Empathy destroys us when it makes excuses. Grit is pressing forward. Getting beyond resilience multiplies competence.
Delicate teams argue over trivialities. Fragile cultures protect people from discomfort.
Avoiding discomfort leads to weakness.
The feeble need rescue. The competent grow through challenge.
Resilience survives. Antifragile* teams thrive.
Turbulence is inevitable. Why not create it before it breaks down the door? Build space for struggle.
Disrupt to Thrive
Change before you build Model Ts no one wants.
- Reject big rollouts.
- Run small experiments.
- Focus on learning.
Ignite insight by creating tension. If it ain’t broke, try something new.
Questions that move beyond resilience:
- What will you regret if nothing changes?
- What actually matters now?
- Why are we doing things this way?
- What if we lose our funding?
- What would make this new idea acceptable?
- What are we doing that’s working? What if we did this another way?
Questions that build antifragile* teams:
- What’s true of people who thrive during disruption? How can we become like that?
- What would we do differently if we ran this again tomorrow?
- What skills would make our team hard to replace?
- Where are we blindly committed to one path?
- Who is closest to this problem?
- How is hierarchy blocking forward movement?
- How many approvals are necessary?
- What could we stop doing?
Schedule Slack
Efficiency creates fragility. Margin is space to face disruption. Slack allows adaptability.
- Provide time to review, reflect, and adapt.
- Maintain financial buffers.
- Don’t schedule people at 100%.
Slack is space to get beyond resilience and thrive.
Getting beyond resilience turns adversity into advantage. Grit presses through. Antifragile* people get better.
*Read: Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
What’s one thing you can do today to equip yourself or your team to thrive during disruption?
