Is Your Organization Antifragile?

A lot of leaders I work with are worried about the increasing levels of fragility among the people on their teams. On one hand, fragility makes us profoundly human, in balance - or competing with - our capacity for resilience in the face of adversity.?

There’s no doubt that the 2020s have provided ample adversity for all of us, in varying ways. Our resilience has certainly been stretched, and it’s only fair that sometimes fragility wins out, and we need care from others and ourselves to protect ourselves in fragile moments, or repair from the emotional, physical, or other injuries that result.

However, today’s uncertainty and challenges aren’t going anywhere, so we need to keep the fragility in healthy balance with resilience in order to thrive regardless of - or even thanks to (as Nassim Talib suggests in Antifragile) - ongoing disruption’. The fragility many leaders are seeing among their teams is a barrier to our collective well-being and performance in three dimensions: Me, We, and World.

The Cost of Excessive Fragility

The effects of fragility emerge in three dimensions: our individual well-being (Me), our experiences at home and work (We), and our broader communities(World). In the “Me” dimension, excessive fragility icompromises our emotional health, which can lead to feelings of vulnerability and insecurity and affect our confidence. Managing these negative emotions demands energy and attention, depleting our energy for other activities and contributing to physical fatigue.

If we do not get care to address fragility within ourselves, there are residual effects in the “We” dimension. Our relationships and workplace performance suffer. There are many times when burnout is rooted in personal fragility, affecting our ability to concentrate, make decisions, or handle stress effectively. Fragility affects our relationships because it is antithetical to connection. Ultimately this restricts our contribution to the community because fragility prevents good for all change. We are in a time when change is needed in these 3 different dimensions. There is, in my opinion, a responsibility we hold to have an impact on change because what we are currency doing is not working.?

Recognizing Excessive Fragility

So how do we moderate fragility to fulfill our responsibility to create positive change? It is a truism that the first step towards change is awareness”. One of the best things we can do to impact change is to know the signs of mental fragility in the 3 dimensions.?

The signs of fragility in the Me dimension often look like poor mental health, whether clinically diagnosed levels of anxiety or depression or less severe but still present symptoms. Today's mental health crisis, with increasing rates of anxiety and depression, support the anecdotal observation of increased fragility in the Me dimension.?

Signs of fragility in the We dimension are a lack of interpersonal connections; distrust; flagging innovation (because of the inability to experiment and fail safely);and high levels of restrictions, control, or bureaucracy; and many other elements of a toxic organizational culture. You might note that these elements are the antithesis of expert guidance as to what is required for an organization to survive or succeed in today’s market.

Finally, in the World dimension, fragility shows up as political polarization, lack of reasoned debate, and outdated policies that don’t serve the greater good. All of these result from the barriers presented by fragility to honest but hard conversations about topics that are important to us and our collective well-being.

Again, fragility is part of the human experience. If we pretend to be immune from hurt or damage, we deny our humanity, and are in no position to lead. Indeed, fragility can expand our self-awareness, in terms of what it is that hurts us, and empathy, in terms of what hurts other people. Indeed, fragility can be an essential and powerful driver of our drive to create impact. What we need to protect against is letting fragility go unchecked, avoiding all discomfort and potential for injury. When balanced with courage and resilience, fragility guides us to recognize the things we want to change.?

Addressing Fragility

So what can we do with fragility and fulfill our responsibility towards change in three dimensions? In the Me dimension, self-awareness leads to the clarity, purpose, confidence, and courage that mitigate fragility. In the We dimension, it’s about recognizing and resisting the allure of crippling fear, and getting comfortable with the necessary debate required to address those fears. Further, it’s critical for organizations to separate people from ideas, allowing individuals to be respected, valued, and included, even when they have ideas that vary from the status quo and eventually don’t work.??

Finally, in the World dimension, it’s about recognizing and valuing a diversity of styles, in terms of how we work, what success looks like, and our lifestyle choices. This does not permit relativistic ‘anything goes’ thinking - we must have boundaries of universal rights to exist together. But starting from an ‘I’m good, you’re good,’ belief is the foundation for a not-too-fragile community.

Or even more powerfully, perhaps we can become antifragile, using Nassim Talib’s phrase from the book In Anti-Fragile: Things That Gain From Disorder., Nassim Talib observed that some things benefit from shock. They thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors. Given the world we’re living in now, how powerful would it be to become, or help our teams and organizations be, antifragile??

Kelly Wendorf shares a similar statement on fragility. Kelly states, “What is the antidote to fragility? It is this—robustness. Robustness is the opposite of the fragile legacy colonization has created. Robustness recognizes we are each a part of a living breathing whole – we always belong, we are never ever alone and therefore we are ultimately profoundly safe.”? How compelling to be able to also gain from this chaos we're living in now. What a differentiator that would be in this market.

How might you recognize and transform your fragility - the ways you could be hurt or broken - into a driver of thriving? Where can you find robustness, in your own sense of identity or purpose? In your innermost relationships or collaborations? From communities, you’re part of online or in your geographic neighborhood? Your survival and thriving, as an individual, leader, and citizen, depend on it!?

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