Introduction to the Concept of Organisational Antifragility

by Oliviero Casale

In the study “Beyond resilience: towards antifragility?” David Hillson argues that the concept of antifragility represents a unique capability for organisations—not only allowing them to withstand shocks but also to benefit from them, improving their performance in a lasting way. Antifragility goes beyond robustness and resilience: whereas robustness is a passive quality of resistance, and resilience focuses on returning to the status quo after a crisis, antifragility transforms stress into an opportunity for growth. In an increasingly unpredictable business environment, antifragility emerges as a strategy that enables organisations to evolve and improve as they face challenges.

The Taxonomy of Organisational Antifragility

This study proposes a model of organisational antifragility structured into four levels of maturity, each with specific characteristics that reinforce each other to build an organisation capable of deriving lasting benefits from stressful events.

1. Innate Antifragility (Individual Level): This level represents an immediate and non-specific response to stress events, similar to the innate immune response. It is based on people’s ability to react promptly, without waiting for permissions or specific instructions. This rapid reaction stabilises the organisation in the initial stages of a crisis.
2. Adaptive Antifragility (Individual Level): At this level, the organisation develops a specific and targeted response, shaped by experience derived from exposure to previous stressful events. Adaptive antifragility is comparable to the adaptive immune response, where experience enables the identification of and optimal response to a specific risk. Individual skills refine over time, creating a reserve of knowledge and skills that can be activated in the future.
3. Rheopectic Antifragility (Structural Level): This dimension manifests at the level of processes and groups within the organisation. Pressure stimulates new synergies, strengthens operational ties, and facilitates the development of practices that make business processes more solid and resilient even after the crisis is over. This “rheopectic” organisational characteristic is comparable to the behaviour of certain non-Newtonian fluids, which harden under pressure and retain this structure afterward.
4. Emergent Antifragility (Organisational Level): This level represents the organisation’s ability to take calculated risks, turning every challenge into an opportunity for continuous improvement. It is the result of an organisational culture that values learning, innovation, and strategic risk management, allowing for organic growth that would not have been possible without the stimulus of crisis.

Key Steps to Developing Organisational Antifragility

According to Hillson, to achieve antifragility, organisations must follow a series of steps that create a solid foundation for responding and proactively adapting to shocks:

• Empowerment of Individuals: It is essential for the organisation to allow individuals and teams to act immediately in response to a crisis without having to seek authorisations. A clear structure, with delegated authority and responsibility, promotes an environment in which individual initiative is encouraged and supported.
• Creating a Risk Culture: The risk culture in an antifragile organisation values appropriate and calculated risk, promoting an approach that sees error and failure as learning opportunities. This requires the organisation to overcome the conservative mindset of “avoiding risk” to embrace change as a growth tool.
• Developing Risk Management Competencies: Antifragile organisations must invest in continuous training and the development of risk management skills at all levels. This includes the ability to assess risks, manage stress, adapt to changes, and operate flexibly in the face of uncertainty.
• Creating Organisational Memory: Documenting and sharing lessons learned from stressful events is essential for building a collective experience. This organisational memory not only facilitates the response to future crises but also makes the improvements achieved permanent. Lessons learned should be integrated into standard procedures and company culture to avoid repeated mistakes and promote continuous optimisation.
• Promoting a Learning Organisation: Antifragile organisations must be able to learn continuously from challenges. The ability to reflect, adapt, and improve processes is essential for consolidating progress. A learning organisation integrates improvements obtained from each crisis, making learning an integral part of the corporate culture.

Distinctive Characteristics of Organisational Antifragility

Organisations stand out for certain fundamental characteristics that enable them to grow and improve under pressure:

1. Immediate and Adaptive Response: Antifragility implies a rapid reaction to stressful events through immediate generic responses, followed by adaptive responses as the problem becomes clearer. This dual-level approach allows for rapid stabilisation of the situation and precise adaptation to the specific risk.
2. Strengthening Under Pressure: At the structural level, antifragile organisations strengthen their processes and operational relationships during crises, making these changes permanent and beneficial. This strengthening makes the organisation more resilient and ready to face future crises with a more solid structure.
3. Appropriate Risk-Taking: At the organisational level, an antifragile company does not avoid risks but selects them strategically. This approach allows it to capitalise on opportunities without exposing the organisation to unnecessary dangers, thus creating a balance between innovation and safety.
4. Permanent Performance Improvement: Unlike resilience, which aims to restore the organisation to its previous level after a crisis, antifragility brings permanent performance improvements. Antifragile organisations not only recover but emerge stronger and more capable than they were before the crisis.
5. Synergy Across Levels of Antifragility: Antifragility is expressed at various organisational levels (individual, structural, and organisational), with synergistic effects that increase overall impact. The combination of rapid and structural responses enables exponential and deeper improvement, creating an organisation that not only resists but thrives under stress.

Conclusion

According to Hillson’s perspective, antifragility represents an evolution beyond traditional robustness and resilience strategies, proposing a model that transforms challenges into levers for sustainable growth.

Organisations that adopt an antifragile approach develop a flexible and adaptive structure capable of deriving lasting advantages from moments of crisis. This concept requires a corporate culture open to learning, a calculated approach to risk, and a solid organisational memory. Antifragility thus becomes not only a survival strategy but a competitive advantage for organisations that wish to thrive in a complex and unpredictable world.