How Are Your People Adapting to Change?
 

As we edge closer to the end of the financial year here in Australia, many businesses are shifting gears—reviewing what’s working, resetting goals, and rolling out or refreshing their strategic direction. It’s an exciting time, but also one that often brings a level of uncertainty. Change, even when it’s positive, can rattle the rhythm of a team and create conflict. 

One of the most common challenges business leaders share with us is: “How do I help my team adapt to change?”
 

It’s a big question—and a very human one. 

At Rapid Teams, we work with groups across all kinds of industries, and this theme comes up time and time again. It’s something we explore through our hands-on and interactive team development Ways of Working program, especially through the lens of DiSC profiling. We find this fascinating, because DiSC gives teams a shared language to talk about behavioural preferences, motivators, and importantly—stressors. 
 

The reality is, people respond to change differently. Some will lean in with excitement, ready to explore new ideas. Others might resist, feeling a need for clarity and certainty before they can move forward. Neither response is wrong—it just speaks to how differently we’re wired.

That’s where DiSC becomes such a powerful tool. It’s a research-based psychometric model that gives people real insight into how they show up at work—how they communicate, what energises them, and what trips them up when pressure hits. It helps teams understand each other on a much deeper level, in turn building trust.
 

And when we’re talking about change, we’re almost always talking about pressure—and that’s when conflict can emerge. Not necessarily the negative kind, but the sort that arises when people are working through uncertainty, sometimes pulling in different directions.
 

We often bring in Patrick Lencioni’s Conflict Wheel visual framework to explore this. It helps teams unpack how they process conflict: Do they avoid it? Confront it head-on? Try to smooth things over? When you pair that understanding with DiSC insights, it creates a space for healthy, productive conflict—and that’s gold in a team navigating change. 

So—how do you help your people right now, in these uncertain times? 

That’s not a quick-fix kind of question. But we believe it starts with tuning in to how people are feeling and what they need. And for us, that often means reconnecting with the research of Professor Don Clifton, the father of Strengths-based Leadership (if you haven’t read the book by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, it’s worth adding to the list).
 

In their work, they identified four core reasons why people choose to follow a leader. It’s interesting—we hear a lot about “leadership” these days, but not as much about “followership”. Yet every one of us, at some point, chooses who to follow. Why is that?
 

Two of the four themes that stand out for us right now are:
 

• Stability – People look to leaders who provide grounding in the present. In times of change, stability helps anchor us. 

• Hope – People also need to believe in a positive future. A sense of hope puts wind in our sails and is what keeps teams moving forward, even when things are uncertain.
   

So, as you step into the new financial year—whether you’re refining strategy, leading through change, or simply trying to keep your team steady—take a moment to reflect.
 

What are you doing to offer stability?
What are you doing to inspire hope?
 

These two qualities might just be the difference between a team that feels lost in change, and one that’s ready to grow through it. 

Ready to Support Your Team?

Whether your team needs to strengthen their communication skills, improve team alignment, or clarify goals, our Ways of Working Workshop was developed to help build high-performing teams.

Our Ways of Working Workshop includes an online team DiSC assessment and a half or full day workshop where your team can learn to put their new skills into practice.

If you’re looking to give your team the tools they need to go from ‘good’ to ‘exceptional’, inquire today about our Ways of Working program.