By Neal Woolrich, director analyst in Gartner's HR practice
It’s easy to assume that employees who navigate ongoing disruption with relative ease are simply resilient or more willing to change. The reality is that these individuals have developed practical behaviours that help them respond to uncertainty before stress, hesitation or fatigue take hold.
Many organisations have traditionally treated change as a staged process. A new strategy or disruption emerges, leaders communicate the organisational response and employees are supported through the transition. This approach made sense when change was relatively contained and had a clear beginning and end.
With the unprecedented volume of change today, however, workforces are navigating multiple challenges at once, from the impact of AI on jobs, skills and workflows, to responding to evolving business priorities and external disruptions. Change is now a permanent feature of work.
The challenge is no longer whether employees understand the change, but whether they can adapt at the right pace while maintaining performance and protecting their wellbeing.
Gartner research reveals 36 per cent of business leaders say employees adopt a "wait and see" approach, delaying action until they have greater confidence that new ways of working will last. A further 39 per cent say change is a significant source of stress for their teams.
Leaders need to shift focus from managing each new challenge as a separate event, to helping employees build instinctive behaviours that make change easier to absorb, act on and sustain.
Build behaviours that support change
Employees rarely respond to change in the same way – some adjust quickly, whereas others may take a more cautious approach. The difference isn’t capability or commitment, but whether employees have developed the instinctive behaviours needed to weather uncertainty and adapt as circumstances evolve.
These change reflexes can only develop when practiced consistently, allowing employees to build confidence in their own judgement and experience, rather than waiting for direction when uncertainty arises.
Instead of viewing every new challenge as an unfamiliar event, employees draw on habits that have become second nature. The result is a healthier approach to change and better wellbeing outcomes.
Gartner research found employees who can apply change reflexes are 3.5 times more likely to achieve healthy change adoption and 2.2 times more likely to experience better mental wellbeing.
The goal is to build a workforce that can adapt repeatedly, regardless of what change comes next, rather than prepare employees for a single transformation.
Focus on what matters most
A good place to start is understanding which behaviours and skills are most important for helping employees navigate change successfully. Openness to new experiences, effective time management and an understanding of the broader business context can support employees through periods of uncertainty.
Equally important are technology proficiency, the ability to collaborate with a wide range of people and emotional regulation. These areas provide a useful foundation, but they shouldn’t be viewed as a universal checklist.
Rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, business leaders should identify the reflexes most closely linked to successful outcomes within their own organisation. This will help target development efforts and ensure they align with both employee needs and future business priorities.
Make adaptability part of everyday work
To become instinctive, the actions that build change reflexes must be practiced consistently in everyday situations.
Managers should look for opportunities within existing workflows where employees can strengthen these competencies as part of their day-to-day responsibilities. This may involve exposing teams to unfamiliar experiences, encouraging collaboration, or creating opportunities that challenge their thinking.
When preparing for a new project, for example, managers could include all team members in planning and budgeting conversations to develop their openness to new experiences. Individuals could also be asked to lead quarterly project prioritisation discussions to hone their time management reflexes.
By incorporating this type of development as part of everyday work, organisations move beyond isolated training programs and create regular opportunities for employees to build confidence as they navigate change.
Use AI to develop change reflexes
AI can play an important role in helping leaders identify the change reflexes that matter most and align development efforts to ensure they have the greatest impact.
It’s a great tool for forecasting change outcomes, potential areas of resistance and adoption rates, based on historical data and employee feedback. This can help uncover gaps in workforce adaptability and anticipate potential adoption challenges.
It can also support a more personalised approach to employee development that boosts their confidence in change, by recommending initiatives to strengthen the reflexes most relevant to their role, team or circumstances.
This offers managers more data-driven workforce planning information and measures the return on investment of training. It also boosts organisational agility and resilience by keeping change reflexes current in the ungovernable change environment.
The new frontline for HR
The ultimate measure of a workforce’s change readiness will be how often it achieves healthy change adoption. It shouldn’t only be measured on whether adoption is achieved on time, but also how it supports employee engagement, performance and wellbeing.
The next evolution of change management is building the reflexes employees need to adapt and respond confidently to whatever comes next.