Systems used for governance, risk and compliance (GRC) are either resilient and can restore if they take a hit, or are fragile and will break under duress. However, the concept of antifragility is a mindset shift for businesses – a way to manage systems based on a broader vision, autonomy, distributed decision-making and absorbing ‘hits’ at the right time, for the right length of time, in order to emerge stronger and better.
This is according to Graeme Codrington, author, futurist and strategy consultant, who explained the concept in his keynote address at the ITWeb GRC 2023 conference hosted in Sandton, Johannesburg.
The concept of antifragility was coined by acclaimed author and risk analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
Codrington stressed that antifragility is what the businesses will need in 2023 and is the catchphrase for the year and the rest of the decade.
“It is an ability to rise above the chaos and uncertainty, thriving more than merely surviving.”
Codrington explained the concept by referring to muscle-building fitness training. He explained that if you train to build muscle, the actual process involves tearing the muscle and then taking a day to rest in order to allow the muscle to restore itself. Doing this builds muscle and enables the person to not only lift the same weight they had been able to, but, in fact, lift more.
But, if a person overworks the muscle, they damage it and must then take weeks or months to recuperate.
“Antifragile systems have some stress, low level, to be able to handle a big stress moment,” said Codrington.
Breakpoints
When fragile systems reach a break point, they cannot withstand the stress factor and fall apart and don’t recover.
A resilient system will also hit break point, but recover to where it was before. “It will get hit and then stand up again, basically,” said Codrington. “Antifragile systems will take the knock, but then come back and say ‘thank you for that, it’s made me stronger’.”
Antifragility ... means positioning GRC to skip the breakpoints, to get ahead of the hit.
Graeme Codrington
In terms of GRC in business and what the objective is, antifragility means being in a position to actually skip the breakpoints.
“Antifragility means more than just mere resistance or better risk management. It means positioning GRC to skip the breakpoints, to get ahead of the hit. It’s more than the ability to adapt, it’s a different mindset entirely,” said Codrington.
He added that antifragility is a breakaway from relying predominantly on short-term planning and calls for business leaders to ‘open their minds to the future’ and adopt what he termed strategic imagination.
As businesses negotiate current challenges and strive for agility, the way GRC systems are designed to handle crises and the approach taken by business leaders will have a major impact on business continuity.
“Don’t waste a crisis if you’ve got one, this is the perfect time to not go back to the way things were,” Codrington added.
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