Antifragility: An Emergent Inclusion Pathway
Agency is the “bootstraps” but no one pulls them up alone.
When discussing diversity and inclusion in organizational contexts, we often focus on structures, policies, representation, and reparative practices for those who have experienced or that people who share one or more of their identities have negatively experienced.
These elements matter, of course, but they're incomplete without understanding the deeper psychological dimensions that shape how individuals navigate and transform their experiences of adversity into sources of strength.
I am big on people developing personal agency. Many people who have practiced in the DEI space might automatically find fault in my belief that agency needs to be a core part of an effective approach to inclusion and managing the tensions of difference and similarity. In fact, they would put me in the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” camp. They would be partially right, but not for the reasons they think.
Agency is the “bootstraps,” but no one pulls them up alone. Getting out from under your trauma is a process that community and the deepening of relationships play a significant role in, as it does in Post-Traumatic growth (PTG), which I will share more about below.
Some people benefit from making trauma a chronic disease. Emma Kurney would agree, as she stated in her Weird Logic Substack:
“Here’s the thing: If you actually get better, if you move from "I am traumatized" to "I am transformed," what happens to the multi-billion-dollar mental health industry? What happens to the self-help influencers who need you to keep scrolling for five (%) signs your attachment style is ruining your life? What happens to the entire culture of victimhood, where status points are awarded for whoever has the most diagnosed scars?
Exactly. The system does not want you to transcend your suffering. It wants you to be emotionally aware just enough to recognize your pain, but not so much that you actually outgrow it.”
The same applies to many who have practiced DEI with a quantum victimhood framing. I coined the phrase “quantum victimhood” to refer to people who profit off of the pain of those phenotypically resembled avatars from the past, embodying similar characteristics or beliefs in the present, and, based on their narratives, will be victims ad infinitum.
What’s strange about some of these practitioners is that, well. . compared to most people who have suffered from injustice and inequality in the past, present, and likely the future, they are doing relatively well.
Yet, many consider themselves “marginalized” and associate with such language out of convenience or in comparison to someone they feel superior to in some way, not necessarily out of circumstance. Disparity doesn’t necessarily equal discrimination.
I am not dismissing trauma. It’s real and harmful. But, it is not something you must anchor on as the source of all your ills. In fact, I think that is one of the most anti-agentic things one can do.
Thus, after meeting Catherine Nugent a few years ago, I was inspired to focus further on the transformational potential of trauma vs. the disorders that are often linked to it. That is, to focus on moving from traumatic experience as a permanent limiting factor to thinking about Post-Traumatic Growth.
A deeper look on perpetuating victimhood
The Paradox of Growth Through Trauma
Post-traumatic growth (PTG) represents one of the most counterintuitive psychological phenomena we encounter. It suggests that our most painful experiences—those we would never choose and might work tirelessly to avoid—can become the foundation for our most profound development.
Unlike resilience, which returns us to baseline functioning, PTG propels us beyond our previous capabilities, perspectives, and self-understanding.
This isn't merely positive thinking or finding silver linings; it takes work. PTG involves fundamental reconstructions of identity, purpose, and worldview that emerge through the struggle with adversity. Where DEI is concerned, many practitioners have been more focused on what others who have been deemed “more privileged” due to their social status and skin tone can do to help those who have been traumatized.
Such admonishments have not been helpful to those claimed to be the targets of help and have likely contributed to the Zeitgeist's current anti-DEI sentiments.
Imagine if more inclusion practitioners focused on growth from difficult situations than a narrative of quantum victimhood.
Research by Tedeschi and Calhoun identifies five domains where this growth manifests:
Recognition of personal strength previously unacknowledged
Discovery of new possibilities and paths
Deepened relationships and increased compassion
Enhanced appreciation for life and shifted priorities
Spiritual or existential development and meaning-making
These transformations don't negate suffering—they coexist with it. Growth emerges not from trauma but from the cognitive and emotional processing that follows. This distinction is crucial for organizations seeking to support their people through difficult transitions.
Antifragility: Beyond Resilience
My niece Jazmine experienced trauma at age 22 that goes beyond any adverse situation that happens in the workplace. I am not trying to do any “my trauma outweighs yours” stunt here, but the reality is that losing your lower right leg as the result of a near-fatal crash outstrips the feeling of racism or sexism at work.
Jazmine and I had many conversations from right after her injury until today. Our focus has always been on how she will bounce higher due to this intense shift in the life she expected and that I wished for her. We even started using the hashtag #BounceHigher in the days leading up to her first prosthetic.
My niece and I started talking about antifragility way before her injury. In fact, when she came to live with me in Boston in 2014, I was on my second read of Nassim Taleb’s book Antifragile.
