Strengths
Human value you bring that remains useful as AI spreads: context, judgement, trust, accountability, or knowledge of how work gets done.
The ADAPTOR framework
A practical way to understand your work and decide what to do next.
ADAPTOR is free to use in full. It helps you look beneath your job title, assess how AI-era changes affect your position, choose goals that respond to what you find, and take action.
AAdministrative Operators
DDigital Builders
AAnalysts
PProfessional Advisors
TTeam Coordinators
OOutput Creators
RRelationship Workers
One connected method
From what you do to what you will do next.
01ProfileWhere am I now?
02Personal SWOTWhat is changing around and within my work?
03GoalsWhere do I want to move?
04ActionWhat will I do and review?
You can complete every step with this guide and your own notes. The examples below use one fictional person so you can see how each output feeds the next.
01
Where am I now?
Profile
Describe the work, not just the job title.
A job title can hide a mix of very different activities. Start with the work you are paid, trusted, or expected to do. The seven ADAPTOR Work Profiles describe broad kinds of work; most roles combine more than one.
- Write down the activities that take up a meaningful part of your working week.
- Choose the profile that best describes the main work you are responsible for as your Primary Work Profile.
- Choose an important second kind of work as your Secondary Work Profile. Add a Supporting Profile if it materially affects your SWOT, or a Desired Profile if you want to move toward different work.
- Sense-check the mix against actual responsibilities, outcomes, and feedback. You do not need exact percentages; this is a useful map, not a measurement.
Ask yourself
What work do people depend on me to do? What do I spend time doing? Where do I want to build more responsibility?
Output: a current work-profile mix that tells you which activities and responsibilities to examine in your Personal SWOT. A profile is not a personality type or a job-risk score.
Read all seven Work Profiles02
What is changing?
Personal AI-Era SWOT
Build a picture of your position from real signals.
Bring your Primary and Secondary Work Profiles into this step. For each, look at the activities you actually do, the value others rely on, and the changes you have observed. The profiles tell you where to look; your SWOT makes the assessment personal. Strengths and Weaknesses are features of your current position. Opportunities and Threats are changes around you that could increase or reduce the demand for your work.
Weaknesses
Parts of your work or positioning that are routine, exposed, difficult to see, generic, or underdeveloped.
Opportunities
Ways AI may help you improve quality, move toward more valuable work, build options, or create something new.
Threats
Ways AI may reduce demand, compress roles, change expectations, enable self-service, or weaken your current position.
- Consider your profile mix, career stage, industry, organisation, and any Desired Profile.
- Write a few observations in each box. Keep each statement specific enough to discuss; three to five useful signals per box is a workable starting point, not a quota.
- For each signal, note what you have actually seen: a changed workflow, customer request, manager decision, quality issue, hiring pattern, or repeated task.
- Separate the evidence from your interpretation. Mark what you still need to find out instead of treating a worry or forecast as a fact.
- Choose the signals that could matter most to your work, options, or timing. You do not need to act on every item at once.
Ask yourself
What have I observed? What am I inferring from it? What would help me check whether that interpretation is right?
Output: a personal, evidence-backed SWOT that gives you several real starting points for goals.
03
Where do I want to move?
Goals
Connect a change outside you to a response you can shape.
Start with one Threat you need to respond to or one Opportunity you want to develop. Then decide whether to use a Strength or reduce a Weakness. The goal is the outcome you want; it is not yet the list of tasks you will do.
Threat or Opportunity+Strength to use or Weakness to reduce→A concrete outcome
Write goals for the horizons that matter to you. A connected, concrete, feasible goal answers three questions: does it respond to a real SWOT signal, would you recognise progress, and does it fit the time available?
Short term
Now to 3 months. Choose a realistic outcome you can begin influencing soon.
Medium term
3 to 12 months. Build toward stronger value, positioning, or contribution over time.
Long term
12 months and beyond. Build options, credibility, or a direction that may take longer to prepare.
Ask yourself
Which Threat or Opportunity deserves attention first? What Strength could help, or what Weakness would make the response more realistic to address?
Output: one or more goals tied to specific SWOT signals. Keep them as outcomes; you will decide the actions in the next step.
04
How will I get there?
Action and review
Choose a move that teaches you something.
Actions translate a goal into something observable. A short-term goal can have a practical action plan. Medium- and long-term goals usually need a nearer milestone first.
- For each goal, ask what must change for the outcome to become more likely.
- Write a clear action you can begin. Check that it supports the goal and that you will be able to tell whether it happened or helped.
- For a longer goal, choose the next milestone rather than trying to plan every step in advance.
- Set a date to review what happened. Note what you learned, whether the goal still fits, and what action should come next.
Revisit your profile mix and SWOT when your responsibilities, organisation, market, or evidence changes. A quarterly check-in is one practical rhythm; review sooner when something important shifts.
Ask yourself
What will I do first? What would count as useful progress? When will I look at the result and decide whether to continue, adjust, or stop?
Output: an action or milestone linked to a goal, plus a date to learn from the result.
One fictional example
Follow the same work through all four steps.
This made-up example shows how a person could reason from observations to a plan. It is an illustration, not a prediction about administrative roles.
A mixed role
An administrative coordinator spends time preparing meeting materials and tracking follow-up. Administrative Operator is the primary profile; Team Coordinator is secondary.
Four useful signals
- Strength: spots sensitive exceptions and dependencies others miss.
- Weakness: routine updates take time and can obscure that judgement.
- Opportunity: with approved tools, a first draft could take less time, leaving more room for review and follow-up.
- Threat: managers may self-serve routine summaries, reducing demand for some of the current output.
Pick outcomes by horizon
- Short: within three months, make exception judgement more visible in team updates.
- Medium: over 3–12 months, develop a repeatable contribution to improving a process that produces recurring exceptions.
- Long: over 12+ months, explore a move toward broader operations or delivery coordination if that direction still fits.
Try and review a move
For the short-term goal, add a brief exception-and-recommendation note to one update within two weeks. Ask a manager whether it helped, record the response, and review it after two weeks.
A useful plan creates a better basis for a decision. It cannot guarantee what an employer, customer, or market will do.
Begin wherever you are
Use the whole guide, or map one activity first.
The ADAPTOR Starter Sheet takes one recurring activity through the same four steps. Use it as a quick way to begin, then extend your thinking across the rest of your role using this page and the Work Profile library.
Optional book support
Work through ADAPTOR with a guide beside you.
The complete framework is free to use on this site. Be an AI-Era ADAPTOR adds guided assessment, worked examples, practical coaching, and a companion workbook.