The great management thinker, W. Edward Deming

The great management thinker, W. Edward Deming, once said, “Any manager can do well in an expanding market.”

This point is absolutely still appropriate. The first impulse most managers have when faced with a challenge is to spend more money to address what they believe to be the problem. This may mean a new training program or a new technology system. Invariably, the solutions posed by most consultants are tied with some kind of expensive product or system. Too often, these suggestions are shot down by a Board of Directors or C-Suite  that are concerned with, “throwing good money after bad” or spending more capital with increasingly smaller returns.

In his excellent book, “Antifragile,” Nassim Taleb challenges us to think of this state as, “fragility.” Then, he presents two other potential states. One is referred to as a “robust” organization and the other is, “antifragile.” Both of these are organizations that are not so negatively impacted by market forces. This week’s video by Dr. Alan Barnard does a great job of explaining these ideas at a memorable talk at the 2015 TOCICO conference in South Africa.

Considering this challenge that we all face as managers and would-by leaders, what can we do to prepare ourselves for when the market delivers a challenging event?  Is your healthcare organization fragile, robust, or antifragile?

Most importantly, please identify 1 idea gleaned from this class that could be adapted into your professional context that would assist you in making your organization less fragile. Take that idea and make a workable plan (2 or 3 action items). Finally, conclude your discussion post with a question soliciting some additional specific ideas from your colleagues.