Anti-fragility: A Survival Skill in Chaos

We know what FRAGILITY means. After having moved across continents a few times, I know what it’s like to unpack the boxes that read FRAGILE on the outside only to discover that (again) my champaign glasses didn’t make it through the container trip. They were not robust enough.

People can be fragile, too; they are vulnerable; when life hits them with adversity, they break down easily. The same applies to other entities like organizations and teams; they fall apart when put under pressure.

We don’t like being fragile. We prefer to be the opposite of fragile; we want to be resilient. RESILIENCE is “the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape.” Back to the analogy of my move; my duvets are incredibly resilient. I packed them neatly and tightly in vacuum-drawn bags. But the minute I take them out of the bags, they immediately regain their original shape and volume. They haven’t changed.

Resilience in people means that we can take a punch AND know how to get back up and return to our everyday lives.

There is a third and different way of handling shock when life throws us a curve ball. It’s called being ‘anti-fragile.’ ANTI-FRAGILITY, a concept by Nassim Taleb, goes BEYOND resilience or robustness. Taleb says: “Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love, adventure, risk, and uncertainty. ….The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better”.

Now, that sounds like a great way of handling uncertainty; instead of bouncing back to the ‘original’ version of ourselves, our companies, and our teams, we create a NEW version.

There are many examples from nature and its evolution where the species that survived were the ones that not only adapted best to changing habitats and climates but became STRONGER because of it. It’s the scar tissue that grows from a wound that is stronger than the original skin was before it got injured.

HOW CAN WE THRIVE AND GROW FROM THE MESSINESS AND CHAOS OF LIFE?

First, see what pieces of chaos we can use to CREATE from. Like a writer who finds herself in difficult circumstances, who writes a book about it that is so inspiring that it helps many others who go through a similar event. Or a comedian who turns what felt like a negative experience from his own life into a hilarious sketch. They USE their adversity to CREATE something that wasn’t there before.

Companies can become anti-fragile by adapting their strategies through diversification or developing a more comprehensive range of ‘specialized business units’. We now see organizations continuously investing in ‘entrepreneurial-type’ business units, so companies can shift gears and focus on serving new markets and new clients in times when their more ‘traditional’ markets are disrupted.

Leaders can help people become anti-fragile by ensuring that they not only learn ‘hard skills but also have excellent communication and people skills, develop creative thinking and have a growth mindset. This increases the chances of survival the next time a crisis hits.

While resilience can be a helpful skill for quickly returning to ‘normal,’ being anti-fragile, continuously adapting, and learning, allows us to thrive in the midst of whatever comes our way.

Let’s Lead!