Today, Jazmine is doing wonderfully. She is working as a dental hygienist and preparing to re-enter school to fulfill her dream to be a dentist.
When she and her grandmother joined me while I was in California on business last fall, we sat outside taking in the cool Bay Area air, talking around a fireplace at our Airbnb, she asked me, “I read one of your articles recently and you talked about antifagility.” I responded, “The way you have bounced back from losing your dad [at age five], and now how you have grown post-injury, kid, you are more antifragile than anyone I have ever met!”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb's concept of antifragility provides a complementary framework for understanding PTG. Where resilient systems withstand stress and return to their original state, antifragile systems actually benefit from volatility, randomness, and disorder—they get better.
As Taleb writes, "Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.”
This concept has profound implications for how we think about human development in organizational contexts. Our traditional approaches often emphasize resilience—helping people "bounce back" from setbacks. But what if we could foster environments where people don't just recover but systematically transform their struggles into sources of previously unavailable strength?
The Constrained and Unconstrained Visions of Growth
To borrow Thomas Sowell's framework (which I've explored in other contexts), our approach to adversity in organizations often reflects either a constrained or unconstrained vision (Sowell, 2007).
The unconstrained vision sees trauma as something to be eliminated entirely—an aberration in an otherwise perfectible system. This perspective, while well-intentioned, often fails to acknowledge the inevitability of suffering and the potential for growth through that suffering. It’s akin to a reparative stance that many diversity and inclusion practitioners hold.
Conversely, the constrained vision recognizes that adversity is an inescapable aspect of human experience. Rather than futilely attempting to eliminate all sources of pain, this approach focuses on creating systems that transform inevitable difficulties into opportunities for development. Given the universality of suffering, challenge, and hardship, accepting it and reframing it allows it to be a catapult rather than an anchor to the past.
Neither trauma nor the growth that may follow should be romanticized or instrumentalized. Some social justice “warriors” have, with noble intentions, done both.
We should never intentionally create trauma in the name of development. However, it will occur, and organizations can play a pivotal role in determining whether existing adversity becomes debilitating or transformative.
Organizational Frameworks for Transformative Reframing
How might organizations foster environments conducive to post-traumatic growth without glorifying suffering? Several evidence-based approaches suggest promising directions:
1. Creating Psychological Safety for Narrative Integration
Organizations that create the right climate for employees to process and integrate difficult experiences enable the meaning-making essential to PTG. This begins with psychological safety—the shared belief that one can speak up without fear of punishment or humiliation.
When we speak of psychological safety, for many people, it is a conflict-free space to know you can boldly talk about how deeply one feels.
Adam Grant said (note: I am actually quoting Adam Grant for the first time!),
“Safe spaces treat people as fragile and dissenting ideas as threats. Psychologically safe environments build the capacity to embrace and learn from respectful disagreement.”
Adam Grant
Leadership that models vulnerability and authentic engagement with challenges sets the tone for organizational culture. Some people can separate the personal from the professional, but most cannot.
I know that when I went through a divorce in 2012, I was a mess. My colleagues noticed and discreetly, out of concern for me because I was dismissively saying, “I’m fine,” shared it with my manager.
The environment/team culture I was in likely saved my job. My team, manager, and colleagues did all they could to support me.
When employees see that sharing struggles is not just permitted but valued, they're more likely to engage in the narrative processing that facilitates growth. It certainly was the case for me.
2. Balancing Support With Autonomy
Research consistently shows that social support facilitates PTG, but the nature of that support matters profoundly. Support that preserves autonomy and agency differs qualitatively from support that fosters dependency.
Organizations can strike this balance by:
Providing resources without prescribing specific coping mechanisms
Offering flexible accommodations that honor individual needs
Creating peer support networks that emphasize reciprocity rather than helping via a power asymmetry.
3. Developing Complexity of Thought
PTG often involves developing more nuanced, complex ways of thinking about oneself and the world. Organizations can facilitate this development through:
Dialogue practices that expose employees to unique and embodying perspectives
Training in cognitive flexibility and integrative thinking
Formal and informal mentoring relationships that challenge existing mental models
This development aligns with what developmental psychologists call "meaning-making capacity" or "integrative complexity," both enhancing one's ability to navigate ambiguity and contradiction.
4. Building Collective Antifragility
Individual PTG occurs within social contexts. Organizations themselves can develop antifragile characteristics that support individual growth:
Distributed authority structures that respond adaptively to challenges
Knowledge management systems that capture and disseminate learning from failures
Cultural values that explicitly honor growth through struggle
As Taleb notes, "Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors.” Organizations can be designed with this principle in mind.
