Embracing Antifragility for 2025

2024 reviewed. 2/5 ⭐s. Could do better.

Hello and holiday greetings Wayfinders,

I hope you’re somewhere here….

Katie Kirby, Hurrah for Gin

As 2024 draws to a close, it’s time for a little year-in-review. Contrived? Maybe, but there’s excellent evidence for the benefits of reflection for all types of learning and performance, and I’ve had a big year of learning.

Since leaving employed life in February, I’ve spent 10 months listening, exploring, reading, teaching, collaborating, sharing, and ideating at the intersection of positive psychology, community leadership, systems thinking and social impact. It's been a year of transformation - so it's been wildly uncomfortable.

It wasn’t the year I planned. I had a big project lined up, but that fell through. Regular income became piecemeal and make-do. I launched new ideas, and watched them fail. There were half-hearted attempts at getting a ‘proper job’ but that was tougher than expected - and who am I kidding? I’m not built to feed the machine.

It’s been a year of uncertainty, frustration, not-knowingness, change, mistakes and false starts with a deep undercurrent of anxiety*.

Yet, it’s also been the year I needed. It has been a year in my growth zone—that challenging place outside your comfort zone where you learn and discover your way without maps, guidance, or any prior experience. It is not fun, but it is transformational in so many ways—‘Type 2 fun,’ if you will.

Not resilient, antifragile

There’s another way to describe the growth that comes from navigating chaos and the unknown: antifragility.

An entity that withstands and recovers from adversity or difficult situations is resilient. An entity that not only withstands disorder but improves and grows as a result, is antifragile.

Beyond the recovery of resilience, antifragile systems use stressors to become stronger and better adapted. By embracing challenges of 2024 I have evolved, grown, and become better equipped to face future disruptions. I’ve developed my antifragility.

I’ve thrown myself into new fields and learning, signed up for huddles, turned up solo at conferences, started conversations, read many, many academic papers, joined adjacent communities, both geographic and professional. I’ve listened, asked questions, volunteered, shared my learning with others, experimented, looked for patterns, made linkages, practised courage, and stuck with discomfort.

I have immersed myself in professional circles aligned with my purpose of building thriving communities. That’s too complicated to explain in words, so here’s a picture…

My intersecting worlds in 2024. I do love playing in the spaces between.

As I’ve developed my antifragility, I have evolved my knowledge of how these fields connect and interact and the importance of cultivating leaders who can also play in the spaces in between. If our goal in an increasingly complex and volatile world is antifragility and positive impact - for individuals and communities - we need leaders who can:

1. See the big picture: Think of communities (geographic, identity, or organisational) as puzzles with many connected pieces. Learn how these pieces fit together and affect each other to understand challenges and opportunities better.

2. Discern patterns and connections. Watch for signs and signals to navigate uncertainty, identify emerging opportunities, and create innovative solutions to address interconnected challenges and dynamics.

3. Build strong networks: Connect people, projects, teams, and organisations to create a supportive web. Encourage open conversations and feedback so everyone can learn from each other and progress together.

4. Be open and trustworthy. Create environments where people feel heard and informed. Transcend self-interest and traditional boundaries. Make decisions together and communicate clearly so everyone can work towards common goals with trust.

5. Embrace uncertainty, reflect and learn from mistakes: Accept that change and uncertainty are inevitable. Be open to fresh ideas and embrace mistakes and failures as opportunities to learn and grow. Reflect on learning and use that knowledge to enhance future decisions and choices.

6. Grow as a connected leader: Focus on improving their ability to work within complex environments. Pursue various interests and acquire diverse skills, knowledge, and experiences to adapt and thrive in different situations.

7. Build their antifragility: Develop coping mechanisms and mental strength to bounce back and grow from adversity and challenge.

8. Create redundancy: Avoid relying on a single resource or plan. Have multiple options and backups to minimise risks and increase their ability to recover from setbacks.

These are not skills developed in traditional leadership programs. They are developable but not didactic. They are cultivated through exploration, inquiry, action, and reflexive practice. They are honed through courage, curiosity, collaboration, and a willingness to step into one's growth zone. Their development can be facilitated but not taught.

2025, here we come…

My purpose in 2025 is to take what I have learned in 2024 and help cultivate places and spaces that allow other purpose-driven leaders and communities to become antifragile and thrive.

I will scale up my experience and propagate it.

I’ll continue to play in and build the intersection of positive psychology, community leadership, systems thinking and social impact.

I'll use my knowledge, skills and experience to guide others through complexity.

I’ll maintain my focus on community and place.

How?

I’ll do it by coaching leaders keen to understand the complex social systems surrounding their work, empowering them to foster change. I’ve done this for years and love it.

I’ll do it through facilitation; helping organisations, projects and enterprises to map their systems, to unravel complexity and to build agile plans for creating lasting, impactful change.

I’ll do it via the Community Leaders Lab, an exploratory, place-based initiative that will develop connections, agency, and action to further a bright future for every citizen of Ballarat.

Above all, I’ll do it by starting small, listening attentively, experimenting fearlessly, and continuing to explore new horizons. I’ll connect, collaborate, share and ideate. I’ll make mistakes, mess things up and learn as I go.

I will be antifragile in 2025. I entreat you to be antifragile too.

Onwards and upwards,

*Professionally. Personally it’s been a stellar year with our new home build finally underway, thriving kids, and good health. Not that you can really separate the personal and the professional. Being human is messy like that.

---

Have you reviewed your 2024? How many stars did you give it?

---