A new style in a world of exponentially increasing complexity: antifragile leadership
Nicolas Taleb defined antifragility as the ability to get stronger when exposed to unexpected high impact events that he calls black swans. The concept emerged as the antithesis of fragile, characteristic associated with those objects that break when subjected to pressure or sudden shocks. Until the appearance of this term, the opposite of fragile was robust, meaning the ability to remain unchanged under any circumstances. An antifragile organism is not only able to maintain its strength, but increases its performance when subjected to extreme conditions.
In an increasingly unpredictable world where every day the black swans are more common, be antifragile means having the ability to react and adapt to the new, reconverting internal structures to become more efficient in an increasingly demanding environment. The antifragility thrives on change and also of high stress situations. Like the Hydra of Lerna (the example used by Taleb), every time you cut one head, two arise to replace it.
As in all critical moments, the people responsible for guiding, set the direction and lead the processes are those who first have to adapt to the new situation and thus our collective success depends on their ability to fulfill this role. It can be said that the mission of the new leaders is just to support the construction of antifragile organizations, and to achieve the goal, in addition to other traditional qualities such as ethics, the ability to mobilize followers or charisma, some specific skills are required as key success factors. We present some below:
? Ability to take controlled risks and accept and face the consequences of failures as part of the learning process. Effective organizations tend to be in their early stages "collectors" of errors. As Edison said when he recalled the time a prototype had not worked, he had just found 10,000 ways not to do it.
? Open minded, ability to work and manage multicultural and multifunctional environments without abusing the authority criteria. Understanding diversity is to understand the world and also paying attention to other synergistic ways of thinking. In a global market Multiculturalism is essential, as customers are from different cultures.
? Respect other people's talent and be able to integrate good ideas, wherever they come from. Accept other forms of approach, which is called "thinking outside the box". The best solutions are like living things grow and develop in a favorable environment. We must "give oxygen" to make them germinate.
? Teaming as philosophy. In an increasingly complex world, experts in all doesn′t exist anymore. Manage talent is to make everyone focus on what they do better and be able to assemble the different parts so that everyone feels part of the project. This favors in-company sale, essential for projects to be given the green light and progress.
? Motivating, positive, energizing. Understanding why people do things and support the convergence of objectives between the organization and individuals. Believe it or not, mercenaries are a minority. The vast majority of best performers would change some of their salary for more recognition and better working environment. If you have to ask people to be alert and ready to face situations of high demand remaining productive, let them feel comfortable doing their job
? Ability to listen, avoiding bunkering and biases (hear only what we want). Clear ideas but lack of dogmatism. Knowing that change is a virtue as long as it does not become a weathervane effect and it is possible to be explained to the organization.
? Ability to manage own stress and from collaborators. Unexpected situations will be the norm, especially if the company moves in international environments and more particularly in emerging markets. In times of high tension is when the temptation to blame the others most frequently manifests itself. Antifrágile good leaders should help control and prevent fears to become a weapon among team members, as this would be a barrier to the core project′s progress.
? Informed but not obsessed with information: too much can be as dangerous as too little. In the current environment, the number of variables grows exponentially and the number of sources of information without reliable assessment of quality and relevance do so.
? Should be frequent users of “commonsense dot com”. Grandmothers knew how to manage scarce resources to fill the shopping basket... and they did not have to go to any business school, but simply to apply a little of common sense, something very often missing in organizations.
In short, a leader who can take calculated risks without criminalizing partial failures, use resources that multiculturalism and the different approaches within an organization can offer, who can join efforts of his team recognizing talent wherever it comes and making its members feel valued, who understands diversity as an opportunity rather than as a risk, who can listen and draw conclusions distinguishing between the essential and the only important, who can keep himself and his collaborators stress on effectiveness levels, manage information well and systematically apply common sense is an antifrágile leader, someone capable of using the most challenging circumstances to get stronger and make successful stories. Finding them is challenging, but is a matter of survival.