From Individual Transformation to Organizational Evolution
When organizations effectively support post-traumatic growth, the benefits extend beyond individual well-being. The collective wisdom gained through successfully navigating adversity becomes an organizational asset—part of the “way things get done around here,” a culture that shapes future responses to challenges.
This creates a virtuous cycle. Individuals who experience growth become living examples for others, demonstrating possibilities previously unseen. Their transformed perspectives infuse the organization with increased cognitive diversity, enhancing problem-solving and innovation.
The Wisdom Paradox
The greatest paradox of post-traumatic growth is that wisdom often comes at a price we wouldn't willingly pay. We cannot choose the traumas that befall us or our organizations, but we can choose how we engage with them.
Organizations committed to inclusion as a core tenet recognize that diversity encompasses not just demographic characteristics but also the rich variety of common and uncommon human experiences—including adversity, struggle, and the growth that can follow.
By creating contexts that support the transformation of suffering into wisdom, organizations don't just help individuals heal—they tap into previously untapped wells of human potential. They become communities capable of holding complexity, embracing apparent contradictions, and finding strength in what once seemed like only weakness.
In this way, a focus on post-traumatic growth and antifragility doesn't replace traditional diversity and inclusion work—it deepens and enriches it, connecting structural changes to the profound psychological transformations that make those changes meaningful and sustainable.
None of this is easy. It requires patience, humility, and a willingness to engage with the ambiguous and unknown, which can be daunting. But in a world where change and disruption are constants, organizations that develop the capacity to transform adversity into advantage gain not simply the ability to recover but the capacity for antifragility—the ability to grow stronger through the very challenges that might otherwise break them.
References
Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Random House.
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383.
Joseph, S., & Linley, P. A. (2006). Growth following adversity: Theoretical perspectives and implications for clinical practice. Clinical Psychology Review, 26(8), 1041-1053.
Kegan, R. (1982). The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development. Harvard University Press.
Page, S. E. (2007). The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Princeton University Press.
Prati, G., & Pietrantoni, L. (2009). Optimism, social support, and coping strategies as factors contributing to posttraumatic growth: A meta-analysis. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 14(5), 364-388.
Sowell, T. (2007). A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles. Basic Books.
Suedfeld, P., & Tetlock, P. (1977). Integrative complexity of communications in international crises. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 21(1), 169-184.
Taleb, N. N. (2012). Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. Random House.
Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (2004). Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. Psychological Inquiry, 15(1), 1-18.
Join us on April 8th for our Elevating Your Inclusion Edge free interactive virtual event.
We will discuss concepts adjacent to the above and how inclusion is needed more than ever in today’s ever-shifting climate. In the session, I will discuss the necessity of transcending dated paradigms attached to DEI that have reached an impasse and the direction to move in now–how to skate to where the inclusion and culture puck will be.
In our hour together, I expound on our approach–a pathway leading individuals and organizations to create the conditions for people and organizations to thrive consistently.
I hope to see you there! Tell a friend 😊.
I hope this was helpful. . . Make it a great day! ✌🏿
Really, really excellent stuff here. It's brutally difficult (often impossible, at least for me) to think about this *while* something terrible is happening, but in retrospect I always at least try. This winter I had one of my worst depressions, but now that it's over I've been reflecting on it, and there are trade-offs. Things I want to keep, so to speak. I got over my ego enough to be a lot more open and honest with some of my friends, and I am newly aware of my creative energy. I can see now that I was directing it to feeding the depression, without realizing it. The minute I started emerging, I'm drawing, writing fiction, having all kinds of ideas. Working on being a lot more conscious and deliberate with how I manage that energy to hopefully help myself avoid turning it all into torturing myself in my head next time. I'm rambling, sorry -- just riffing because you really made me think about post-traumatic growth and what we can learn from it. Thanks!
Brilliant article!
This is a version of inclusion that actually resonates. Creating a workplace culture that acknowledges the struggle as a necessity for building strength and anti-fragility that are desired outcomes vs. the cushioned safety that entrenches stagnation and victimhood.
I was at a cultural safety workshop a year ago led by two Aboriginal men (I'm in Australia) who explained what they meant by safety. It wasn't about cushioning Aboriginal people from so-called white violence/white dominated spaces. It was about acknowledging that there's always an element of unsafety everywhere, all the time, regardless of the job. Treating people as if they're incapable of dealing with adversity means that they're always seen as victims or lesser than everyone else, which undermines respect and continues to dehumanise by coddling.
My question - what's the willingness among DEI professionals in your sphere (some of whom prefer the current maligned DEI version) to consider this version of inclusion?