Are you tired of feeling drained and overwhelmed in your career? Challenging colleagues and workplace dynamics pose unique challenges, don’t they?
Yet are these obstacles serve as an outstanding teacher?
Antifragility is a concept popularised by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Antifragility offers a new perspective on navigating and even thriving in difficult situations.
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
Let’s explore the principles of antifragility. How can you apply them to your work environment? How does this idea help you become more resilient and agile in facing challenges?
Embrace the suck
Antifragility is not about being unbreakable. It’s about bending and adapting to adversity and becoming stronger in time. One image helps me conceptualise antifragility — the Hydra.
The Hydra was a mythical Greek creature known for its many heads. According to various accounts, the Hydra had anywhere from nine to a hundred heads and was difficult to defeat because whenever one of its heads was chopped off, two more would grow in its place. This made killing it almost impossible, and it was considered one of the greatest threats to humanity in Greek mythology. The Hydra was often depicted as a serpent-like monster with a venomous bite and was known for its strength and ferocity.
Isn’t antifragility about resilience?
We can easily assume antifragility and resilience are the same. Workplace books and research focus on an individual’s resilience. Yet antifragility goes far beyond the idea of resilience.
Antifragility is the ability to withstand stress or adversity, thrive, and become stronger. It is about adapting and growing in the face of challenges — thriving not only surviving. Antifragility involves embracing change and uncertainty.
Resilience is the ability to bounce back or recover from stress or adversity, but not necessarily to grow stronger due to it. It is a more reactive approach to dealing with stress or adversity rather than a proactive one.
There is a defining difference between antifragility and resilience. Antifragility is about being proactive and adapting to stress or adversity to grow stronger. Resilience is about being reactive and recovering from stress or adversity. Yet isn’t there more to life than only recovering from it?
The mighty oak and the willow tree
Once upon a time, there was a mighty oak tree and a willow tree standing in a field together. A terrible storm hit the field one day with strong winds and heavy rain. The oak tree stood tall and proud, but the willow tree bent and swayed with the wind.
At first, the oak tree thought it was winning the battle against the storm, but the winds became too strong in time, and the oak tree was knocked over. Yet the willow tree continued to bend and sway with the wind, and it emerged unscathed when the storm passed.
The story’s point: sometimes it is better to be flexible and adaptable like the willow tree. Standing tall and rigid like the oak tree might look good at first. But by being open to change and able to adapt, we can become stronger and more resilient in the face of adversity.
An entire martial art arose from this story — jujutsu. The original jujutsu school — Yoshin ryu — is the “willow tree school”.
The willow tree of jujutsu is a metaphor for using flexibility and adaptability to overcome challenges or adversity.
Ever tried to overpower or resist superior strength? Did you find yourself out of breath and lacking resolve in no time? I know I have — it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
― George S. Patton Jr., War as I Knew It
Yet I choose to learn from those times I ran out of puff. Preserving my energy is important to me.
Building my capacity to handle greater aggression, unfairness, complexity and opposition makes me better, not bitter.
Rolling with superior strength is based on the concept of antifragility. Preserving your energy, “staying light on your feet” and rolling with resistance are antifragile tactics. Each serves you in the face of stress or adversity. Relax, preserve your precious energy and tolerate discomfort.
In the context of jujutsu, the willow tree represents using an opponent’s strength and momentum against them. Aim to use strength rarely or never. Your jujutsu training encourages you to be adaptable as possible. You also learn to respond and react to changing circumstances. Thus jujutsu practitioners build their tolerance to complex, overwhelming and enduring opponent presentations. The willow tree way of thinking is also a metaphor for workplace struggles.
New ways forward for embracing antifragility
A greater tolerance for distress and uncertainty helps build antifragility. Greater distress tolerance allows individuals and organizations to adapt and grow stronger. Confidence builds when you recognise your increased ability to tolerate and adapt. As such, we feel better equipped to navigate and overcome challenges.
This virtuous circle of antifragility prepares you for even more. You may be more likely to seek new challenges and experiences rather than avoid them out of fear or discomfort. This can lead to personal growth, development, and increased confidence and resilience. Organisations with a high tolerance for distress and uncertainty may be more willing to take risks and try new things. The organisation’s virtuous circle leads to innovation and growth.
So a greater tolerance for distress and uncertainty is an important component of antifragility.
There are many challenges that organizations face where embracing antifragility can be helpful. Organisational change, unforeseen events and technological disruptions for example. Leadership transitions and how industries adapt to consumer demands are others.
Bend or break: the choice is yours
Embrace antifragility in your personal and professional life — the choice is yours.
Life will be difficult no matter what you do. At least by choosing antifragility, you get to choose your challenges.
Embrace uncertainty and change and feel your distress tolerance build. Your deliberate practice builds your “tolerance muscle”. Or avoid or resist change and try to maintain stability at all costs. As the character Ash said in Aliens, I can’t lie to you about your chances, but you have my sympathies.
The choice to embrace antifragility will depend on your goals, values and readiness. I hope 2023 is your year to embrace small yet progressive challenges. In doing so, you are building your antifragility.
Want to learn more about organisational change? Check out my book The Change Manager’s Companion. It’s available now. You can also enjoy my online course on Change Management.