Concepts in this piece
- The Value Worker · How learning and adaptation contribute to useful work as responsibilities change.
- Core Abilities · Three ways of working through a decision: test the explanation, consider alternatives, and trace consequences.
Bring a real problem
What does your learning need to change?
A role people are struggling with. A decision that keeps going wrong. A capability you need to see before giving someone more responsibility. Start there.