Climate adaptation presents numerous challenges for organizations and it should be useful to identify which aspects are likely to be more difficult and thus require greater focus.  Just as a person's personality can have a strong influence on what they find easy and what they find challenging, so the 'personality' of organisations - the way they approach planning and decision-making and their internal cultures - may influence which aspects of climate adaptation they find most challenging.  We defined eight aspects of organisational 'personality' that could be related to the ability to adapt to climate change, modifying existing theory about the adaptive capacity of individuals.  We surveyed Australia's regional natural resource management (NRM) groups to characterize their traits in relation to these eight aspects of personality.  We then used cluster analysis and trait mapping to define five general types of NRM groups.  We found that group type was unrelated to geographic location or types of land uses, but five of our aspects of personality did help define group types.  We suggest different ways in which each type of group may find climate adaptation difficult simply because adaptation will conflict with existing organisational processes and cultures.  These processes likely represent effective ways to handle other planning challenges, so rather than replace them, we suggest our typology can help organisations target the processes and approaches they may need to supplement or modify to succeed at adapting to climate change.